Phoenix

Pigs are startups that take advantage of the fact that it has become relatively cheap and easy to make a web product. You can get the development work done at a modest price and even raise some initial capital.

Pigs aren’t building the company for long-term world domination—they’re aiming t...

Camels can survive in the “desert” of volatile, cash-strapped markets.

Camels charge for the value they create from the get-go. 

Survival, rather than fast growth, is the priority.

Examples: Qualtrics, GrubHub, Zoom

Rhino startups aim to be both big and profitable. Rhinos as companies that have a valuation of $1bn on a price-to-earnings multiple, not on a revenue multiple. Rhinos are far rarer than unicorns.

Examples: Apple, Facebook, Google

A gazelle is a company that had revenue of at least $1 million and then doubled its revenue in four years. Its growing by 20 per cent each year.

It was what unicorns used to be called before the term unicorn was coined.

Examples: Facebook, Apple, and Amazon would all ...

Zebra businesses have roots in their leaders’ personal experiences and visions.  Zebras fuse profit and purpose, shy away from venture funding and collaborate.

Zebra founders’ connection to their companies means they strive for capital efficiency and tend to avoid trading equity for venture...

This probably sounds quaint, but once upon a time, tech startups were called “startups.” Occasionally, venture capitalists called them “portfolio companies,” or customers called them “tech companies,” but “startup” was the main term.

In 2013, though, startups began ...

"Unicorn" is the term used in the venture capital industry to describe a startup company with a valuation of over $ 1 billion.

Example: CRED, Groww

White elephant startups symbolise huge projects without a deeper economic meaning. A real example is a construction project that happens only for a major event such as sports events.

A bear is a solitary, awkward creature that values its independence and therefore doesn’t want to take VC money. The founders of these companies choose the bootstrapping route, which makes life harder for them. But if it pays off, they end up rich AND in control of their companies.

Examples...