How close is the first solopreneur unicorn?

"Just a handful of years ago, the idea of one person creating a company worth over a billion dollars seemed like a pipe dream. Thanks to rapid advancements in AI, the possibility of a "solopreneur unicorn" is less a matter of "if" and more a matter of "when." Earlier this year, OpenAI founder Sam Altman told Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian that his group chat of tech CEO friends have a betting pool for when the world will see a one-person billion-dollar company. Ten months later, some experts suggest that the company could be founded in 2026, if it hasn't been already, due to rapid advancements in agentic AI."

""The ability of a person to scale themselves, to automate their lives, has just become amazing," says Kyle Jensen, the director of entrepreneurship programs, associate dean and professor in the practice of entrepreneurship at Yale School of Management. "If you're very skilled with those tools, you can have the productivity of 10 people." Jensen adds that solopreneurship has historically been more akin to mom-and-pop-style small business ownership, with practitioners selling goods and services through the internet. While many solopreneurs still fit that mold, he sees another kind of solopreneur emerging; one that better resembles a high-growth startup, using new tools in lieu of hiring."

""There have been a handful of companies that had private market valuations in excess of a billion dollars with very small teams-WhatsApp is a very famous example," he says. "What is the probability that you'll see a solo-entrepreneur who's like, some engineer from Google, who decided she doesn't want to do that anymore-and she's going to do her AI startup from home, and become the first unicorn? I think it's a pretty decent probability.""

Advances in AI and agentic systems are making solo founders far more productive and capable of building high-value companies. Tech leaders are actively betting on the timing of a one-person billion-dollar company, with some experts projecting it could emerge by 2026. Skilled users of AI tools can achieve the productivity equivalent of multiple employees, shifting solopreneurship from traditional mom-and-pop models toward high-growth startup dynamics. Historical examples show very small teams achieving billion-dollar valuations, and the probability of a solo founder creating the first one-person unicorn is considered reasonably high by some observers.

Read at Fast Company