What did Billion Dollar Companies Look Like at the Series A? — Personal Growth @ Medium.

There is a lot of coverage of the companies that have reached valuations of over a billion dollars. Many of these companies were not always fast growing businesses.

At Shasta Ventures, we focus on investing at the early stage, so we studied 32 high value consumer companies to see what they looked like around their Series A. Our research included 25 billion dollar companies (as measured by $1 billion+ last round valuations, acquisition prices, or public market caps) and 7 high-flying private companies with billion dollar potential. Nikhil and I looked at startups across a range of sizes and sectors, considering their funding history, user traction, growth, monetization, network effects, regulatory hurdles, market dynamics, and team characteristics.

We found a number of key traits in common, and most of them may surprise you. Let’s take a look.

Read more – big insights include: Easy-to-Dismiss Ideas, Competitive Markets, Reinventing Existing Consumer Behavior, Untested Founders, Zero Monetization.