Not every horse is a unicorn – but a strong, healthy, energetic horse is still an excellent animal. I think the endless quest for unicorns (who, let’s remember, are a mythical beast) does a disservice to all the businesses and start-ups and ideas out there that will never be a unicorn but have the makings of being bloody good horses. The focus on unicorns (“high growth companies”) is a greedy way of doing things. It says that the only things worth investing support, effort and money in are the things that are going to pay back big time to those investing. But what’s wrong with investing in ideas and businesses that have a solid idea, will create some jobs, will generate decent incomes for some people and will eventually provide a reasonable (but not astronomical) pay off?
It’s the difference between, “Look at me – I caught a unicorn!!” and “Yeah, nice unicorn – check out my stable full of rugged ponies”. In the long run, I think the ponies will be more useful.
Which is why I was pleased and pleasantly surprised to read this announcement from Ignite. Seems I’m not alone in thinking that we’d be wiser to look after our ponies.