Unicorns are going extinct. In 2015 there were 124 new unicorns. In the last 3 years? Barely 17.
At the same time, trillions of dollars have been poured into AI, sold as the golden age of innovation. But hereโs the paradox: if AI is so transformative, why are unicorns disappearing?
In this episode of The Forge of Unicorns, Michele Brissoni sits down with Paul OโBrien โ Startup Economist, venture capitalist, and founder of MediaTech Ventures โ to expose why accelerators are failing, how capital allocation is broken, and why venture studios are the future of predictable, software-driven success.
Paul pulls no punches:
โMost accelerators havenโt delivered results. When they present themselves as engines of entrepreneurship, founders are more likely to fail. And thatโs whatโs been happening.โ
We explore how AI is sucking capital into a โblack hole,โ why cookie-cutter accelerators misfire, and how sector-specific venture studios โ with deep expertise and owner-operator DNA โ can finally tilt the odds of success.
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๐ What Youโll Learn
- Why 90% of startups still fail โ and how to move the needle from 10% to 20% success.
- The accelerator paradox: speeding up disruption by forcing it into rigid blueprints.
- How AI is reshaping capital allocation (and why thatโs dangerous).
- The role of behavioral engineering in startup survival.
- Why venture studios are the operating system of success in a software-driven world.
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๐ Chapters
01:30 โ Intro: Unicorn extinction & the AI paradox
07:30 โ Why accelerators fail founders
16:30 โ Digital transformation myths
24:30 โ Behavioral engineering in startups
35:30 โ Globalization, AI, and capital misallocation
49:30 โ The venture studio model explained
01:03:30 โ Governments, policy, and sector-specific studios
01:16:30 โ Closing thoughts: doubling startup success rates
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โ๏ธ Forge Your Edge
๐ Subscribe to the newsletter for deep dives: https://go.brix.consulting/ForgeOfUnicorns
๐ Learn more about the Unicornsโ Ecosystem our Venture Studio operative system for software organization, born on Ferrari Formula 1 and improved with over 2 decades of research:
https://unicorns-ecosystem.com/
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๐ท๏ธ
#Startups #VentureCapital #AI #VentureStudios #ForgeOfUnicorns #leadership #incubadoras #accelerator #ai #aiinvesting #investing #investment #podcast
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