Media release

Want to grow a $1B company? You need to do the “unicorn math”

Communitech introduces specialized programming to help startups become unicorns

KITCHENER, ONT., March 31, 2021 —Startup and scale-up organizations interested in learning the how-to behind the economics of the world’s most successful companies - the 1%, the $1B, the unicorns - can now do so thanks to Communitech’s “Unicorn Math” program. This series of workshops and individual coaching sessions offered through Communitech’s national training and development centre, Communitech Academy, have been designed for startup CEOs and founders to gain better understanding of the financial velocity of their own journeys. Companies will be able to develop their firm’s capacity to approach five key growth factors: market size, competitive differentiation, product market fit, marketing efficiency and capitalization.

“When a tech startup is ready to begin scaling, it’s vital that they are armed with the right insights to ensure they are aiming to meet the right targets on the path to becoming a unicorn,” said Iain Klugman, CEO at Communitech. “The Unicorn Math program was designed to help Canadian CEOs and tech founders take the guesswork out of scaling and better understand what-where-when-how-why to focus in order to score big.”

Tech organizations participating in this program will gain valuable perspective into their own “scale-up score” - the score that serial entrepreneur and innovation economist, Charles Plant, uses to determine which Canadian startups are best poised to become world-class firms - also known as “narwhals” - on his yearly release of the “Narwhal List”. Communitech members held several spots on this year’s rankings of the Narwhal List - with four out of the top 10 companies as well as 20% of the top 40 including member companies such as Applyboard, PointClickCare, Geotab, MedChart, SOTI, D2L, Ada, Thinkific and Nicoya. 

“It takes many years to create a successful company and the growth captured on this year’s Narwhal List is a direct result of a long-term pattern of growth,” said Charles Plant. “Through the Unicorn Math program, Communitech members will get an opportunity to deep-dive into their potential financial velocity and begin to aim for the right scale-up score on their journey to a $1B valuation.”

Communitech member companies interested in participating in the “Unicorn Math” program can reach out to their advisors or customer success managers to learn more about the course. In addition, Communitech is offering “Unicorn Math” to organizations that support or have a portfolio of high-growth startups including incubators, accelerators and VCs. Those organizations can reach out to Karen Klink, Director of Partnerships at Communitech at karen.klink@communitech.ca

To view the 2021 Narwhal List, please visit: Narwhalproject.org/narwhal-list.

To learn more about Communitech’s Unicorn Math program, please visit: Communitech.ca/scale-up-score.

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For media inquiries, please contact:

Kevin Crowley
Director, Communications and Editorial
kevin.crowley@communitech.ca

About Communitech

Communitech was founded in 1997 by a group of entrepreneurs committed to making Waterloo Region a global innovation leader. At the time it was just a wild idea, but somehow this community managed to pull it off. Today, Communitech is a public-private innovation hub that supports a community of more than 1,600 companies — from startups to scale-ups to large global players.

Communitech helps tech companies start, grow and succeed in three distinct ways.

  • Communitech is a place – the centre of gravity for entrepreneurs and innovators. A clubhouse for building cool tech and great companies.
  • Communitech delivers programs – helping companies at all stages with access to capital, customers and talent. We are here to help them grow and innovate.
  • Communitech partners in building a world-leading ecosystem – making sure we have all the ingredients (and the brand) to help companies go from a small startup to a global giant.