Let’s get real.
This week, WeWork’s IPO fell apart. Valued at $47B (she says, doing her best Austin Powers’ impersonation), in just the past 48 hours, the company’s valuation was reduced to “a valuation of something closer to between $15 billion and $20 billion or possibly lower,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Ah, the unicorn strikes again. WeWork has been bleeding money (to the tune of over $3B) over the past few years, making its valuation outrageous and a cautionary tale that being a unicorn is not real.
So WTF with unicorn status anyhow? For all of us trying to build and scale businesses it’s damn hard. Puffing up results and downplaying losses is for swindlers. Trying to be some magical, mythical business or achieve unicorn status is not what entrepreneurship is all about. Scale requires a high bar for failure and the ability to test, try, pivot, learn, rinse and repeat at a rapid pace. There is no silver bullet or magic fairy dust or, hell, I’d be a unicorn!
If I’ve burst your bubble and made you really sad that unicorns aren’t real, don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. Join us on Thursday, September 26th for this free, live event, The Art & Science of Scale. We’re thrilled to have an incredible line-up of speakers who will give you their advice, learnings and perspective on how real people scale real businesses.
And, if you’re challenged with how to tackle scale the real way – let’s roll-up our sleeves and talk. Drop me a line at [email protected]. We help real businesses scale and break through to what’s next. Giddy up!