Unicorns – startups valued over $1 billion – were once as rare as the namesake mythical creature, but now they count almost 150. A herd of unicorns is called a blessing; quite ironic when the bursting smell of unicorn bubbles is wafting over the valley.
Who created the unicorns?
Can Theranos pivot to become a blood test lab (if it hasn’t already)? To see if their low prices can be sustainable, I compared some of them against Japan’s nationally mandated low fees. (Japan’s healthcare cost is 10% of GDP, as opposed to 17% in the US.) Above chart is the result. For 41 tests I compared, Theranos tests were 2.5 times more expensive on average than the same tests in Japan. While this doesn’t prove Theranos-as-a-test-lab would work, it’s reassuring.
I recently compared several private-company databases, as my one-year subscription to CB Insights was coming to an end. I casually signed up for free trials for similar services, without any intention of doing the thorough comparison I ended up doing. But here I am, having created a 26 column spreadsheet dissecting PitchBook, PrivCo, DataFox, mattermark, and CB Insights, I would like to share what I have found.
On Off and Beyond (e 