Elman Shazhaev, founder and CEO of Dizzaract, believes that valuing startups at a billion dollars still grants them «unicorn» status on paper, yet the pace of wealth creation raises questions about these companies' ability to retain customers once the initial hype fades. Rather than settling for paper valuations, the author suggests adopting a higher standard based on actual billion-dollar revenues backed by customers who continue to pay.
The Real Revenue and Profit Margins Test
Rapid revenues deserve attention when founders successfully convert initial trials into paid contracts, but annual income rates built on discounts, trial budgets, or large computing subsidies do not provide sufficient guarantees for customer retention. With the continuous decline in the cost of achieving consistent AI performance, startups limited to reselling access models face fierce price competition.
In contrast, companies built around embedded workflows undergo a different test; software integrated into verification processes, records, and daily decisions is harder to remove than the base model itself. Here lies the importance of verifying whether customers are renewing their contracts at full prices and whether profit margins remain healthy after deducting inference and operational costs.
The Importance of Capital Structure Diversity and Cross-Border Reach
Once customers who continue to buy are identified, the author advises founders to raise funding across different geographic regions, where local investors can help facilitate market entry. Although national borders do not slow down tech products, enterprise sales rely on local budgets, procurement procedures, and relationships. The example of 1001 AI's $30 million Series A round, spanning London and the Gulf led by the US-based Lux Capital and participation from the «Sanabil Investments» fund backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, shows how capital, talent, and customers can exist across a diverse geographic map.
Traditional Capital Commitments vs. Sovereign-Backed Capital
Practical differences abound between traditional venture funding and sovereign-backed funds in terms of the obligations tied to every funding check. Venture capital firms look for quick returns during the fund's lifecycle, placing commercial momentum and large-scale exits at the forefront of their decisions. While this pressure sharpens execution mechanisms, it may push some toward rapid expansion without calculating delivery costs.
In contrast, sovereign-backed investment funds focus on where user data is processed and the technical capabilities that remain within the country, in addition to long-term continuity of service reliance. While some of these funds carry a local development mandate, they may impose longer scrutiny and local allocation expenditures, requiring a careful reading of contract clauses such as governance rights and exclusivity requests.
What This Means for Users and Founders
The editorial vision emphasizes that the best capital strategy must follow the customer's path from a functional product to continuous renewal, balancing investment momentum with regional requirements and actual delivery costs, and focusing on net revenue retention metrics, production deployment, and true profit margins after delivery costs.