What do Gates, Jobs, and Bezos have in common?
None of them succeeded because of technology alone. They won with smart strategy, impeccable timing, and unicorn skills – not just innovation.
That’s why MIT, the world’s leading technology university, isn’t dominating the billionaire rankings. Instead, Harvard and Stanford – schools known more for business and strategy than for breakthrough tech – are producing the most billionaires.
Here is the reality.
MIT has helped power tech revolutions, but entrepreneurs require more than just technology to develop unicorns – because technology alone rarely builds unicorns.
#1. Technology Needs a Driver
Among 87 billion-dollar entrepreneurs, only 1% succeeded primarily due to technology. Here’s why:
- Most technological developments are evolutionary, not revolutionary Existing companies can easily compete using their existing business influence and the new ventures are often acquired by existing corporations to add to their offerings.
- Even breakthrough tech doesn’t launch itself. It needs a strategic founder who knows how to turn an idea into a business by testing options in an emerging trend and dominating the trend with unicorn skills after finding the breakthrough strategy.
- It’s not about the tech—it’s about who drives it. That’s the role of the Unicorn-Entrepreneur – or in a few cases where VCs invested early, by a professional CEO.
Most technologies can be imitated and improved in emerging industries. And most evolutionary technology improvements can be imitated and improved in existing industries by stronger competitors – by doing slight tweaks to the patent or by buying the fledgling company to give VCs an exit.
2. Billion-Dollar Companies are Mainly Built on Strategy and Skills
Most Unicorn-Entrepreneurs did not succeed with innovative tech. They succeeded by identifying an emerging trend – and using strategy and business skills to lead it. In many cases, the billion-dollar entrepreneurs imitated the innovation and improved on the strategy. Look at these examples:
These founders had the skills to enter emerging industries started by new, revolutionary technologies. They excelled at evaluating the patterns, finding the best strategy that could dominate this emerging industry, and using finance-smart skills to takeoff without VC to stay in control – not by inventing a unicorn technology.
3. 94% of Billion-Dollar Entrepreneurs Built Without Relying on VC
In my research, 94% of billion-dollar entrepreneurs used strategy and skills to build their ventures before attracting VC on their own terms—or avoided it entirely. Some notable examples:
- Mark Zuckerberg delayed VC and kept control of Facebook.
- Jan Koum bootstrapped WhatsApp until it was acquired for $19B.
- Jeff Bezos controlled Amazon long before VC had any say.
- Jon Oringer of Shutterstock avoided VC.
They didn’t chase VC. They made VCs chase them. Or they avoided VC.
4. Unicorn-Entrepreneurs are More Important than Tech or VC.
Getting VC is often seen as a badge of success. But it comes with a cost. About 80% of VC-funded ventures fail, and up to about 80% of VC-backed founders are replaced with professional CEOs, according to Noam Wasserman in the Founders’ Dilemma. There are many reasons why Founder-CEOs may be better than a Professional-CEO at building unicorns – but that is for a future blog.
However, the net result is that the VCs and hired CEOs get rich in the few successes when the Founder-CEOs are fired. Among 22 billion-dollar entrepreneurs I studied, those who delayed or avoided VC and stayed in control kept 2x to 7x more of the wealth their ventures created.
Key Takeaways
- Technology is a tool—not the driver. Just like a Formula 1 car doesn’t win races without a great driver, tech rarely creates unicorns without skilled founders.
- Pitch competitions are misleading. Investors passed on Jobs (10 times) and Google (12 times). You can’t pitch your way to a unicorn. You build it.
- Unicorn skills beat raw innovation. The right strategy, leadership, timing, and execution matter more than the tech itself.
MY TAKE: It’s time to rethink how we teach entrepreneurship. Instead of focusing only on innovation and VC, we should teach founders how to:
- Spot and ride emerging trends
- Develop Unicorn strategies
- Master the skills to lead from startup to domination
- Stay in control to build wealth and impact.
That’s how 94% of billion-dollar entrepreneurs did it. Harvard and Stanford emphasize strategy and leadership. MIT seems to emphasize technology. That’s why Harvard and Stanford lead in billionaires—and why it’s time for a new model of education. It’s time we built better unicorn entrepreneurs, not just unicorn innovations.
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