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Time Enough for Counting: A Unicorn Retrospective
Cable, Abraham J.B.
Cable, Abraham J.B.
Abstract
Legal scholars worry that existing laws cannot adequately regulate large private companies (“unicorns”). At the same time, unicorns seem to be a key part of flourishing markets. Are unicorns a problem that requires solving or a sign that entrepreneurial finance is working? This essay addresses that question by tracking outcomes for the 32 startups that qualified as unicorns when the moniker first emerged. It introduces a new typology of unicorn outcomes to guide policy makers and offers a preliminary hypothesis that private ordering by founders, employees, and investors is proving an effective alternative to ambitious regulatory reform.