According to The Narwhal Project, following are the typical metrics needed to hit escape velocity and create a unicorn ($1B valuation):

  1. Revenue Requirements: Companies typically need around $125 million revenue to reach unicorn status.
  2. Market Size: Targeting a market of about $25 billion within 10 years is crucial.
  3. Competitive Differentiation: Achieving a 50% differential in a customer metric.
  4. Product/Market Fit: Aiming for a Net Promoter Score over 30.
  5. Marketing Efficiency: Keeping marketing and sales costs below 33% of the next year’s revenue.
  6. Capitalization: Generally, $2 of capital is needed for every $1 of revenue.
  7. Growth Rate: An average annual compound growth rate of 75% over 10 years is ideal.