Even Unicorns Die Too

This post is about the meaning behind a t-shirt that I’m selling.

It’s easy to poke fun at the billion dollar unicorn club given all that’s been happening lately, but that’s not what this shirt is about. It’s meant to celebrate the grind, the struggles, the hard work, and remind us that the journey is never over.

Rewind to the summer of 2005 – Neil and I had just lost $1 million dollars. It was one of our first few business ventures together. We were crushed, especially because it had been our own hard-earned money.

Since then, we’ve had many setbacks and a few startups that have made millions of dollars. We’ve never had a unicorn startup of our own with a $1 billion or more valuation, but we’ve never needed it. “Keep going despite the setbacks” has always been our approach, and we’ve learned that this attitude is imperative to find opportunities and create sustainable businesses.

The mantra is don’t give up, focus on your own business and the people that use your products. You’re in the 99% of non-unicorn startups, and you should be proud of it.

Wear it proud! Buy the t-shirt.