I Helped Grow 4 Unicorns Over 10 Years That Generated $18 Billion in Online Revenues. Here's What I've Learned. Only 0.00006% of businesses will achieve unicorn status. It's not impossible, but extremely challenging, to say the least.

The business world respects unicorn startups and with good reason. To qualify as a unicorn startup, a company must have an investor valuation of $1 billion or more, and there are over 1,200 unicorns in the world as of March 2023.

The path to unicorn status may not be impossible, but it can be highly challenging. After all, only 0.00006% of them will become unicorns.

Nevertheless, and not to brag, serving in roles that ranged from CMO to investor to owner, I've successfully helped grow four unicorns over the past decade that have generated over $18 billion in online revenue. While each company was different — and market strategies are always changing depending on the context of the business — I pulled some commonalities between my successes that will help you think strategically about business growth. Here's what I've learned:

You need the right investors — and the right relationships with them.

You must build a strong relationship with investors, including venture capitalists and private equity firms, to scale your business quickly. An investor must also be aligned strategically with the business and understand where it is now and where it is headed.

This means that both sides must believe and trust each other.

Related: The Importance of Recognizing the Right Investor

It is important for innovation to be ongoing but simple at the same time.

As obvious as it sounds, innovation is vital for remaining relevant to customers, which in turn drives scale. However, starting companies that haven't scaled all too often adopt a similar strategy: they try to save money by sacrificing innovation. Ultimately, the fix cost more than they had anticipated. In contrast to not investing at all, if they had done so from the beginning, they would have been much further along.

But, here's my unicorn secret sauce ingredient.

For many years, I thought success would require a unique idea. Some innovations are indeed complex, but there are times when a simple idea is all you need.

Some companies that adopted this business strategy that come to mind include The Dollar Shave Club and Orabrush. Neither of the products offered by these two companies are groundbreaking. But still, these companies were able to identify a hole in their respective markets and created a simple product that took off.

Another testament to this type of business model is one of the companies I founded, called Calendar. At the time, I saw there was a consumer need for a simple, productive digital calendar tool — and it worked.

The main takeaway? Focus on solving consumer issues. Innovation comes in many forms; sometimes, providing the simplest solution is enough to make you better than the competition.

Customer validation is essential.

Most startups fail to validate their product ideas with customers. And, in my opinion, that's a big no-no.

As I launched my first startup, Just A Five, that mistake cost me a lot of time, energy and money. There was no demand for what my company offered. As well as swallowing my pride, I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars building something no one wanted.

Related: What Customers Expect Out of Their Digital Experience

It's not just about you.

One thing I hope to walk away with is this: Spend some time helping others.

Early on, I focused on me, myself, and I. As a result, my business and I were negatively affected by this lonesome experience.

Having changed since then, I now take the time to care for others on a regular basis. I am always looking for ways to assist people and serve them. In addition to making me feel better about myself, it's also beneficial for my business. There may be karma — or not — but helping other people and businesses will certainly draw them to you.

You should not expect anything in return, however. There must be a sense of selflessness and sincerity behind the act. Occasionally, people who have helped you will return the favor. Sometimes they won't. You can still help and serve others despite that.

Related: 4 Ways To Defeat Entrepreneurial Loneliness

Co-founders, partners and team members are crucial in a business.

Great entrepreneurs realize that they cannot do everything on their own. Certain tasks are beyond the capabilities of a founder. This is why choosing the right partners and team members is vital. That's why I credit my amazing team for helping me grow four unicorns in just a decade.

However, there's a drawback.

Pixloo.com, which I co-founded with an aspiring developer, taught me this lesson the hard way. He had a tremendous work ethic. For 10 months, everything was perfect. In less than a month, our product attracted more than 80,000 customers.

Related: 12 Easy and Efficient Ways Entrepreneurs Can Help Others

It was then that disagreements started to occur. There were disagreements regarding the direction of the company and the prospect of raising investment funds. As long as he stood by his position, he was not willing to budge. Although I knew we were headed in the wrong direction, I was powerless since he owned half of the business. In the end, we sold the company for pennies on the dollar.

