Have you ever wondered what the founders of unicorn companies or startups worth at least a billion dollars have in common?

After looking at data from 845 unicorns and 2018 unicorn founders in the US and UK from the past decade, Challenge capital found three common, qualitative traits in the “DNA” of unicorn founders:

1. They don't have a backup plan
2. They have personal histories of feeling restricted or treated unfairly
3. They believe in themselves.

“The stories coming out show insane determination,” said Defiance Capital founder Christian Dorffer TechCrunch.

Dorffer said the founders all had “hunger, confidence, ingenuity and resilience.”

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The report found that 70% of unicorns had “bad” founders, which the researchers defined as founders who were immigrants, women or people of color.

The study also found that more than half of the founders (53%) had degrees from the world's top universities. Most founding teams (70%) had at least one person with a STEM (science, technology, engineering, or math) degree.

Founder teams were more common in the billion-dollar startup pool than single founders, with 80% of unicorns being led by a team. Half of the founders surveyed were serial entrepreneurs, so they had created at least one other company before reaching a billion-dollar valuation with their unicorn startup.

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A special February study found that two industries stood out last year in producing unicorns: cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. As of March 2024, there are more than 1,000 unicorns worldwide, including OpenAI, Canva and SpaceX, according to Insights from CB.

Dorffer is now planning to create a podcast and interview many of the unicorn founders surveyed in the study.