Who coined the startup term “unicorn” in a 2013 TechCrunch essay?

Aileen Lee coined the startup term “unicorn” in a 2013 TechCrunch essay.

Lee used the word in “Welcome To The Unicorn Club,” published on November 2, 2013. She used it to describe a privately held startup valued at more than $1 billion, emphasizing how rare such companies were at the time.

The term became standard in venture capital and business journalism. It is now used much more frequently because the number of billion-dollar private companies has grown substantially. A startup valued above $10 billion is commonly called a decacorn, while one valued above $100 billion is sometimes called a hectocorn.

A common mix-up is attributing the term to venture capitalist Paul Graham or to the companies that popularized the category. Lee, an investor and founder of Cowboy Ventures, introduced the label in her widely cited essay.