Garry Tan’s Post

Let’s get a denominator in there for good statistics. Also, big congrats.

While many people today argue that creating unicorns is no longer a true metric of success and attribute it to market bubbles, I believe that this perspective overlooks the inherent value and potential these companies represent. Take, for example, companies like Airbnb and Uber, which have not only achieved unicorn status but have also disrupted entire industries and created new market opportunities. These companies are more than just high valuations; they symbolize innovation, scalability, and the ability to capture significant market share. Successful VCs like Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz have demonstrated time and again that their ability to identify and nurture unicorns is a testament to their vision, strategic acumen, and capacity to support groundbreaking ideas. Unicorns, despite the risks and occasional market volatility, still reflect a VC's ability to pick winners and drive transformative growth. Therefore, I firmly believe that the creation of unicorns remains a critical measure of a VC's success and capability.

Not to knock the achievement, but it would also be helpful in a list like this to see #{unicorns} / #{investments} or, better yet, return on invested capital or realized/liquid return on invested capital. Some smaller firms perhaps deserve to be higher on a list connoting performance. Bonus points for adding a penalty for variance of returns, to turn this into a signal of risk-adjusted return.

Garry Tan bring YC to Europe!!

will double the count soon! 🚀

I might get a YC tattoo. Seriously. 🤔 The total number of unicorns is incredible, but what’s even more impressive is the ratio of unicorns to funded companies! It’s mingboggling. My company, Ellipsis (YC W24), launched during W24 and we’re now helping software engineering teams at 80+ ship code faster using AI Code Reviews. Thats zero to PMF in 6 months. No other accelerator helps founders operate that fast. No other accelerator helps founders make something people want like Y Combinator.

I guess you should say "we" But again who cares about the team anymore 😂😂😂

YC is unbelievable and huge respect! But it's still an elitist concept and many founders from Australia and South-East Asia do not have that door available. Many of us VC's out here are APAC are finding amazing founders through alternate paths. Whilst having a YC in these markets would be nice, mainly through opening more doors to investors, we are building from a small grass roots base of emerging managers. I hope we can publish on elf these charts in the next 5-10 years.

US venture capital has 0 competitors. Just because these guys organized in fruitful digital space means they got lucky. Just like the individuals that found gold when they moved west. Wealthy fat and arrogant 😆

So impressive. We are all-time fans for sure :) We would love to learn, if you have any ML running in the background. Do you do any backtesting? Any automated active sourcing? Would love to have you on our podcast: https://stackgenius.io/blog