The decacorn list: 9 startups valued at more than $10 billion

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Pinterest: The stats

Valuation: $11 billion
Founders: Ben Silbermann (current CEO), Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp
Pinterest was birthed out of a failed meta-catalogue on-the-go app, Tote, which Silbermann and Paul Sciarra initially launched with their company Cold Brew Labs. The app was a complete non-starter, but Silbermann noticed a curious behavior from the app's users ...

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: Pinterest

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
Pinterest: Built on human behavior

Instead of buying, they kept sending pictures of certain products from the app to themselves. One web product and four years later, it was the hottest social media platform out there, driving comparisons to Facebook in 2012.

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: Pinterest

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
SpaceX

Valuation: $12 billion
Founder: Elon Musk (current CEO)
Space exploration isn't just the realm of NASA and governments these days. In 2012, SpaceX took a first big step into bringing space adventuring to the next level ...

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: SpaceX

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
SpaceX: To infinity and beyond

when it successfully launched a rocket of their own into orbit. But the ultimate goal, according to founder Elon Musk, is colonizing Mars.

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: SpaceX

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
Flipkart

Started: 2007
Valuation: $15 billion
Founders: Sachin Bansal (current CEO) and Binny Bansal
What started as an online bookseller quickly grew into one of India's largest e-commerce sites. It was seeded with wee investment of roughly $6,000 by Binny and Sachin Bansal.

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: Flipkart

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
Flipkart: India's Amazon?

The latter once said founding the company was "one of the most ridiculous things he [had] ever done." As for what makes Flipkart different from all the other e-commerce behemoths? Sachin believes its their high "quality of service."

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: Flipkart

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
Didi Chuxing, formerly Didi Kuaidi

Started: 2012
Valuation: $15 billion
Founders: Wei Cheng (current CEO) and Dexter Chuanwei Lu
The result of a merger between two of the biggest transportation app companies in China, Didi Chuxing is Uber's biggest rival in the Asian market.

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: Shadow Production

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
Didi Chuxing: Big in China

Recently, the company beat out Uber to become the first car-hailing app to be licensed under the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission. Additionally, they also partnered with Uber's direct U.S. competitor, Lyft. Let the Taxi App Wars begin!

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: Unravel Travel TV

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
Snapchat

Started: 2012
Valuation: $16 billion
Founders: Evan Spiegel (current CEO) and Bobby Murphy
The hottest social-media platform du jour, Snapchat has a 25-year-old founder and current CEO in Evan Spiegel, who credits the startup's successto three key factors ...

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: Snapchat

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
Snapchat: All grown up

Internet everywhere, fast and easy media creation, and ephemerality. Granted, it hasn't always been a smooth road for the company (Spiegel's leaked emails in 2014 come to mind), but he and co-founder Bobby Murphy have come pretty far from their O.G. frathouse days.

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: Snapchat

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
Palantir

Started: 2004
Valuation: $20 billion
Founders: Alex Karp (current CEO), Nathan Gettings, Peter Thiel, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen
In five years, this big-data company has become the go-to for various intelligence outfits and government branches, and if they ever go public, CEO and co-founder Alex Karp stands to make billions. Palantir's talent at taking large amounts of data and turning it into easily-understood visualizations help agencies like the CIA, NSA and U.S. military connect certain dots. Plus ..

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: Palantir

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
Palantir: Badasses in business

... the rumors that they helped the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden don't exactly hurt their reputation either.

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: Palantir

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
Airbnb

Started: 2008
Valuation: $25.5 billion
Founders: Brian Chesky (Current CEO), Joe Gebbia, Nathan Blecharczyk
It's hard to believe now, but in 2009, Airbnb was one more struggling start-up with only $200 in weekly revenue. The turning point? When the three co-founders realized ...

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: Airbnb

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
Airbnb: All about the photo

... good camera + beautiful photos = booked listings. Now, the site is now for its #wanderlusty aesthetic, proving once again that everything is about presentation.

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: Airbnb

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
Xiaomi

Started: 2010
Valuation: $46 billion
Founders: Lei Jun (current CEO), Hong Feng, Zhou Guangping, Li Wanqiang, Huang Jiangji, Lin Bin, Liu De, Wang Chuan
Xiaomi's meteoric rise to become a leader in China's smartphone market can in large part be traced to its marketing. Their motto?

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: Xiaomi

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
Xiaomi: Friends with fans

"Be friends with our fans." Cultivating a culture of cool, with a highly engaged social following, the company relies solely on the Internet for sales. This flexibility allows Xiaomi to react quickly to market response, something attractive to both investors and the general public.

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: Xiaomi

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
Uber

Started: 2009
Valuation: $51 billion
Founders: Travis Kalanick (current CEO) and Garrett Camp
The apocryphal story of how Uber was born goes like this: On a snowy, cold night 2008, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp were unable to get a cab in Paris, so they vowed to create an app that, with one simple button, would hail one.

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: UBER

Caption by: Lisa Bernier
Uber: Thriving under pressure

Uber's success has in large part been due to Kalanick's savvy fundraising as well as the company's aggressive worldwide expansion to more than 300 cities and counting. No stranger to controversy, the startup seems to instead thrive off of scandals that would fell other companies.

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)
Photo by: Uber

Caption by: Lisa Bernier

Think unicorn companies are impressive? Take a look at these. That's a lot of zeros, folks.

Pinterest: The stats

Valuation: $11 billion

Founders: Ben Silbermann (current CEO), Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp

Pinterest was birthed out of a failed meta-catalogue on-the-go app, Tote, which Silbermann and Paul Sciarra initially launched with their company Cold Brew Labs. The app was a complete non-starter, but Silbermann noticed a curious behavior from the app's users ...

Published: November 20, 2015 -- 15:01 GMT (07:01 PST)

Caption by: Lisa Bernier

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