[SIGCIS-Members] Bloomberg: "Bird Races to Become the First Scooter Unicorn"

[Thomas Haigh]

As always, the quest for historical “firsts” is fraught with controversy and depends primarily on choosing definitions. Exhaustive research shows that Bird has already lost out in the race to create the “first scooter unicorn” to an incumbent scooter firm, Razor. Its Razor Jr. Kuties Unicorn Scooter has been around since at last 2014, though Amazon reviews are mixed – one purchaser complained that the head (“the whole reason I bought this scooter”) was missing. Others suggest it has “flimsy plastic and doesn’t handle well.” Value investors may feel that despite these flaws it is still an attractive alternative, at around $40 vs. the $150 million that Bird is looking for in its current round. 

 



 

https://www.amazon.com/Razor-Jr-Kuties-Unicorn-Scooter/dp/B00IF13VDY 

 

Tom

 

 

From: Julie Cohn [mailto:cohnconnor at gmail.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2018 5:25 PM
To: Thomas Haigh <thomas.haigh at gmail.com>
Cc: members at sigcis.org
Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Bloomberg: "Bird Races to Become the First Scooter Unicorn"

 

Tom - I see perfect analogies in your bird-scooter-unicorn images for some aspect of technology history that you will discuss with erudition - and hopefully cartoon illustrations!

 

On May 29, 2018, at 5:15 PM, Thomas Haigh <thomas.haigh at gmail.com <mailto:thomas.haigh at gmail.com> > wrote:

 

Picking back up on a SIGCIS thread from a few years ago, on the history of “unicorn” as an odd term to apply to a tech company, I just saw this amazing headline "Bird Races to Become the First Scooter Unicorn" on  <http://bloomberg.com/> Bloomberg.com.  <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-29/sequoia-said-to-value-scooter-company-bird-at-1-billion> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-29/sequoia-said-to-value-scooter-company-bird-at-1-billion I am going to look for a way to work it into something I write, and perhaps in a few years it will earn its proper place as a distillation of our historic moment not unlike “Peace in Our Time” or “Dewey Defeats Truman.” 

 

Beyond the whole idea of rival billion-dollar scooter companies, I now can’t stop thinking about a bird chasing a unicorn riding a scooter. Or maybe the bird is on a scooter, trying to catch up to a galloping unicorn as it approaches a checkered flag. Or the bird might be hovering over a cauldron, trying to turn itself into a scootering unicorn via a hurriedly cast spell of transformation. There are so many possible readings.

 

I know this is somewhat tangential to list business, but I just couldn’t resist sharing it given the growing sense of doom hovering over most other news stories, including the global financial turmoil I visited Bloomberg to check on.

 

Best wishes,

 

Tom

 

 

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