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Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

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Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

#11
I'm one of the authors of this post and plan on releasing an updated version with some companies that we missed on the first pass. If you know of other substantial startups that went far before raising capital, please let me know: JoeFlaherty@FounderCollective. The current list of misses includes:

+ Grammarly

+ 37 Signals/Basecamp

+ Zip Recruiter

+ Outcome Health

+ Wistia

Who else?

Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

#14

Wistia. 10 year-old business. Raised only a seed round and has been profitable & growing many years in a row.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing! Do you know if they've announced any revenue figures? Best I could find was an employee count (83) which is impressive given the $1.4M in funding—clearly they have substantial cash flow if they can support that kind of workforce.

Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

#15
post #13

Microsoft is pretty close too. Founded in 1975, issued stock in 1981 (5% to an investor, the rest to founders and employees), IPO in 1986 Source: http://www.techntechie.com/early-investors-in-microsoft-you-...

That's a great one! I tried to avoid companies that were more than a decade or so old, with a couple exceptions like Lynda/Epic.

My concern was that examples like that, or Amazon which only raised $8M, are such crazy outliers and relied on strong timing, amazing founders, and other good fortune, that it made them hard to be approachable. That said—I'll make sure to give MS a headnod in the next revision!

Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

#16

Wistia. 10 year-old business. Raised only a seed round and has been profitable & growing many years in a row.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing! Do you know if they've announced any revenue figures? Best I could find was an employee count (83) which is impressive given the $1.4M in funding—clearly they have substantial cash flow if they can support that kind of workforce.

Sorry, no clue. You could hop on the Red line to Kendall and ask! They're only 2 stops away from your Harvard office :)

Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

#18

I'm one of the authors of this post and plan on releasing an updated version with some companies that we missed on the first pass. If you know of other substantial startups that went far before raising capital, please let me know: JoeFlaherty@FounderCollective. The current list of misses includes: + Grammarly + 37 Signals/Basecamp + Zip Recruiter + Outcome Health + Wistia Who else?

CV Library / Resume Library?

Re: Invisible unicorns: Big companies that started with little or no money

#19
post #13

Microsoft is pretty close too. Founded in 1975, issued stock in 1981 (5% to an investor, the rest to founders and employees), IPO in 1986 Source: http://www.techntechie.com/early-investors-in-microsoft-you-...

they didn't even use the money, was a way to get a great advisor on the board.
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