What a Unicorn Knows is your company’s best guide to becoming a well-oiled, high-velocity machine for growth on its way to billion-dollar valuation.



Why do some young companies become unicorns, while others don’t? It’s easy for scale-ups, giddy from early startup success, to get ahead of themselves and stumble. It’s even easier to be slowed down by the many forces of resistance working against them: drag, inertia, friction, and waste. Offered as a playbook for exponential growth, What a Unicorn Knows offers a field-tested approach to delivering superior customer value and reaching unicorn status by removing the potential inhibitors to organisational scale and speed. Drawing on a mastery of lean-based methods for achieving maximum effect with minimum means, private equity operators Matthew E. May and Pablo Dominguez provide readers with a powerful framework of universally applicable principles that enable any company to effectively accelerate its ability to scale and grow. Called The Unicorn Model™ and built on five foundational principles, the authors deliver a compelling narrative of stories and experiences in an easy-to-remember mnemonic, S.C.A.L.E.: Strategic speed, Constant experimentation, Accelerated value, Lean process, Esprit de corps Drawn from the authors’ successful track record in using S.C.A.L.E. with a wide variety of unicorn-level companies, What a Unicorn Knows offers a necessary guide for rapid but lasting growth. As more companies than ever vie for unicorn status, competitive edge will depend on learning from the best. The Unicorn Model™ promises to keep your company speeding toward lasting marketplace success.