Cowboy Ventures founder and managing partner Aileen Lee describes the circumstances that spurred her to coin the term “unicorn” to refer to billion-dollar startups. As the managing partner of a new $40 million fund, she started investigating the billion-dollar companies that had been born over the previous ten years. She quickly realized that there were many commonalities: founders in their 30s and 40s (not mid-20s dropouts), for example, and founding teams rather than solo founders.
Related

Video
Startups
Winning a Crowded Market [Entire Talk]
Eric Yuan, Zoom Video Communications
Santiago Subotovsky, Emergence Capital
48 minutes

Video
Startups
Extreme Focus [Entire Talk]
Delane Parnell, PlayVS
46 minutes

Video
Startups
Empowering Girls with STEM [Entire Talk]
Debbie Sterling, GoldieBlox
46 minutes

Video
Startups
Growing a Social Venture [Entire Talk]
Beverly Parenti, The Last Mile
Chris Redlitz, The Last Mile
Ray Harts, Healthy Hearts Institute
47 minutes