<story><title>Tell HN: Unicorns aren&apos;t ad-supported</title><text>Looking at the &amp;quot;Complete list of unicorns&amp;quot;[1], something stands out.  Out of the top 50 startups by valuation, only three, Snapchat, Pintrest, and Vice, are ad-supported. The others all sell a product or service paid for by its users.
Advertising may have powered the first dot-com boom, but it&amp;#x27;s not powering this one.&lt;p&gt;[1] https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cbinsights.com&amp;#x2F;research-unicorn-companies&amp;#x2F;</text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>NumberCruncher</author><text>Startups are the penny stocks of the 21ht century. Buy 4% of a company for 40 M$, talk a lot about how this company is valued at 1 B$, wait until enought people belive it, make an IPO, take the money and run (a.k.a. pump and dumping). Would Jordan Belfort still be in business he would high probably be a VC.</text></comment>
<story><title>Tell HN: Unicorns aren&apos;t ad-supported</title><text>Looking at the &amp;quot;Complete list of unicorns&amp;quot;[1], something stands out.  Out of the top 50 startups by valuation, only three, Snapchat, Pintrest, and Vice, are ad-supported. The others all sell a product or service paid for by its users.
Advertising may have powered the first dot-com boom, but it&amp;#x27;s not powering this one.&lt;p&gt;[1] https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cbinsights.com&amp;#x2F;research-unicorn-companies&amp;#x2F;</text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>throwaway13337</author><text>Anyone else surprised by Blue Apron and Hellofresh making the list?&lt;p&gt;I can&amp;#x27;t imagine there are two multibillion dollar food recipe delivery subscription companies.&lt;p&gt;Is this as crazy as I think it is?</text></comment>