From Unicorn to Popcorn: And then Gone

From Unicorn to Popcorn: And then Gone

Unicorn - A start up with a valuation of $1 billion or more

Decacorn - A start up with a valuation of $10 billion or more

The term unicorn in the context of start-ups was first used by Aileen Lee in a 2013 TechCrunch article- Welcome to the unicorn club: Learning from billion-dollar start-ups.

It’s a dream of every start up founder to join the club. Investors love these words. The media latches on to them. In super quick time, start-ups are catapulted into stratosphere with billion-dollar valuation. A unicorn is created.

Over a period of time when market forces brutally collide with start up things tend to get bumpy. Growth is not as excellent as its looks in the excel. There is pressure to cut down on costs. Hiring ends up as firing. There are quite a few companies that are in the news for all the wrong reasons.

About 15 years ago, I knew of someone who started a company with a great vision. Had a steady growth plan. The market and the pundits loved them. They got great media coverage. Then they were advised to scale. Scale faster. The speed was too hard to control. They crash landed.

This is just one live example. I have seen more than many go the same way. The media still latches on them. But this time they are unforgiving. The pundits join the bandwagon.

After working for 28 years of experience, as we start pradhi, a question that we pondered over for a long time was, what differentiates success or failure?

I may suggest an answer but will not take the risk right now because we are yet to collide with the market forces. Our business plan does not scream, 1x,2x,…10x growth. Our customers love what we are planning to do but it’s yet to be proven on scale over the next 5 years. We are excited to create value for our customers. But we don’t want to be over confident. Am happy to share my dad’s favourite story. In a village, there was an old woman. She was the proud owner of a rooster. The villagers would wake up to the rooster’s cock-a-doodle-do. That’s what the old woman thought. One day by the time she woke up, the village was abuzz with activity. The rooster took a break but the village was up and running.

We surely don’t believe in this

A staunch supporter of Professor Aswath Damodaran’s school of thought, we know the difference, as he says, between pricing a company and valuing a company.

We believe that our solution creates value to our customers but we have to co-exist with multiple challenges and think of ways to over come them. As I always say, we may be a start-up but we are not starters.

At the end of it, we may not be a decacorn, unicorn but may end up as a tasty popcorn but will definitely not be gone.