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- The Startup Velocity Question
- Platform as a Service
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
Billion Dollar Unicorns: Hortonworks Struggles to Stay in the Club
Sometimes a good offering is not sustainable enough to maintain a Unicorn status. Palo Alto-based Hortonworks (Nasdaq: HDP) is one such example of a unicorn turning into a unicorpse* and then barely working its way back to its IPO valuation. The company is well known for its Hadoop offerings. But after being valued at over
From Unicorn to Unicorpse: Etsy Falters on Amazon’s Entry
Etsy (Nasdaq: ETSY) went public earlier this year, a much awaited IPO at an $1.8 billion valuation. But since listing, serious issues with the company have resulted in a tumbling valuation under public market scrutiny. At its current stock price, Etsy is still appearing above the billion dollar mark, but barely so. And its trajectory
From Unicorn to Unicorpse: RetailMeNot Going on Discount
I have always been skeptical about the skyrocketing valuations that VCs apply to startups as they go about their mad rush to fund businesses. In their zeal, they ignore the necessity of a sustainable business model and have funded many a unicorn that have crashed and turned into a unicorpse*. The stock market is a different
Billion Dollar Unicorns: Tujia Offers Vacation Rentals in China
According to iResearch’s estimates, China’s online travel industry is projected to grow to $75 billion by 2017 from $46 billion in 2014. One of the new entrants to the Billion Dollar Unicorns club is China’s online vacation rental site Tujia. The company has successfully adapted the AirBnb model to suit China’s unique market conditions.
Billion Dollar Unicorns: DraftKings Looks Worried as Fantasy Sports Come Under Scrutiny
The rapidly growing fantasy sport industry has created a few Billion Dollar Unicorns. According to Eilers Research, the daily fantasy games market is projected to generate $2.6 billion in entry fees this year and grow to $14.4 billion by 2020. The big numbers have already attracted companies like Yahoo and CBS into the race. But things
From E-Commerce to Web 3.0: Wayfair Impressive Even Under Public Scrutiny
According to an IBIS World report, the US online home furnishings market has grown 20% annually over the period 2010 through 2015 to be worth $8 billion. Over the same period, the US online house furniture market grew 16% to $16 billion. Wayfair (NYSE: W) is the largest pure-play online retailer of home goods in
Billion Dollar Unicorns: Thumbtack Joins the Ranks
Analysts estimate the local commerce market for service providers to be anywhere between $400 billion-$800 billion. Despite its size, the industry is still heavily reliant on word-of-mouth and Yellow Pages like services. But the market is opening up and bigger vendors like Amazon and Google are joining in. Recently, Thumbtack, another smaller platform in the
Billion Dollar Unicorns: ZocDoc Should Be Able To Withstand Public Market Scrutiny
It is well-known that the healthcare industry has been rather slow in adopting the benefits of the digital age. While federal regulations may have led to the implementation of the electronic health record system, when it comes to the simple task of taking an appointment over the Net, things still aren’t quite there. Billion Dollar