Beyond unicorns: the geopolitics of the entrepreneurial zoo

The techno-industrial race is expanding, with start-ups now forming a consolidated part of the discourse and battlefield. Alongside unicorns, gazelles and even cockroaches have become markers of national strength. As start-ups and venture capital activity enter the mainstream context, we must consider the concept of the entrepreneurial zoo if we are to understand why its creatures are now in the geopolitical crosshairs.

The language of unicorns

It’s first worth contextualising the language of the zoo, especially the unicorn, in both the US and China. The term “unicorn” in the context of tech start-ups was coined by US investor Aileen Lee in a 2013 TechCrunch article to refer to a privately held start-up company valued at over $1 billion. Lee chose this mythical creature to symbolise the rarity and nearly magical nature of venture-backed start-ups achieving such a valuation.

While the start-up-specific meaning of the term emanates from the US, the contemporary understanding in Silicon Valley fits with the meaning of the term in Chinese mythology. In Chinese, the hybrid animal known as the unicorn “qilin” has the head and scaly skin of a loong (dragon) and the body and legs of a deer. The all-powerful and self-confident loong is the top animal in the Chinese zodiac, while the deer is an animal that is constantly listening for threats in its environment. The hybridisation of a loong with a deer in a qilin is the epitome of one of the key maxims of today’s successful entrepreneur: “Act like you’re right but listen like you’re wrong”, that is “project confidence (like a loong) but keep your ears open to feedback (like a deer)”

Unicorns: race for supremacy

At the political level, there is explicit competition around Chinese and American unicorn populations: who produces the largest number of unicorns in a given period is a source of pride or consternation. According to Crunchbase, in 2024, the US regained its dominant position as the world’s top unicorn producer as 64 US start-ups achieved unicorn status, while China only saw 16 new unicorns. Xi Jinping expressed worries about drops in the number of China’s unicorns as it could connote a weakening of its techno-industrial position vis-à-vis the US. Trump hasn’t (yet) flagged unicorn populations as a source of pride or concern.

Beyond heads of state using the term, the qilin came into nationalistic crosshairs in China in 2023 when Huawei named its cutting-edge chip the “Kirin”, which is the Japanese spelling for the mythical beast, rather than the “Qilin”. The move sparked controversy: netizens asked why would a symbol of China’s growing innovation prowess in this critical technology be adorned with the Japanese spelling of the mythical animal?

The production of unicorns

Tensions in US-China relations have already led to the bifurcation of venture capital funds that were investing across both ecosystems. Famously, Sequoia split its China operations from its US and European one in 2023.

Many business schools in China and the US offer entrepreneurship and innovation courses. Ostensibly, the aim is to endow students with the skills and connections to go on to build unicorns. There’s often an international component, especially international study trips, to the US, China or emerging tech hubs. In this sense, there’s a more collaborative spirit at the university level.

In fact, there’s some suggestion that “producing unicorns” is a team sport across partner universities in the US and China. Notably, the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) in Beijing and Stanford University in Silicon Valley together run the “Global Unicorn” executive education programme. The short course focuses on AI and scaling up, with the ambition of international founders (especially from China) spending time in Silicon Valley to “supercharge” their business with innovative strategies.

Agile and hard-to-kill animals

In addition to unicorns, each side has its own language to describe the resilience of its entrepreneurs. In the US, the term “gazelle” refers to “a business that has achieved a minimum of 20 per cent sales growth year on year, starting from a base-year revenue of at least $100,000”. The term and definition were coined in a 1987 book by Economist David Birch. More commonly, gazelles are said to symbolise agility, speed and the potential for sustained success.

In the Chinese zodiac, the goat is a gazelle-like animal that means both sheep and goat, though regional differences influence this interpretation. Northern China is the stronghold of state-owned enterprises, which are traditionally seen as analogous to obedient and slow just like the northern sheep. Meanwhile, Southern China is the country’s cauldron of entrepreneurial activity as start-ups are associated with the agility of goats.

There are also animal metaphors to describe a start-up’s perseverance, not growth. The term “cockroach” had its popularity in the US during the Covid-19 pandemic when founders and investors sought and celebrated survival. Much like the insect, entrepreneurial cockroaches persist through economic downturns, regulatory challenges and market volatility. Founders should pivot and reduce burn rates to endure. Unsurprisingly, the resilience metaphor in China is also about an insect: “The centipede does not stop wriggling even when dead.”

Another animal has been lauded for its heartiness in both China and the US: the camel, which can last a long time without water. In start-up speak, this means a venture that can go a long time without fundraising. In an analogous way, the Chinese say that “a lean camel that dies of starvation is still bigger than a horse”, that is if a company has intrinsic advantages, it will outdo its inferior competitors.

The future of the entrepreneurial zoo

Animal metaphors are more than linguistic quirks to describe techno-industrial capabilities. The creatures chosen and how they’re counted reveal a new lens for how each nation sees its ideal entrepreneurs: fast and enduring, agile and alert, and resilient. It can reflect sources of national techno-pride: of hard-to-beat unicorns and hard-to-kill insects. It’s also an arena for collaboration across jurisdictions, with universities, among others, coming together to help produce unicorns. The unicorn has long been a problematic key performance indicator for entrepreneurial ecosystems; now is the time to retire this (vanity) metric and emphasise the agility and resilience of the other animals in the global entrepreneurial zoo.

This article has been adapted from one that originally appeared in LSE Business Review

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