EnplugEmails: The 17 companies that became $1+ billion in 2014

The EnplugEmails series on my blog are real emails that I’ve sent to my teammates at Enplug. I’m sharing some of these emails because I thought they might be useful to other startup founders. Here’s the latest one:

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Subject line: The New Unicorns of 2014

Hi Team,

The list of all the private companies that reached $1 billion valuations in 2014 was published on VentureBeat today. Thanks, Jessie, for sharing it with me.

There were 17 companies in total this year that reached the milestone. Investors call these companies “Unicorns” because of how rare they are. Thousands of startups are founded each year and only 17 hit a billion this year. And one is a customer!

I wanted to learn more about these companies and benchmark Enplug because we’re striving to be a Billion too. I took some notes- shared with you below. Here is my key takeaway:

 

Average time it took these companies to reach $1 billion: 9 years. From articles we read online, it sometimes seem like startups grow to be a billion dollars overnight, but that’s not the case. The company that grew to a billion the fastest on this year’s list is Slack (2 years). The longest is Good Technology (19 years). Building a startup is a marathon, and we’ve set a great pace for ourselves with what we’ve accomplished in these past two years. #everydaycounts

Pro-tip from Alex: Enplug software would benefit all the companies below. We can turn the TVs in their offices into cool, interactive displays that stream their companies’ live social media feeds.

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Actifio

• $1.1 billion
• Founded 2009
• Actifio is an enterprise technology company with a radically simple copy data virtualization platform.

AppDynamics

• $1.1 billion
• Founded 2008
• AppDynamics develops application performance management (APM) solutions that deliver problem resolution for highly distributed applications.

AppNexus

• $1.2 billion
• Founded 2007
• AppNexus provides trading solutions and powers marketplaces for Internet advertising.

Cloudera

• Received $1 billion in funding so…valuation is at least $1 billion
• Founded 2008
• Cloudera is an enterprise software company that provides Apache Hadoop-based software and training to data-driven enterprises.

DocuSign

• $1.56 billion
• Founded 2003
• DocuSign employs cloud-based e-signature technology to allow users to sign and send documents online.

Good Technology

• $1+ billion
• Founded 1996
• Good Technology is a pioneer and world leader in secure mobility solutions for businesses.

Intarcia Therapeutics

• $1.63 billion
• Founded 1997
• Intarcia Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company developing therapies for diseases that require long-term chronic treatment.

Jasper Technologies

• $1.3 billion
• Founded 2004
• Jasper powers the Internet of Things across more than 1,500 enterprises, millions of devices, over 100 mobile operators and 6 continents.

Kabam

• $1+ billion
• Founded 2006
• Kabam is a mobile gaming company developing free-to-play core games available on mobile devices, the web, and other platforms.

LendingClub

• $1.5 billion
• Founded 2007
• Lending Club is the nation’s leading online credit marketplace, using technology to lower the cost of the traditional banking system.

Lookout

• $1.38 bllion
• Founded 2007
• Protecting individuals and enterprises, Lookout predicts and stops mobile attacks before they do harm.

Lyft

• $1+ billion
• Founded 2012
• You know what it is.

New Relic

• $1.39 billion
• Founded 2007
• New Relic is a SaaS-based software analytics platform offering app performance management and mobile monitoring solutions.

NJoy

• $2.5 billion
• Founded 2006
• E-cigs

Slack

• $1.12 billion
• Founded 2013. Fastest growing SaaS company in history.
• Yes, it’s the same Slack tool we use every day to chat with each other.

Sunrun

• $1+ billion
• Founded 2007
• Sunrun is a provider of residential solar electricity and solar power service.

WeWork

• $5 billion
• Founded 2010
• One of Enplug’s big customers…so I’m sure you know this one.

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