Bold & not very beautiful: 13 unicorn company websites before they became billion dollar companies

We took a look at the CB Insights’ real-time unicorn company list and the websites of 13 of the most valuable private companies before they became the companies that everyone is talking about today.

As you look at them, think about whether you’d have predicted they’d be worth $1, $10 or $50 billion today.

Original unicorn website writeup.

Square as of December 2010 (current valuation — $6 billion)

The payments startup that has recently filed private IPO docs has gotten into a lot more businesses than its Square card reader since this shot of the website as it looked at the end of 2010.

Spotify in November 2010 (current valuation — $8.5 billion)

The music company that is now grappling with Apple has more than doubled its music library since this early version of the website.

WeWork in November 2011 (current valuation — $10 billion)

It’s probably not possible to get a $275/month desk at the co-working space juggernaut today.

SpaceX in July 2007 (current valuation — $12 billion)

Elon Musk’s commercial space flight company used this sweet space & cloud theme back in the day.

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Pinterest in June 2012 (current valuation — $11 billion)

Minus a nicer logo, Pinterest looks pretty familiar, eh?

Snapchat in May 2012 (current valuation $16 billion)

Decried and dismissed initially as a sexting app, now investors are getting common stock in financings at decacorn valuations. Well played Evan Spiegel.

Airbnb in July 2010 (current valuation $25.5 billion)

So you’re saying this website below doesn’t look like it’s worth $25 billion? Actually the data suggests Airbnb’s valuation is pretty fair.

Cloudera in February 2009 (current valuation — $4.1 billion)

From training and support for Hadoop to a $900 million financing round.

Theranos in December 2005 (current valuation — $9 billion)

Thought unicorns were only tech companies? Nope. Developing laboratory diagnostic tests using blood is hard work.

Palantir in March 2011 (current valuation — $20 billion)

Even in 2011, a look at Palantir’s website, revealed zero about what the company actually does.

Dropbox in August 2010 (current valuation — $10 billion)

Of the unicorns profiled, cloud storage company Dropbox had the most spartan landing page.

Flipkart in March 2008 (current valuation — $15 billion)

The Indian eCommerce company, touted as India’s Amazon, followed Bezos and company by starting with books as well.

Uber in January 2011 (current valuation $41 billion)

Check out Chris Sacca channeling the Dos Equis man in the most interesting testimonial in the world.

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All images from the awesome Wayback Machine. If you want to see the world’s worst startup logo…