Aileen Lee coined the term “unicorn” in 2013 to describe billion-dollar startups.
The name was chosen because unicorns are “extremely rare, and magical”. Despite that scarcity, unicorns must be herded up to deliver the returns expected from venture capital.
Once explicitly defined, unicorns became much less rare, as Goodhart’s Law predicts (“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure”).
Many games of “you get a unicorn valuation, I’ll set the terms” were played. But premature optimization of interim valuations isn’t the only thing afflicting the unicorn population.
We also have inflation, quietly eroding everything’s value. In recent years, inflation has soared above the ~2% annual rate monetary authorities ask us to accept.
As of the beginning of 2025, to be a real unicorn (i.e. inflation-adjusted since 2013), you need to be worth at least $1.354 billion. Otherwise, you’re just a nominal unicorn.