SUPER FOUNDERS

Ali Tamaseb uses a data-driven approach to understand what really differentiates billion-dollar unicorn startups from the rest. It turns out nearly everything we thought was true about billion-dollar startups is false!

Every VC wants to find the next billion-dollar company to invest in, and every startup wants to become one. The author set out to find patterns in the backgrounds, methods, and trajectories of these companies, gathering and analyzing 40,000 data points about the 200+ billion-dollar companies and the people who founded them, the first major study of its kind and likely the largest data collection project about unicorn companies. What he found was unique insights that bust myths that have circulated in the industry for year.

Some takeaways:
- Half of unicorn founders are over 35;
- Most founders don't have any directly relevant work experience in the industry they're disrupting;
- There's no disadvantage to being a solo founder;
- Sixty percent of billion-dollar companies are started by repeat entrepreneurs, many of whom already have at least one $50M+ exit under their belt; and
- Over half of these companies were competing with multiple incumbents at the time of their founding.

The book includes exclusive interviews with the CEOs of Zoom, Airbnb, and PayPal, among many more, and has examples of many non-US based unicorns with global presences, including Bytedance (China), Didi (China), Canva (Australia), Careem (UAE), Transferwise (UK), Flipkart (India), Paytm (India), Nubank (Brazil), Oyo (India), Spotify (Sweden), and Shopify (Canada).

Super Founders gives readers an unprecedented look at what the data tells us about the world's most successful startups and the people who create them. A blend of data, analysis, stories based on exclusive interviews, this book is a paradigm-shifting guide for entrepreneurs and the investment community.

Ali Tamaseb is a partner at Data Collective (DCVC), a highly reputable early-stage venture capital firm in Silicon Valley with about $2 billion under management. He holds several leadership and board positions at companies across the U.S. and globally. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Ali was a successful entrepreneur. He holds a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Imperial College London and studied General Management at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Ali was an honoree of the British Alumni Award of 2018 by the British Council, and Imperial College President's Medal for Outstanding Achievement. Ali and his work has been featured in BBC, Guardian, Forbes, The Telegraph, among others, and he has given talks and appeared on panels at major events and conferences, including two TEDx talks. He lives in San Francisco, California.