The party’s over: Navigating the end of the unicorn era

2021 saw tech startups reach unicorn status in droves, but the easy money fueling billion-dollar valuations has dried up. What’s next?

In this episode of The Next Stage, Vanta CEO Christina Cacioppo and investor Jai Das explore the end of the unicorn era and what it will take for startups to succeed in the new normal.

For starts, Jai thinks we need a better definition of unicorn: “For me, a unicorn is … any company that gets to a billion dollars in revenue or ARR … because that is tangible, that is something that you can look at; they actually have a product or a service that they’re selling”.

The problem, says the investor, is the hype cycle of the last few years that has been based on valuation alone rather than an actively trading startup’s actual revenue.

While the easy money is gone, it does’t spell the end of unicorns, just for the proliferation of over-valued unicorns we’ve seen in recent times.

“There are businesses that have been started … that are started, that will grow to a billion in valuation, a billion in revenue, and that is just a long term trend, that’s not going to change at all,” said Christina firmly.

Christina Cacioppo, co-founder and CEO of Vanta, and Jai Das, co-founder, president and partner with Sapphire Ventures, were in conversation with Frederic Lardinois, editor of TC, on Centre Stage at Collision 2023.

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Main image of a vintage television set. A unicorn and the words ‘The End’ appear on screen: Web Summit