Startup Management is a blog covering startup management, blockchain technology, ICOs, and lists of high-valued startups.
HN links it for its post arguing blockchain is the new database, and for a list of valuable global startups based on the WSJ's club.
Thanks for checking it out! Haha that's a good question. We grabbed a master list of the world's most valuable startups, based on WSJ's Billion Dollar Startup Club, as well as posts on Fred Wilson's and William Mougayar's blogs (listed at bottom of this post).
Then we realized we had a list of 300+ companies, some private, some public, some acquired, scattered across the world, founded anywhere between 1999 to 2013. Kinda all over the place.
So we decided to filter it down for now to give it some focus: i) founded after 2006, ii) founded in the USA, and iii) private. The list quickly shrunk to 86.
Deciding to keep it to the USA was tough, but we noticed many high-profile startups abroad don't exactly use Twitter very actively, so including them might skew the #'s.
Here's our current list:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ue2UAoKaGf32rGewLXWe9xRKNai-Lxf4d36pFVCd0jk/edit#gid=0
Sources:
http://graphics.wsj.com/billion-dollar-club
http://avc.com/2013/11/the-billion-dollar-valuation-club/
http://startupmanagement.org/2014/04/20/the-global-unicorns-universe/
Actually, being "differentiated" is what's needed, not being different. There is a difference :) sorry for the pun.
Differentiated means that your statement is very defensible, and the competition cannot copy it or it will backfire on them. Differentiated means very unique to you, and it creates a position in the minds of your prospects that lodges you there and keeps you there.
For e.g., "“a16z enables entrepreneurs to utilize expertise from Operating Partners who specialize in business development, technical talent, executive talent, market intelligence, marketing and brand building” is a differentiated statement, but "Andreessen Horowitz is a venture capital firm that provides seed, venture and growth stage funding to the best new technology companies" is not.
I wrote a long post on Positioning: The Battle for Your Startup- that explains a modern version of Positioning, http://startupmanagement.org/2013/04/18/positioning-the-battle-for-your-startup/
On the topic: http://startupmanagement.org/2014/12/27/the-blockchain-is-the-new-database-get-ready-to-rewrite-everything/