LETS TALK ABOUT UNICORNS (@Forter)

A short (10 min) talk I gave at Forter (where I work), sharing some interesting stories about the struggles of building a unicorn company. Intended to be fun and easy to digest, yet with some important message to it.

Transcript

1. LETS TALK ABOUT UNICORNS Because we’re a frickin’ startup after all…
2. UNICORNS?
3. “UNICORN”: A company worth (==valuation) over $1,000,000,000 YES. That’s $1B.
4. 1. 2.
6. Today: ~$30M ARR in <2 years. More than 2M DAU.
10. $900M ARR in 2015 $250M ARR in 2013 Over $1M rooms listed. More than Hilton or Marriott
12. BUT I WANT TO TALK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE
13. NOT EXACTLY…
14. LETS TALK ABOUT OVERNIGHT SUCCESS
15. AIRBNB BOOKING GRAPH early days This is how (startups) death looks like
16. and still, they needed $
21. $30K quick revenues
22. “Whenever someone tells me that they can't figure out how to raise the first $25,000 they need to get their company started I stand up, walk over to the cereal box, and tell this story. It is a story of pure unadulterated hustle. And I love it.”
23. AIRBNB BOOKING GRAPH
24. ALRIGHT, LETS TALK ABOUT Glitch
25. Stewart Butterfield
26. Raised $17M Worked on it for 3 Years (2009-2012) 45 employees
27. FAILURE & PIVOT letting go 37/45 of the team :(
28. Doing pretty well today, right?
30. “OVERNIGHT SUCCESS” is bullshit
31. BE HUMBLE J
32. WORK TOGETHER :: Be helpful :: Push harder :: “Can do” builds momentum
33. ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE DIFFERENT
34. FORTERCORN h#ps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aRor905cCw Music please! May we all be part of a