Comment: The four challenges businesses must face to reach a billion-dollar valuation

The past few years have been tough for many businesses ­­­– from challenges with digital transformation to the economic crisis and rising energy prices.

Yet, despite these challenges, some businesses have been able to achieve long-term, sustainable growth - some even reaching a billion-dollar valuation and earning the title of ‘unicorn’. In 2021 alone, 25 companies – such as Starling Bank and Octopus Energy – joined the unicorn club, making it a period with the largest influx of new unicorns to date. Having a plan for long-term growth is an important part of reaching these impressive heights, so it’s key to implement a strategy to get there.  

88 per cent of leaders harbour a desire to become a unicorn company according to our research, which surveyed over 500 leaders of mid-sized British businesses - and this isn’t just a pipe dream. Of those, 88 per cent desire to be a unicorn, and 94 per cent believe it is actually an achievable milestone that their business will reach. 

However, against the backdrop of economic uncertainty, geopolitical conflict, and the impact of the pandemic, reaching this billion-dollar target won’t be simple. But armed with the right technology and strategy, ambitious companies might well be on their way to reaching their revenue goals.

In this piece, I cover four key areas our research has identified as holding businesses back and highlight the importance of having the right technology and systems across the business to ensure continuous growth.

Barriers to growth

1. Disconnect with customers: Less than half (47 per cent) of business leaders in HubSpot’s report claim to fully understand their customer base – revealing there’s still a lot of room left for organisations to know their customers better.

Tackling this barrier to enhance business growth means having the right platform in place to provide rich data that enables more meaningful relationships between customers and employees.

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Companies need to dedicate time to aligning the use of this data with customer conversations so they can implement a strategy that effectively acknowledges feedback.

2. Reaching international prospects: It’s perhaps unsurprising that to reach coveted unicorn status, extending beyond one’s current market is often necessary. However, the report found that while 94 per cent of businesses are eager to sell more products and services globally, only 60 per cent have a clear strategy in place to do so. There is a clear misalignment between those business leaders who plan to achieve unicorn status and those who actually have a clear strategy to reach this goal.
3. Talent limitations: Employees are the backbone of any successful organisation. As such, businesses pursuing extraordinary growth must also hire exceptional talent to reach this target. Unfortunately, only 32 per cent of leaders wanting to reach unicorn status believe the existing talent in the workforce has the right skills.

Ensuring your organisation’s mission and values are clearly communicated, as well as having a company culture that delivers on what employees want, like hybrid working support, will help appeal to new talent while retaining brilliant people.

4. Location bias: In today’s business market, where you do business is still as important as what you do, with 80 per cent of business leaders believing their company’s location limits their ability to reach their billion-dollar goal.

But this doesn’t have to be the case. With today’s technological developments providing numerous digital marketing avenues – plus, making customer interactions as seamless as possible – businesses can reach customers no matter where they’re based and can continue to grow.

The path to unicorn status

While we remain in uncertain times, economic challenges will come and go. Business leaders must look for opportunities that will help to achieve the goals they want for their enterprises. These can be:

1. Developing a clear strategy and ensuring every employee understands the company’s mission
2. Using technology adapted to your business’ unique needs
3. Having the right systems (such as CRM platforms) and partners in place to help truly understand customers will propel the business forward. This, coupled with insights that can unlock new customer audiences and markets will help to achieve goals.

To achieve these goals and retain clients, businesses need to prioritise connecting with their customers using the right technology as this is one of the most invaluable factors to long-term, sustainable growth.

With the above steps, businesses with ‘unicorn status’ ambitions will have the potential to stand out from the crowd, get ahead of competitors and be well on the way to achieving their dreams. 

Seona Tully, regional sales director, HubSpot