For over a decade, the tech industry has been chasing unicorns—those elusive startups valued at over $1 billion. The obsession began in 2013, when Aileen Lee—a VC based in Palo Alto—coined the term that captured the imaginations first of founders and investors, and then prime ministers and presidents. But these mythical beasts are also rare: only 1 percent of VC-backed startups ever reach this status.
As society enters the age of AI, and financial markets put renewed value on business fundamentals, our understanding of what makes a successful tech company is evolving. Promise alone doesn’t make a national, regional, or global champion. Champions are those companies that combine both the
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