Elliott Mack’s Post

Curious to know the most common backgrounds of unicorn founders over the past decade? Sign up for the full report (and soon the open sourced data set) at www.defiancecapital.com

Great work, Christian. I can't wait to dig into this more carefully. Being one myself, I am always on the side of the underdog. These are the types of founders Lisa Morales-Hellebo and I look for as we build REFASHIOND Ventures: The Industrial Transformation Fund. This sounds very familiar; "The study also found three dominant factors in the “DNA” of a unicorn founder." 1. No “plan B” - we do not have a Plan B either. 2. “A chip on the shoulder” - say no more. 3. Unlimited self belief - we're not for everyone, and that's okay. If you fit these traits, and have a sense of urgency . . . and are building an early-stage startup in Industrial Transformation & Supply Chain Technology, come talk to us. "They don’t really have that many options at home. They have to leave and pursue opportunities elsewhere." Now ain't that the truth? It's the story of my life. Great article, Mike Butcher. Once I got started, I couldn't stop till I reached the end, and I will likely come back to read it again.

Christian and his team have just released a study looking at 2,000 US and UK unicorns between 2013 and 2023. Key findings about the founders of these unicorns: - 70% of them are 'underdogs' (immigrants, women, people of color). - Unicorns used to have only male founders, but this is changing, with 17% having a female founder in 2023. - 53% have degrees from the top 10 global universities. - 49% of unicorn CEOs had STEM degrees (64% of female founding CEOs had STEM degrees) and 70% of founder teams have STEM degrees. - Outside of SV Angel (6.4%) and YC (10%), no other VC fund got into more than 2.8% (Sequoia) of unicorns. This suggests the market to invest in a potential unicorn is completely fragmented at seed, meaning outlier VC funds have as much chance as a well-known fund to invest in a unicorn at the earliest stages. To dig deeper - check out the report 👇

Well it is time! And very telling as well just how innovative immmigrant women are and can be.70% are immigrants,womena and peole of colour. But still a lot of these will tell you that access to seed funding was hard.Theres huge opportunities to invest in these groups primarily because of the difficulties we face which make this group more innovative. Now is the time especially to invest in women, particularly of colour and immigrant. #immigrantceo #womenfounder #fintechfounder #womenceo #unicorns

Why investing in female founders is important was a discussion in yesterday's session. Numbers are looking promising for female founders and for diversity in general, yet we have a long way to go.👩🏫👩⚖️👩🔬 We need to foster an entrepreneurial environment where women do not hesitate to ask for what they deserve.

Despite heavy reliance on data and analytics, unicorn investing is often driven by emotions and psychology. Awareness of this emotionally-driven nature highlights the importance of conducting a thorough due diligence and analytics. Find out more about the psychological factors of unicorn investing in our new blog: https://lnkd.in/dzKkDPEC #unicorns #investing #privateequity

🌅 New horizons for the funding landscape? Our managing partner, Alokik Advani shares his views on the current VC landscape and tips for founders looking to raise in today's environment. Drawing from the lessons of past bubbles bursting, questions arise. Will down rounds become a viable option? What insights can be gleaned from previous market corrections? And what are the silver linings here? Read the full article below 👇

New study by DeFiance Capital called “The #Unicorn #Founder #DNA Report” finds some really, really interesting data: 👧 70% of Unicorn founders are #immigrants, people of #colour & #women 👩🎓 53% of Unicorn founders did #NOT have degrees from top 10 universities  🔬 49% of Unicorn founders did #NOT have a #STEM degree Aside from SV Angel, Y Combinator and Liquid 2 - not a single venture fund has invested in over 3% of Unicorns. So what can we learn? 1️⃣ #Diverse founding teams create winners 2️⃣ Founders with 'no plan B' embody #grit and win 3️⃣ Something to prove & unlimited #self #belief is key

👋 INSIGHTS #19: Ideal round size, VC vs. Bootstrapped, Growing Diversity Gap 📏 Small vs. Big rounds, what are the trade-offs? The data is in. 👢 VC vc. Bootstrapped and its implications on your growth. 📊 Data shows that diverse founder teams were hit the hardest in the funding drought. Full article here: https://lnkd.in/ekDZsXhy

If you think the top 3 characteristics of a unicorn founder are 1) white, 2) male, 3) ivy league... turns out, you're WRONG. The actual characteristics? 1. No “plan B” 2. “A chip on the shoulder” 3. Unlimited self belief Unicorns used to have only male founders, but this is changing, with 17% having a female founder in 2023. And the old school top tier VCs don't have a monopoly on the unicorn factory: Outside of SV Angel (6.4%) and YC (10%), no other VC fund got into more than 2.8% (Sequoia) of unicorns. From the article: “VCs famously say that ‘it’s all about the people’, but with only 10% of unicorn founders fitting the Mark Zuckerberg profile, most of the thousands of seed funds are backing the wrong type of founders." - Christian Dorffer of Defiance Capital, who published this research. I see this first hand at Graham & Walker. Our founders are capital T Tenacious. No plan B. Chip on their shoulder. Programatically underestimated and too easily dismissed. These founders are going to absolutely crush it. Just watch.