The CFO of a Super Unicorn Reveals $ecrets

Investing in CQ (cultural intelligence), increases ROI

Raphael (Raff) Louis Vitón
5 min readAug 31, 2020
RAFFVITON.COM

Only a tiny fraction of startups become unicorns let alone super unicorns. Unicorns are privately held startup companies valued at over $1B; decacorns over $10 billion; hectocorns make it over $100 billion. According to wikipedia, the term “unicorn” was coined in 2013 by venture capitalist Aileen Lee, choosing the mythical animal to represent the statistical rarity of such successful ventures.

In high-growth, human capital-driven businesses (e.g., knowledge-driven, service-oriented) like the super unicorn we interviewed below… the cultural intelligence (CQ) of the senior leadership team is often vastly superior compared to the average company. CQ is the determining factor in whether or not the value/magic of most unicorns is sustained or lost as it scales. Similarly, low CQ is the primary reason given, in 100% of the M&A deals where value is lost, according to both corporate and PE leaders.

CQ IS 100% DETERMINISTIC, 100% OF THE TIME

100% means that cultural intelligence and organizational culture competency is deterministic. Leadership teams win more often, when they treat culture like the technical competency that it is. Leadership teams lose (100% of the time) when they think…

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Raphael (Raff) Louis Vitón

We're always building something - let's focus on building what matters most. First things first, Build U. #iamaninnovationproject