A unicorn is a privately held start-up valued at least one billion units of currency. In private-equity analysis, it represents an unusually high-upside but difficult-to-identify investment target. section 12.2
Assess unicorn opportunities with practical skepticism:
- Treat exceptional outcomes as rare: even improving success from 1 in 100 start-ups to 5 in 100 still leaves substantial wasted resources. section 12.2
- Recognize that engineering talent, founder commitment, and work-life expectations can constrain execution as much as cash. section 12.2
- Use syndicates to evaluate promising early-stage companies collectively and reduce individual exposure to failure. section 12.2
