""The more I thought about it, the more I realized I was against much of the unicorn obsession," she said. "It's just so one-dimensional. Listen, I'm all for making money, and I think elephants can be worth far more than a billion dollars. But people should be looking at traits beyond valuation to determine success. I've seen so many people gloat: 'I backed eight, ten unicorns.' I'm like: 'what, you came in at the Series B?' It wasn't about the multiple, it wasn't about the underlying health of the business.""
""I want people to find me online, identify with my point of view, and seek me out," said Wenger. "I want to have my brand and our firm be bigger than me. You can only have so many meetings in one day, so this was a way to reach people. You can also timestamp ideas: 'I was calling this back then, look at the date.'""
Erica Wenger favors investing in "elephants"—companies emphasizing resilience, solid fundamentals, profitability, and longevity—over the narrow pursuit of billion-dollar "unicorn" valuations. Wenger argues that valuation multiples can mask underlying business health and that investors should evaluate traits beyond headline valuations. Wenger published an "elephants, not unicorns" thesis on Beehiiv in 2023, which went viral and accumulated over one million views, helping build her personal and firm brand. Wenger is a three-time founder of startups including Mistaken for Bacon and Mahkana, served as head of platform at Worklife Ventures, and launched Park Rangers Capital, which closed a $4.3 million first fund from 130 LPs.
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