The Psychology Of Unicorn Founders: What Do Successful Startup Founders Have In Common?

A study by Ada Ventures and behavioural science firm Synaptiq has mapped the shared psychology of 171 unicorn founders from the UK, Europe, and North America. The research used psycholinguistic analysis to decode the speech and communication styles of founders who have built companies valued at $1 billion or more.

Of the 159 traits measured, 141 had the same ones with founders, regardless of gender, race or background. These shared qualities show clearly what it takes to lead a billion-dollar business.

For starters, founders of successful startups tend to score low on neuroticism, so they are able to stay ‘calm and collected’ under stress. They also show strong analytical thinking, allowing them to break down complex problems logically.

Another interesting thing these founders seem to share is their frequent use of “we” language, which shows inclusive leadership and team orientation. These habits imply that unicorn founders inspire loyalty and cooperation rather than using a top-down approach to control.

The research found high levels of positive emotion words in their speech, revealing a sense of satisfaction and warmth in how they communicate. In other words, the typical unicorn founder is analytical, resilient and emotionally stable, with strong team awareness.

Are Diverse Founders Psychologically Different?

While the similarities across founders were overwhelming, Ada Ventures’ Inclusive Alpha report found 18 traits that showed some difference between diverse and non-diverse founders. These were minor but revealing.

Diverse founders used more “communion” language – words that give off empathy, cooperation and community thinking. These traits are often linked to strong workplace cultures and customer loyalty. They were also less tentative in speech, which means higher confidence when presenting ideas or making decisions.

Another thing they found was a stronger “present focus.” Diverse founders were more likely to discuss current achievements and immediate traction rather than distant ambitions. This can make them appear more grounded and charismatic but might cause investors to think they lack long-term vision. Non-diverse founders, meanwhile, scored slightly higher on imagination, leaning toward abstract and conceptual thinking.

According to the study, these differences should not be viewed as strengths or weaknesses, but as communication styles shaped by life experience. They do not affect capability.

How Can Psychology Explain The Funding Gap?

Ada Ventures’ overall report mentioned that bias and pattern-matching continue to dominate venture capital. Investors often fund people who resemble previous success stories, which has historically favoured certain groups who typically came from elite schools.

This creates a cycle where diverse entrepreneurs receive less capital, even though research shows their businesses perform equally well or better.

Check Warner, Co-founding partner at Ada Ventures, comments: “For years, investors have relied on instinct and archetype to assess potential. Factors like where a founder went to school or even who they know have been a gateway for bias. This study replaces assumption with evidence, bringing us much closer to understanding the traits that fuel unicorn-level success through something as simple as analysing their speech. These traits are consistent, measurable, and can be found in every corner of the ecosystem.”

How Are Investors Using This Research?

Ada Ventures’ Inclusive Alpha framework uses the findings to build fairer, data-driven assessments of founders. Through its partnership with Synaptiq, Ada has developed psycholinguistic tools to help investors evaluate personality traits without bias.

The firm’s investment process replaces gut instinct with structured scorecards that assess qualities like grit, commerciality, humility and mission orientation. These are traits that the study found consistently across all successful founders.

The goal, according to Ada Ventures, is to give every founder an equal chance to demonstrate ability. As Check Warner and Matt Penneycard from Ada Ventures wrote, the real risk is “clinging to a narrow definition of what a winning founder looks like.”

In practice, the firm has backed companies like Gizmo, ToothFairy, and Medly AI—each founded by underrepresented entrepreneurs who have achieved strong commercial growth. Eighty-eight percent of founders in Ada’s second fund have at least one underrepresented characteristic.

What Does This Mean For The Next Generation Of Startups?

The psychological evidence shows that billion-dollar founders are cut from similar cloth regardless of identity. Low anxiety, high logic, and inclusive communication remain the strongest indicators of success.

The small differences in style (like diverse founders’ empathy or non-diverse founders’ abstract thinking) simply show different ways of expressing leadership. Investors who interpret those styles correctly could unlock a much bigger pool of high-performing talent.

Ada Ventures’ research views diversity as a competitive advantage instead of as a quota exercise. These findings show that unicorn-level success depends less on background and more on a mindset built on resilience, teamwork and good communication.

With startups, where uncertainty rules, these psychological traits seem to be the closest thing to a winning formula.

Warner continued: “If the traits linked to unicorn success are consistent across background, then the funding gap isn’t about potential. It’s about perception. At Ada, we’ve long believed that investing through an inclusive lens drives alpha returns. Now we have the data to help the whole sector move away from defaults and start recognising talent wherever it shows up.

“We’re pulling these findings into our investment approach, using them to inform how we interpret psychometric data and refine the traits we’re looking for. To reduce bias, that means recalibrating for where certain traits, like low tentativeness, can signal strength in some founders. The findings will also shape how we support founders post-investment, whether that’s pitch coaching or storytelling training. The traits are there. The talent is there. Now the tools are too.”