10 Steps to find the unicorn Idea for your startup

In the world of technology, many things can be turned into a reality. Think of the people who found their audiences, opened a revolutionary business, gathered an incredible following, and more. An aspiration of finding your 1-billion dollar valued business – a unicorn startup idea – is a real possibility. In this post, we’ll show what it is and how to get there.

What is A Unicorn Startup Idea?

Aileen Lee was the one to count the term ‘unicorn startup’. The term means a privately owned startup company that reached a 1-billion-dollar valuation. As such, It is about how much venture capitalists and marketers believe your company will be worth in the long term. The main thing is that the company’s unicorn idea is so unique that it shows a promise to:

• outperform all current competitors, 
• show potential long-term, and
• radiate with ambition. 

To get such a valuation you need to show good metrics for it. They can be capital investment, number of users, growth rates, etc.

Key Facts

In 2013, only 39 American startups made it to unicorn status.

Only 2 years later, this number has more than doubled. Now, there were 117 startups with unicorn status.

The digital community is fast, so as of March 2022, there were more than 1,000 unicorns globally. 

The composition of unicorns also had a significant change. At the start, it was largely (61%) customer-centric companies like Yelp, Groupon, Airbnb, and Uber. A decade later, it is now enterprise-focused companies riding the unicorn trend (80%).

The caveat here is that now analytics predict and venture capitals expect to have this change reversed. Like on a pendulum swing. All unicorn customer startups are old… 20-30 years old. So business owners seeking to get into customer-oriented digital business have a chance to join a rising trend. The founder of the term unicorn startup and early-stage investor & founder at Cowboy Ventures predicts that:

this trend especially applies to those looking to start in social and commerce markets targeting user experience as a way of innovation. 

Examples of Unicorn Companies

So, to consider shooting for your own unicorn startup idea, we’ve selected old-timers of consumer-oriented firms. This is the spot where new unicorns are expected at least by investors, venture capitalists, and market analysts.

eBay

eBay’s unicorn idea was to make auctioning globally available. It developed a consumer-oriented marketplace to connect auctioneers. It also made available fixed-price items. According to Yahoo Finance, its valuation as of March 2024 is almost $25 billion. eBay launched in 1995. 

So it is now 30 years later and a competing unicorn idea is yet to come.

• Will it be a peer-to-peer e-commerce platform focusing on niche products or services?
• Will it be a marketplace with AR for product items?
• Will it be a social marketplace like a buzzing market with a ton of social media presence?

Who knows! But there is a glaring gap to be filled soon.

Expedia

Expedia’s unicorn idea was to bring travel agencies online with all the variety they could offer. They made available flights, hotels, cruises, car rentals, and whole vacation packages online. It is now a publicly traded company. It launched in 1997 and became a public company quite fast – in 1999. Yet, it managed to get on a unicorn list. 

Its valuation is now around $109 per share. Their reported revenues were close to $13 billion for the year 2023.

So if we were to think about what direction to go here to find another unicorn startup idea? We’d suggest personalization of travel experiences. Or blockchain technology for safe booking of any traveling arrangements.     

Our next company got a unicorn status too operating in the online travel sector. It only proves that Internet space is big enough to host many useful businesses.

Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor is essentially launched as a platform for exchanging reviews about travel experiences. It also offers the ability to book online vacations including car rentals, flights, and accommodation. Even though its services are similar to Expedia’s, Tripadvisor focuses more on user-generated content. It includes reviews of restaurants and other holiday experiences. 

Its valuation is $3.59 billion as of March 2024.

Which way to go to discover a unicorn startup idea in this sector? Imagine, virtually walking the streets of the holiday destination. Or imagine yourself walking up to an Italian or French restaurant and flicking through its menu on the outside stand. It is so easy to make a purchase when you can almost touch it already. Immersive technology can bridge the gap between planning and purchasing in no time. 

Or, you know, imagine maybe a man choosing a destination and then getting AR experiences of driving a rental car in that particular country. That experience alone is worth paying for. Without even going to the destination.

Yelp

While Tripadvisor focused on user-generated content for traveling, Yelp did the same for locals. Its unicorn idea focused on local communities where local people check out and review local businesses. The range of businesses for review is wide: from restaurants to shops and schools. 

The business is now valued at $2.26 billion as of March 2024. 

What else market-wise is there to offer? We’re sure this idea is just one of many, but have you seen Circle? The film is about technology making real-life broadcasts online. Including a live feed by locals for locals can be an interesting idea among many others still not implemented and brought to market. 

Uber

Uber’s unicorn idea was allowing drivers to make side money offering rides. Their motto is much deeper though these days: “We reimagine the way the world moves for the better”. It certainly doesn’t lack in ambition. It is important for a unicorn. 

Uber has an extremely high valuation of $162.26 billion as of March 2024. Yet, it still leaves space for more unicorns and newcomers. Just think about Bolt, Lyft, and others. 

And there is space in the market for more ideas. Think about eco-friendly travel. Or maybe other modes of transportation. Personally, old-day taxis are missed… maybe Uber took it too far? It is just to say that opportunities in this market abound.

Pinterest

Pinterest’s unicorn idea appeals to creative minds all around the world. It offers the most inspirational tool for discovering new ideas for your next crafty project. It adds also a social component. “Pinners” start their projects with new ideas found on this platform. They can also share their creations and engage in buying-selling activities. 

Currently, Pinterest is valued at $24.71 billion. 

