In finance, a unicorn is defined as a privately held startup valued at over $1 billion, a term coined by investor Aileen Lee to describe its rarity. But I would like to expand that definition so that “unicorn status” measures not only market valuation but also the scale and durability of a company’s contribution to solving global challenges.
Under this broader lens, the most coveted status is not just a high monetary valuation but reaching hundreds of millions or even a billion people with solutions that materially reduce emissions, expand access to essential services, or build resilience for vulnerable communities. This is the heart of the idea of purpose-driven unicorns, enterprises whose social and environmental outcomes are as central to their story as their cap table.
A concrete example of what this next generation of unicorn can look like is Fervo Energy, a private geothermal company led by Tim Latimer, a Stanford Business School classmate of mine. By repurposing drilling and sensing technologies developed by the oil and gas industry, the company is turning heat beneath our feet into 24/7 carbon‑free power—exactly the kind of reliable clean energy needed to back up wind, solar and the explosive growth of data centers. They repurpose by adapting conventional oil and gas drilling rigs, downhole sensors, and well‑completion techniques to precisely target hot rock formations, circulate fluid through these deep wells, and bring geothermal heat to the surface to drive turbines for electricity. This ‘backup’ function works because geothermal plants provide steady, dispatchable electricity that grid operators can ramp up or rely on when variable resources such as wind and solar are producing less, ensuring continuous power for critical users such as data centers.
Fervo has already built a 3.5‑megawatt enhanced geothermal plant in Nevada that provides round‑the‑clock clean electricity to help power Google’s data centers, and it is now expanding to other sites and more ambitious projects in Utah that could eventually power millions of homes. Having raised more than $600 million and surpassed a $1 billion dollar valuation, the company has earned traditional unicorn status while staying squarely focused on decarbonization.
Other examples include Esusu, Devoted Health and Virta, all of which show what can happen when people choose to aim their careers and capital at deep decarbonization, resilient infrastructure, health equity, financial inclusion and inclusive education. All of these companies have reached unicorn status while deeply integrating impact into their DNA. They have demonstrated that this approach can deliver measurable financial gains and tangible advantages—including significant revenue growth, improved client trust, and rapid user growth. Their focus on mission-driven innovation has not only supported social change but also resulted in stronger financial resilience and market leadership.
The same analytical skills, networks, and risk appetite that once flowed almost automatically into ad‑tech or consumer apps can be channeled into advanced geothermal, grid flexibility, or AI for public health, if we change the stories we celebrate and the incentives we design. For example, Patagonia began as a traditional outdoor apparel company and then, in the 1980s and 1990s, it began to embed a deep environmental mission into its core business that came to include donating 1% of sales to environmental nonprofits, investing heavily in recycled and organic materials, and launching repair and resale programs. Patagonia doesn’t publicly share its financial data, but according to a case studythis year by Causeartist, Patagonia’s annual revenue grew from around $200 million in the early 2000s to about $600 million by 2012 and approximately $1 – 1.5 billion by the early 2020s, while remaining consistently profitable and still giving away 1% of sales each year—illustrating that strengthening its impact commitments went hand-in-hand with significant revenue growth.
Despite the current trends in the direction of winner-takes-all capitalism, many leaders and entrepreneurs have a quiet but growing hunger to align success with significance, and to ensure that long hours and brilliant ideas add up to more than just personal wealth. In recent years, this desire has shown up in the rapid growth of impact investing, the spread ofB Corps and other purpose-driven business models, and surveys in which rising generations say they want their careers and capital to contribute to something larger than themselves.
An expanded notion of unicorn status offers a language—and a set of role models—for that yearning, demonstrating that it is possible to build world‑class companies that, in addition to revenue and return, result meaningfully in carbon avoided, lives improved, or resilience added.
Looking across emerging unicorns that integrate impact into their DNA, several traits repeatedly show up:
- They tackle systems‑level problems such as clean power, resilient food pathways, or accessible healthcare rather than treating them as secondary considerations.
- They repurpose existing technologies or capabilities from legacy industries, speeding deployment and lowering cost.
- In truly values‑aligned firms, carbon reductions, health outcomes, and learning gains sit on the same decision‑making dashboard as revenue and margin, with executives tracking indicators such as tons of CO₂e avoided, improvements in patient quality‑of‑life scores, or gains in student proficiency as non‑negotiable performance metrics rather than feel‑good afterthoughts.
Very few people will launch or finance the next transformative clean-energy venture, but many can make career moves, investment choices, and boardroom decisions that nudge capital and talent toward solutions that cut emissions, restore ecosystems, and expand economic opportunity.
That might mean looking for jobs at firms whose core business model advances climate solutions, health, or inclusion. It might mean asking, in hiring and career choices, whether your daily work moves critical systems closer to or farther from resilience and justice. Or asking, in investment committees and board meetings, how much of your portfolio is backing potential impact unicorns that address climate and social thresholds. It might mean, in media and academic settings, rethinking whose stories you elevate—and whether they reflect the future you hope your audience, students, alumni, and children will inherit.
If enough people start asking those questions, the next generation of unicorns will not just be richer—they will be the companies that helped build a better future.