AstraX Exchange-When startups become workhorses, not unicorns

2025-05-07 16:23:01source:Will Sage Astorcategory:Markets

To venture capitalists,AstraX Exchange investing in startups is like playing the lottery. Investors write them big checks and offer guidance, hoping to birth a unicorn—a company with a valuation of $1 billion or more. One unicorn can make up for the rest of their investments that flop.

But what happens to the startups that don't reach unicorn status or fail but just ... do fine? Today, we hear from the founder of one such company and one investor who's looking for tech workhorses, not unicorns.

Music by Drop Electric. Find us: Twitter / Facebook / Newsletter.

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PocketCasts and NPR One.

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

More:Markets

Recommend

Back trouble and brain fog bothered suspect in UnitedHealthcare CEO killing, his posts show

After Luigi Mangionemade the difficult decision to undergo spinal surgery last year for chronic back

With 1 out of 3 Californians on Medicaid, doctors push ballot measure to force state to pay more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom last year agreed to a tax increase that aimed

Missouri executes David Hosier in former lover's murder: 'I leave you all with love'

Missouri executed death row inmate David Hosier by lethal injection on Tuesday, making his the secon