Why We Do Not Chase Unicorns

The venture capital industry has convinced an entire generation that the only businesses worth building are billion dollar ones. If your company is not on track to be the next Uber or Airbnb, why bother?

We bother because most of the wealth in this country was not built by unicorns. It was built by plumbers, accountants, logistics companies, staffing firms, and thousands of other boring businesses that serve real customers every day.

The unicorn model works like this: raise a lot of money, grow as fast as possible, figure out profitability later, and hope you are one of the tiny percentage that actually makes it. For the ninety five percent that do not make it, well, better luck next time.

That is gambling. We are not gamblers.

Our model is different. We build companies designed to be profitable within months. Not because we lack ambition, but because profitable companies have options. They can choose to stay private and generate wealth for their founders. They can choose to raise capital from a position of strength. They can choose to sell. They can choose to grow slowly or quickly.

Unprofitable companies have one option: raise more money or die.

A company doing two million in annual recurring revenue with healthy margins is not a unicorn. But the founder of that company probably takes home more money, has more control, and sleeps better at night than ninety percent of venture backed founders.

We would rather build twenty companies that each generate a million dollars in revenue than bet everything on one company that might generate a billion. The math is actually better. The risk is lower. And the founders end up in a much better position.

The unicorn era convinced people that building a sustainable, profitable business is thinking small. We think it is the biggest thing you can do.