What Is a Unicorn Startup, as GeekWire Uses the Term?

A company valued at $1 billion or more. On GeekWire, John Cook and Todd Bishop use that line as the threshold for a giant startup that might later go public. The news that prompts the definition is Seattle's newest one: Outreach, a sales and marketing automation company run by Manny Medina. A $114 million round had just put Outreach at a $1.1 billion valuation. The episode then traces connections among other huge private and newly public companies, including Uber, Lyft, and Convoy. Unicorn, in their telling, is a valuation milestone, not a promise that the company will last.