What is a Dragon? Unicorn Startups, Dragon Startups…

Welcome back to my series, Speak Like Shaf. If you’re a budding entrepreneur, sit yourself down, get comfy and watch the screen for the next couple of minutes. As well as giving you a few entrepreneurial tips, I’m here to explain to you what all those annoying business jargon terms mean and throw in a few words of wisdom for good measure. This is vital viewing for anyone who dreams of running their own business and I want to help you turn that dream into reality. This week we are going to be looking at the word dragon.

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I don’t mean a dragon from the fairytales. You know, a massive snake-like creature, with wings who is constantly angry and breathing fire. Like Drogon in Game of Thrones Come to think of it though, you will meet a few of those in business and all I can suggest is that you remain polite but firm, don’t get rattled and stay true to yourself and your business. Just try not to get burned!

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No, what I am going to talk to you about is companies that are described as dragons. To find out about dragons, we need to remind ourselves about unicorns. I do hope you’re keeping up with these mythical creatures at the back! Last week’s Speak Like Shaf was all about unicorns and you’ll remember that a unicorn is a company valued at $1billion or more. That all sounds super but it poses a problem for venture capitalists. This is just a valuation, it’s not cash in the bank. The valuation isn’t related to the capital used in reaching this benchmark so it’s hard to tell what return on investment venture capitalists will get. Unicorns can grow too fast as there is a conflict between equity raised, valuation and performance and the next thing you know, they’ve crashed and burned. Enter the dragon.

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For investors, a dragon is a much safer bet. Unlike unicorns, dragons can return the entire fund. Because of this, they are even rarer than the elusive unicorn. The venture capitalist must identify the dragon when it’s a young company or just starting out and that’s where their skill lies.

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During this series, we’ve met my Stone Age friend Rab The Rock Star. He became one of the world’s first entrepreneurs when he started making selling and renting tools from sticks and flint to hunters to help them catch their tea. Unfortunately, his company Goresticks didn’t become a unicorn so he had no chance of becoming a dragon. Rab would maybe have had more success if he’d pitched to me when I took part in Online Dragons’ Den. If he’d had more investment, who knows how much his company may have grown.

If you’re starting out, it’s unlikely that you will reach dragon or unicorn status but it’s really important that you know these terms and don’t get left behind in business conversations. Knowledge is power and I’m here to keep you up to speed. Let me know what you think. Hit that subscribe button otherwise I’m going to set Drogon on you.

You know that it makes sense what are the choices get burned to a crisp or hit the subscribe button and bell icon and get a notification every time I upload a new video.

Have you got the idea for the next Dragon but not sure what to do? Simple, check out my YouTube channel and let me help you understand business. I’m bursting with advice and ideas and I can’t wait to help you. And remember, all you have to do is go hit the subscribe button and the bell icon. See you next week for another ‘Speak Like Shaf’.