{"id":38714,"date":"2023-10-20T14:58:29","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/cockroaches-not-unicorns-how-founders-can-prepare-for-the-upcoming-startup-apocalypse-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:58:29","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:58:29","slug":"cockroaches-not-unicorns-how-founders-can-prepare-for-the-upcoming-startup-apocalypse-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/cockroaches-not-unicorns-how-founders-can-prepare-for-the-upcoming-startup-apocalypse-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Cockroaches not unicorns: How founders can prepare for the upcoming \u201cstartup apocalypse\u201d – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Startcon\"<\/div>\n

The great unicorn dream is over and founders need to be bracing for the \u201cupcoming startup apocalypse\u201d by building self-sustaining companies, StartCon manager Cheryl Mack says.<\/p>\n

While most tech companies strive to become a unicorn \u2013 a private company valued at more than $1 billion \u2013 this emphasis on big private funding rounds rather than revenue has led to the current decline occurring in Silicon Valley and across the world, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cA unicorn startup used to be the prize but it\u2019s not anymore,\u201d Mack tells StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trouble with hyped up valuations is that companies can\u2019t possibly retain that in the public market. Couple that with uncertainty in the global stock market and investors pulling back from new companies and you\u2019ve got a seriously tough environment for startups to get funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to throw away the less than shiny unicorn dream and learn how to survive and thrive in any economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

This will be the core theme of StartCon, formerly SydStart and the biggest startup-focused conference in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to choose something that was fairly bold to go along with the almost unprecedented things that are happening in the industry at the moment,\u201d Mack says.<\/p>\n

The first round of speakers have been announced and include Survey Monkey vice president of growth Elana Verna, Zillow vice president of product teams and growth Nate Moch, BitTorrent senior PM of growth Annabell Satterfield and Meta co-founder Ben Sand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really truly believe that if you want Australian startups to become global companies then you need to expose them to global ideas,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The famed notion of becoming a unicorn needs to be thrown out the window, Mack says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe unicorn funding model is clearly not working,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompanies shouldn\u2019t be trying to get into the unicorn club. It\u2019s those vanity valuations that are coming back to bite them in the bum. They should be focusing on building a sustainable company.\u201d<\/p>\n

This means founders need to focus on building a company that produces its own revenue and can withstand outside factors, a type of startup that Mack refers to as a cockroach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are the ones that survive the crazy tough times \u2013 the apocalypses,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey hang around, find food, test the environment and figure out where they can survive.<\/p>\n

\u201cCockroaches are companies that can get cash-flow positive quickly and focus on revenue growth without raising tons of capital. They\u2019re the ones that survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

StartCon will be taking place on November 26 to 27 at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney.<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on\u00a0<\/em>Facebook<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<\/em>SoundCloud<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The great unicorn dream is over and founders need to be bracing for the \u201cupcoming startup apocalypse\u201d by building self-sustaining<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38714"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}