Birthing a unicorn is hard Things that informed entrepreneurs should know which nobody seems to talk about Cornell Entrepreneurship Summit
Anand Sanwal @asanwal
CB Insights is a big data company that collects and analyzes data on private companies and emerging industries. We offer data, industry analytics and predictive intel to our customers to help them invest & acquire smarter, innovate faster and sell more. We are backed by the National Science Foundation.
Who are we?
We have hundreds of customers…
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“According to CB Insights” An industry standard for data & insights on what’s next
In 2014, our data has been featured in 400+ media articles. We are regularly sought out for our data and insights on emerging companies, industries and the investors and acquirers behind them. To see all of our press mentions, visit http://www.cbinsights.com/press
@asanwal
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Unicorn Chasing UNICORNS!!!!
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Big funding. Big valuations.
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It’s frothy these days…
• Tons of money
• Startups are sexy Bring the wantrapreneurs
• Lots of unicorn talk
• Survivorship bias
• Raising money ≠ success
@asanwal
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Some of the recent billion dollar wins raised money late (or never). These are the companies we should celebrate.
1100x
133x
280x
Valuation / Money Raised
Div/0 (revenue-funded)
@asanwal
Raised funding when at $500 million in sales. Founders owned > 50% at time of IPO.
Revenue-funded. No outside funding. Rumored to be worth a billion.
Raised funding very late. One of NY’s biggest tech exits (which goes uncelebrated). Read this post by Jon Oringer (CEO) about raising money - http://cbi.vc/1xDNFAW
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Sentiment about your space is important
@asanwal
Remember when Social was the rage? Things change and investors are not immune to the sentiment on a space.
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By number, enterprise beats consumer on exits
@asanwal
By quantity, enterprise exits win.
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But on value, consumer dominates
@asanwal
In terms of value, consumer exits dominate.
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Raising money doesn’t buy execution
@asanwal
Raising money doesn’t get your mobile app into the top 1000.
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Why startups fail?
@asanwal
Although a bit overused “build something people want” is the main reason startups fail.
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$1 Billion Valuations Require Lots of Fundraising
@asanwal
If you want to build a unicorn, you are going to have to raise a lot of money.
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The Venture Capital Funnel
@asanwal
Raising each round gets harder and harder.
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If You Exit, It’ll Usually Happen Early
@asanwal
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1.04% of exit were in billion dollar club 72% of exits are less than $200 million
@asanwal
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Most VCs talk about investing in Unicorns. Most don’t actually invest in Unicorns.
@asanwal
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Let’s close with some good news
@asanwal
Birthing a unicorn is hard Things that informed entrepreneurs should know which nobody seems to talk about Cornell Entrepreneurship Summit
Anand Sanwal @asanwal
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