Todd Hixon

The U.S. venture industry has been fascinated by “Unicorns” (companies with a $1 billion exit or private valuation) in recent years. The term Unicorn, coined by Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures in a TechCrunch post three years ago, suggests a rare and magical thing. The current meme in the venture business holds that all the money is made by investors and entrepreneurs who find Unicorns.