The “new normal” of venture capital funding is over. After several decades of rapid growth, the era of “unicorns” — startups valued at more than $1 billion — is kind of over. In the post-unicorn world of 2020s startups, more investors are looking for investments that can scale fast and have an impact on people’s lives. In this article we take a look at the startup landscape of 2020s and its main trends.
Massive Data Sets Become Startup Assets
Many startups today are data-driven. They collect huge volumes of data and use it to make informed decisions. This is great when it comes to choosing which products and services to acquire and provide customer support for.
But what happens when data sets become too large to store or analyze? What if you want to use the data for something else? What if you need to share data with your lawyers? These are some of the questions that face large-scale data analysts today.
In the post-unicorn world of 2020s startups, more investors are looking for investments that can scale fast and have an impact on people’s lives. This means that data scientists, data engineers and data analysts are in high demand. If a startup looks to hire data scientists, it may have to bid higher than normal for the talent.
Incubators Take a Backseat
In the post-unicorn world of 2020s startups, many founders will wonder whether they should go with an established or an independent incubator. There are many benefits of going with an established incubator – it will likely be more established.
It’s been around longer than most startups have been in business. But what if you get an independent incubator and you’re not happy with the setup? It’s probably time to look into its past to see what happened there. We’re seeing more startups choose to go it alone.
The last five years have seen an upsurge in startup founders going it alone. This is a clear indication that more startups are looking for investments that can scale fast and have an impact on people’s lives. In this case, the founders invest their own money and take control of the business.
Disruptive Technologies May Be the New Platforms for Startups
It’s no secret that the world has become more data-driven over the past few years. With the rise of big data and new technologies like artificial intelligence, there’s been a shift in the way investors think about startups. They’re looking for startups with a disruptive impact on the market.
These startups can either create a new market or revolutionize an old market. These technologies may be used to create entirely new markets or create marketplaces that have been uneconomic before. There are many examples of these technologies in use today.
The Sharing Economy is a good example of a disruptive technology. It enabled people to share rides, accommodations, meals and more. Uber and the sharing economy in general are a great example of a disruptive technology.
The Startup Culture Shrinks a Bit
For many founders, the most obvious shift in the startup landscape of 2020s is the growing importance of data science and analytics skills. These are skills that are becoming more important in every industry, not just tech. But there are signs that the startup culture itself is shrinking.
Entrepreneurs used to complain about how their managers were afraid to hire data scientists. But the hiring of data scientists has skyrocketed in the past few years. Now, most startups have at least one data scientist on staff. This is yet another indication that the startup culture is changing for the better.
The Fate of Closed-Source Software in the Startup World
One of the most debated topics in the startup world these days is the fate of closed-source software. There is a perception that companies that use closed-source software are being short-changed. But is that the case? These companies have technology that’s hundreds of times more advanced than what they could get from a standard open-source project.
It’s just that they can’t easily integrate it with their existing products. Closed-source software is still useful. It may not be the pinnacle of technology, but it’s still a huge asset for a startup. Let’s say a startup wants to create a new product but has to acquire dozens of small licenses of old software that it doesn’t want to get rid of. How can they do that with closed-source software?
Closed-source software is essential for large-scale operations. It can’t be replaced by a single software engineer. It can’t be replaced by a proof-of-concept. It can’t be replaced by a beta version. At its core, software is just data. And data can be acquired, transformed and used in many different ways.
Bottom Line
The year 2020 brings forth many changes. We’re seeing more investments into startups that can scale quickly and have an impact on people’s lives. Many startups are being created on the basis of Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and other disruption-inducing technologies. It’s important for founders to have in-depth knowledge of these technologies.
With the right management, a startup can scale quickly and have an impact on people’s lives.