Jason M. LemkinCEO, SaaStr · Co-Founder of SaaStr AI, SaaStr Fund, Adobe Sign

The End of Unicorns The Rise of Deca corn Hunting in Venture Capital

14 Apr 2024 · 1 min

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Jason M. Lemkin argues that since 2021 venture capital has shifted permanently from searching for 'unicorns' (companies valued at $1B) to hunting for 'decacorns' (companies valued at $10B+). He cites historical IPO valuations (Box, HubSpot, Shopify ~ $750–800M) to contrast earlier expectations with the current environment and claims that a steady stream of companies (e.g., Stripe, Databricks, OpenAI) will sustain this decacorn-focused mindset.

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So. But my point is that what I think has changed permanently, permanently since 2021 is Venture Post Seed is perpetually going to be sourcing. Searching for decacorns. We're all searching for unicorns. Box IPO'd at 800 million HubSpot IPO'd at 800 million valuation. Shopify IPO did a 750 million dollar valuation. We were searching for unicorns. We were searching for unicorns. And then when things got good, every unicorn was a decacorn, right? In the public markets and in the private markets. Right? And I think we have now been wired that way. And as long as there are a steady stream of stripes and data bricks and open APIs there, there will be enough Decacorns that venture is permanently decacorn. Hunters.