4.7 • 9.2K Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2022
⏱️ 9 minutes
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0:00.0 | NPR. |
0:13.0 | Adrian! Hey Adrian, over here! |
0:15.0 | Oh! Hey, well in it. I hope I'm not late. Did I miss it? |
0:20.0 | No, you were right on time, but we got a hurry. Come on. |
0:23.0 | Okay, so what is this place called again? |
0:25.0 | This is Startup Stables, a place where young horses receive the very best care and hopes that if they get showered with love and attention and the fanciest food and grooming, something magical will happen. |
0:40.0 | And that magical thing is happening today. That's why I text you to come over in such a hurry. |
0:45.0 | Oh, alright. Alright, I'm excited. |
0:48.0 | Excuse me, excuse me, coming through. Come on Adrian. |
0:51.0 | Oh my god, well in that horse over there, it's transforming into a unicorn. There's like a horn and wings that are flapping and I've heard of this happening, but I've never actually seen a horse become a unicorn with my own eyes. |
1:11.0 | It's kind of beautiful actually. |
1:15.0 | But, we'll end up going on over there with that horse in the corner. It looks kind of lonely. |
1:24.0 | Oh yeah, that horse. You know, when it first got here, it got so much attention. But then it never turned into a unicorn, so people just lost interest. |
1:34.0 | Oh my gosh, that's a huge bummer. I mean, it looks like a perfectly nice, healthy horse. I mean, even if it's not a unicorn. |
1:42.0 | Well, it's not all sugar cubes and spa treatments at startup stables or in the real world tech industry. |
1:49.0 | This is the indicator from Planet Money. I'm Wayland Wong. |
1:52.0 | And I'm Adrian Ma. When it comes to venture capital and tech, there's long been a pressure on startups to become unicorns to get really big, really fast. |
2:03.0 | But very few companies actually ever achieve this even in the good times. |
2:08.0 | Now, as those good times are winding down, tech investors are getting more selective about where they put their money. |
2:14.0 | And this leaves a lot of non-unicorns in a kind of startup limbo. |
2:18.0 | Today on the show, we look at how that happens and what one investment firm is doing to find a home for these stranded horses. |
2:25.0 | In the tech world, a unicorn is a private company founded in 2003 or later that's valued at a billion dollars or more. |
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