Technically, any startup that was founded without outside investment can be considered a bootstrapped startup. However, in the entrepreneurial community, the term "unicorn startup" is used to describe a startup that has achieved a billion-dollar valuation.
So far, there are only a handful of companies that have met this criteria, and most of them were venture-backed from the beginning. A few notable examples include:
- Airbnb
- Uber
- Whatsapp
- Slack