Is there a way to offer something bigger and more ambitious? We’re such that machine learning and augmented reality can certainly push the boundaries. Even AI… one can argue but what it does best for humans is that it certainly can help in removing ‘writer’s or artsy block’ and offer ideas from which one can create their own.

Twitter / X

Well, Twitter has undergone a bit of an image change along with a name change. Twitter’s unicorn idea was all around sharing short messages instead of texts. It was all about status updates, sharing news, and having short conversations. 

Its valuation is now around $12.5 billion. 

With a lot of news around Twitter-X’s changes, it seems like the company is vacating the market spot. The new vision is pushed towards an ‘everything app’. At least, according to a new owner who bought the company for $44bn 2 years ago. 

The company remains a unicorn business. 

Steps To Finding Your Unicorn Idea

1 Find a unique market gap or problem.

Focus on just the idea in the big, without details of interfaces or functionality. 

For instance, people have fragmented conversations. They have lots of messengers which makes it difficult to maintain a meaningful connection.

2 Break down the roots of the idea or problem.

You need to go a level deeper and list all possible causes for this problem.

Continuing with our example: there is no one single platform to host all kinds of conversations. 

Plus, people are often distracted during conversations. They forget about answering a message they’ve read and get sidetracked by mounting task queues in their lives. Or simply forget to continue and follow up on previous conversations.

3 Start addressing the underlying issue.

This is when your unicorn idea begins to take shape. In all of the examples, unicorn startups started with something really simple but relevant to day-to-day struggle.

For instance, the idea of creating one single platform is unrealistic but it certainly doesn’t lack in ambitiousness. 

So we can rather go with the idea of a ‘clean’ app with reminders for a continuation of a conversation. Maybe it will have conversation ideas supplied by AI. Or utilize machine learning to suggest when is an appropriate time to continue with that particular person. It’s modern, ambitious and there is a need for it.

4 Find the right vendor.

Before moving on to more concrete steps, you need the technical expertise and market knowledge of an experienced startup vendor. What should you develop – MVP, MLP, or MMP? The proposed idea can be good for any of this.

Choosing the right vendor is not only about the skill. It is also about the strategic vision. 

• Does your vendor of choice have the capacity to support your ambition for a unicorn startup? 
• Do they have business analysts? 
• Do they have those who have experience in developing successful products? 
• Do they know how to create products that attract investors and venture capitalists?

Finding the right Startup Services is as important as the idea itself.

5 Go through a discovery phase.

Make sure you have a shared vision. It is also useful if you have other involved stakeholders. There is the Lean Discovery Phase that takes about a week or two. It will give you a clear vision of the entire business you are aiming to build conceptually.

6 Discuss implementation pathways depending on funding sources.

As a matter of fact, launching a minimum product of your unicorn startup will be within a range of $10,000 to $100,000. For this, you may:

– get personal financing loans, 

– get angel investors on board, or 

– simply put together money if you have other co-founders. 

Another key point is that the financing sources also impact the choice of MVP, MLP vs MMP. Therefore, it is best if your vendor can consult on this too. 

Once that is figured out, your vendor should form a technical solution. It will include a prioritized list of features based on the ease of testing, speed of development, potential impact, etc. 

7 Create a USP and build up a value proposition.

Your vendor must be able to conduct market analysis including customer research and competitor analysis. A unicorn idea must be user-centric and above the current market offering. So, it must be upgraded in a competitive and appealing manner.

8 Test product hypothesis.

At this stage, you already have a development process going on. 

During the discovery phase, your team narrowed down priority items. So now you go through the list to develop fast and bring insight.

• How does each feature hit the need/problem? 
• Does each feature add value to the user experience? 
• Is there a synergy between the feature, its implementation, and the first analytics?

9 Go through iterations.

To get to a 1 billion dollar valuation, your idea/product should go through evolution across multiple product iterations. Once your minimum product is complete and proven its marketability and scalability, it is also time to consider more funding options.

At this point, there are added options such as business incubators or micro venture funds. In the future, you will also look at Series A and Series B startup funding. They are super angel investors, larger venture capitalists, business accelerators, and more.

10 Balance costs and monetization.

Once you have MVP working, and you get great analytics indicators, you need to take care of balance sheets and projections into the future. Now, you probably have a working minimum product with great analytics. But what’s next?

To qualify for a unicorn startup, you need to consider monetization strategies and costs. A unicorn idea isn’t complete until there is a long-term vision. Big investors must also visualize how their investment will pay off. 

• So, let’s talk about Uber, for instance. To scale and become a true unicorn, they needed large investments in technology. They needed to expand globally and market their idea. 
• eBay, for instance, focused on other challenges. Their biggest point of concern with investors and scale was building trust around payments online on their platform. It involved a lot of work on platform security. Marketing was also a big budget item. 
• With a platform like Twitter, it was really a question of how to monetize at all. They had to experiment with different strategies before becoming a true unicorn. 

Key Takeaways

• Analytics and venture capitalists predict that consumer-oriented companies will give birth to unicorns in the coming years;
• Unicorn startup means a privately owned business with 1 billion dollar valuation and more;
• Current consumer-oriented unicorns are more than two decades old;
• Meanwhile, new technologies open up new market opportunities and create potential for unicorn startups;
• Unicorn startups need to find a reliable development partner who shares their ambition and understands strategic vision.

10 Steps to find the unicorn idea for your startup: FAQ