What does FinTech investment success look like?

CBInsight's quote that "Venture Capital Funnel Shows Odds of Becoming a Unicorn Are Less than 1%" seems to imply everything else is failure. I strongly disagree.

They reinforced this impression by saying further down in the article "70% of companies end up either dead, or become self-sustaining (maybe great for the company but not so great for investors)." This is wrong. I think FinTech investment success means creating a self-sustaining company. Becoming self-sustaining is good for the founders, the early stage investors and the employees. It is also good for the broader economy if more companies survive and grow - just think of all the spin off professional service revenues that ensue. If this were to happen at scale it would also mean less capital was wasted and therefore less capital would need to be raised and invested. This would be disruptive to the traditional VC industry - since more could be achieved with less and hence the management fees would shrink. It is perhaps less good for the professional VC and therefore perhaps CBInsights whose bills they pay! How do we get there? We need to invest more in nurturing companies early on. This is something that the current eco-system does badly. Finding the first clients and developing the platform for growth are exceptionally hard - much more so than creating great code that works. It is time consuming and costly but critical. First time entrepreneurs need a roadmap and support - both tactical and strategic. Barriers to engagement also need to be reduced. I would love to see the emergence of an activist early stage investor. If you are one please contact me. We might be able to change the world together!