You need to establish your culture immediately.

A startup's culture differs from one startup to another. As a startup grows, it can easily grow from two employees to seven to forty-five in a flash. Your organization's culture will quickly unravel if you don't set it intentionally from the beginning. In turn, this can lead to bad hires, employee gossip, and toxic work environments.

In order to do this, you should start thinking about how you want your employees to be treated, how you want them to act, and the type of work environment you want them to create the moment your idea turns into a business.

Related: What Makes a Great Company Culture (and Why It Matters)

It is important to note, however, that cultures are not generally good or bad. The most important thing is what works best for your company, team, and industry. Nevertheless, distrust and despair are rarely conducive to the creation of a positive work environment.

In order to build a strong startup culture, focus on the following:

• Decide what your values are and take the time to define them.
• Don't preach; practice.
• From the get-go, be inclusive.
• Be kind.
• Be sure to assess your culture regularly.

Don't forget to embrace a culture of growth and entrepreneurship. Almost all unicorns share a deeply-held vision — not just with their leadership team but also with investors, partners, and customers. Ultimately, this vision is turned into reality by a culture that's laser-focused on customer success and business growth.

The more aggressive I was, the better.

People generally dislike pushy salespeople. It is necessary, however, to be extremely aggressive if one hopes to succeed in business. In some cases, however, it's as simple as picking up the phone to get in touch with customers or investors.

I had two options with my first startup: not making money or calling potential clients and refusing to accept no. It is unlikely that most new businesses will succeed unless they receive a major push. The launch of a new product is unlikely to be successful without aggressive marketing.

Don't stop building.

Startups don't last very long if they don't grow, no matter how good their product or service is. That's why my companies are constantly evolving, whether that's through marketing or tinkering with our product.

But don't take my word for it.

A startup book called Exponential Organizations describes unicorns as organizations that use strategies that allow them to scale exponentially. As a result, they are called "exponential organizations."

Using Google's "Organize the World's Information" as an example, the unicorns in the book selected a Massive Transformative Purpose (MTP) to drive their business. MTPs are highly ambitious goals that drive the team and inspire them to think outside the box to accomplish them. They achieved growth by testing their marketing and sales channels locally, then quickly replicating their successful strategies across multiple locations based on a clear vision.

Scaling your business like a unicorn requires identifying your company's vision or marketing plan. In order to scale your business effectively, identify promising sales channels and use key performance indicators.

Lastly, failure taught me a lot.

As someone who has personally experienced failure, I know how painful it is.

Aside from depleting your bank account, it can make you physically sick as well. In addition, it makes you never want to repeat the experience in the future.

Related: 10 Lessons About Failure That Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know

Failure is an integral part of the journey — not just for startups and entrepreneurs, but for everyone in life. For this reason, you must find motivation after your startup fails.

• Most startups fail. Founders of startups are constantly reminded of this statistic: 90% of startups fail. Some believe it's around 79%, but the fact remains that failure is inevitable.
• Don't rush the healing process. It's going to take some time for you to get motivated again if you failed on your product launch or file for bankruptcy. It's okay. Healing will take some time.
• Build a support group. Our support groups provide comfort and advice during our darkest times. An example of this might be a spouse, best friend, mentor, or another business owner.
• Be proactive. Upon experiencing failure, I started working on my next project immediately. By doing so, I was able to put my attention on something other than my previous venture that had folded. I was able to rebuild my confidence as my little side hustle started making some cash.
• Rehearse past successes. You should reflect on your past successes, even if they did not turn out how you wanted.
• Motivate yourself intrinsically. Decide what you're passionate about before staging your comeback. What is your favorite thing to do? What interests you?
• Refocus your attention. Think about your next endeavor instead of your past failures. Making your next startup successful with these resources, actions, and ideas will be easier.