Will 2026 be the year a billion dollar company is built with just one employee? 

In the world of startups, the term unicorn is applied when a company’s valuation reaches a billion dollars. 

Although the name began with reference to the rarity in the number of ventures that were able to achieve this appraisal, the growing number of these companies is increasingly driving economic growth globally and, thanks to their innovative solutions, addressing problems that traditional business models have often overlooked.

As Horasis Chairman Frank-Jürgen Richter wrote, “There are over 1,523 unicorns globally with a total valuation of US$5.6 trillion, which is a testament to their immense influence on the global economy. And as more and more companies achieve unicorn status and unicorns achieve decacorn (valued at over US$10 billion) and hectocorn (valued at over US$100 billion) status—they will further push economic growth; better product and service delivery; and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs.”

This year, for the first time we began to hear chatter of a new trend that’s been quietly gaining traction: the one-person unicorn.  

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, for instance, recently speculated as to when the first billion-dollar company with a single employee will launch. One incredibly hardworking founder, using AI to help create their product and market it on social media, could well pull it off. 

While this might seem a huge reach at first, startup teams at billion-dollar companies already run a tight ship, achieving impressive growth with just a handful of highly talented and dedicated employees. 

Historically, tech founders have had to become masters of all trades, wearing many hats, particularly in the company’s early stages, in order to get their ventures off the ground. However, with only so many hours in the day, juggling multiple roles inevitably became unsustainable as operations scaled. 

The power of AI could remove that limit, though, giving founders a way to complete the work of multiple teams. 

How Close Are We To The One-Person Unicorn?

It may be hard to remember today, but when Facebook acquired Instagram back in 2012 for $1 billion USD, Instagram had just 13 employees. 

This, as well, was before the rise of AI.

In today’s market, AI is taking productivity to new heights, expanding the leverage of individuals to build complex products and virally market them to the whole world.

So, will 2026 be the year that the unicorn’s single horn symbolizes the startup’s lone employee? We are already seeing early hints that the answer could be yes. 

For instance, one company, MyUser, is an AI-driven B2B sales automation platform that handles everything from prospect research to email outreach and meeting bookings.

Led by Ibrahim Hasanov, the entrepreneur has already reached impressive revenue numbers with zero employees. If we look at a billionaire dollar valuation being placed on companies with $100 million in recurring annual revenue, Ibrahim’s ventures are within distance to attain one-person unicorn status.

According to the CEO in an interview with StartupBeat, “My background as a developer gave me the technical foundation, but it was my experience struggling to find users that truly shaped MyUser’s mission: making customer acquisition as seamless and accessible as building the product itself.”

Hasanov has leveraged his own product to grow his company, using the platform as the startup’s main distribution engine. With highly personalized emails crafted by MyUser’s AI, he was able to connect with some of its first users and begin growing the business. The founder pictures a future where automation tools can handle the heavy lifting so that companies can focus on building great products and innovating. 

According to McKinsey Insights, AI adoption is paying off: companies that have adopted new technologies, including AI, are consistently driving their sales teams’ efficiency up by 15%.

How the emergence of AI and one-person unicorns may impact the labor market 

For companies on a budget who can’t afford to hire huge teams upfront, AI is an undeniable way to increase the output of individual employees. However, this technology is likely both a blessing and curse for the labor market at large. 

Throughout the course of 2025 we’ve already seen concerns about AI and the job market, and in particular its impact on recent university graduates. AI is predicted by some to see thousands of white-collar jobs wiped out and to make it much harder for younger professionals to get started on the career ladder. 

According to the CEO of Anthropic, while exact predictions vary, AI could spike unemployment in the US by 10-20% in the next five years. Further, AI agents were the reason why Salesforce cut 4,000 customer service roles last month, while Amazon confirmed this week it plans to cut roughly 14,000 corporate roles. 

If this is left unaddressed, we could well see negative impacts on society from AI. To get ahead of this, it will be important for governments to consider a range of new policies. 

For instance, Abigail Ball, Executive Director of American Compass, recently shared a Workforce Training Grant proposal that would direct public resources toward on-the-job training. 

This would help companies to upskill their employees and transition them into alternative roles through workforce training grants. Another idea aligned to this is to use tax policy to incentivize employers to retrain and retain employees rather than reducing headcount.

Additionally, a growing set of proposals aims to give citizens and governments greater stakes in AI’s economic returns. Sovereign wealth funds could enable states to acquire positions in AI-related assets. 

In scenarios where the AI sector captures an outsized share of economic wealth, government investment could both shape the sector’s behavior and “distribute AI-derived wealth more equitably.”

Other experts believe that all citizens should receive a Universal Basic Income (UBI) to address wage inequality, job insecurity and widespread job losses created by AI. According to the Stanford Basic Income Lab, more than 160 UBI tests or pilots have been conducted over the past four decades. The Lab’s umbrella review of existing UBI literature indicates that such programs generally yield positive effects. 

One thing seems certain: in the year ahead we’ll increasingly be hearing conversations about the rise of the one-person unicorn, and on AI’s impact on society and the job market at large.