Unicorns? Ha! It's hard to survive, let alone be successful. No investors, convoluted laws, high taxes and complete lack of startup mentality. I'm a cofounder of an italian startup, and the road is on an unbearably steep slope. The bureaucracy is insane, the cost of running a small business is daunting. Other companies refuse to work with you because in their eyes you're a scrub (I heard so many times bullshit like "I don't know if you'll be alive in a year or two, so I can't adopt your technology"). You can't hire someone else because you simply can't afford it, and the best people go to the USA anyway. It's immensely frustrating, the only thing that keeps us going is passion, but passion won't pay the bills. Before talking about unicorns we should talk about creating an healthier business environment.