Today's Unicorn Startups have incurred unprecedented losses, far higher than in previous generations. In this presentation, independent consultant Jeffrey Funk documents these losses and the associated falling share prices and small market capitalizations. He speculates on the reasons for these problems, such as a lack of breakthrough technologies. He reviews the small markets for new technologies and the fact that previous decades gave us bigger markets for new technologies such as personal computers (end of 1980s), e-commerce, enterprise software, mobile phones (end of 1990s), smart phones, cloud computing, and Internet advertising (end of 2000s).

Finally, he speculates on the reasons why these breakthrough technologies have not yet emerged. These reasons include changes in the way basic and applied research is carried out. In turn, these considerations have important implications for the future of innovation.