Testimonials

Oren Klaff

Global business leader, Investor and author of Pitch Anything

If you want to learn something about Unicorn and Lion, I might be able to help. I’ve brought them in to work multiple projects where $5M, $20M and even $100M were at stake.  

Bottom line—these guys fix super difficult problems using their experience, connections and plain old hard work. 

The Unicorn team is incredible in the way they step into difficult situations, get into the details within 24 hours, then start doing real work (all the work I should have done but didn’t know how to) and then, they start to shoulder responsibility and take on problems they probably should just walk away from because of the inherent difficulty. 

Honestly, I have no idea why Terry agrees to lift some of the boulders I’ve asked him to move for me. But he just steps in and says “challenge accepted” and I follow him around, almost like a puppy, watching my own problems get solved, one after another. I have a lot of experience with consultants and have spent more than $10 million over the years on consultants and advisors. From experience, I know how most consultants just dole out advice, and stand back as you attempt (and fail) to solve your own problems.  

If you find yourself facing really tough business problems from time to time, meet your new best friend, Unicorn and Lion.

That’s why I was so darn impressed and fascinated when Unicorn stepped into my business. They unf*d a number of situations I created, and handed me back the business in twice as good a shape. But what does that really mean “as good a shape”? That’s easy to explain:

• Cleaned up relationships as to who reports to who

• Implemented financial controls and data reporting that finds problems early, avoiding millions in overruns

• Created Sales processes that deliver predictable revenue streams

• Identified our poor performers and helping them move on to other endeavors

• And provided 1-phone call solutions to problems that have been around for years

Sounds a bit like I really enjoy working with Unicorn. Well, sure, Terry and team Ali are nice enough people, but I’m working on $100 million problems, so nice doesn’t matter much to me. What does matter is this: When a financing is doomed, Terry steps in and does that superman thing where he puts the train back on the track before it crashes off the edge of a mountain. 

Where contracts are written to fail every legal stress test, Terry and team Ali step in to make the contract “Ubi concordia, ibi victoria” i.e. Where there is unity, there is victory”.

When a financing is doomed, Terry steps in and does that superman thing where he puts the train back on the track before it crashes off the edge of a mountain. 

When a deal structure becomes so complicated that neither my side nor the other can agree to terms, Unicorn reaches into 30 years of deal and problem solving experience and suggests something so elegant and straightforward, all the mudslinging and finger pointing stops and people realize, wow, there really might be a deal here we can close on by the deadline. 

It’s a humbling experience watching someone else solve your problems so effortlessly, in fact, I once thought I was good at the stuff Unicorn does ... for example, not long ago, I thought I was a “rigorous analytical thinker”. Then I met Terry at Unicorn and got a front row seat to the finest of McKinsey’s critical thinking alumni. Now I realize most of my decision making has been guesswork, and how much I rely on confirmation bias to keep myself happy. 

It’s a humbling
experience watching someone else solve your problems so effortlessly.

I also thought my team was “always-on”. Then I met Ali at Unicorn, a Chief of Staff that takes the title of “Chief” as it was intended: lead from the front and stay committed until the job is done. 

As I finish my thoughts on Unicorn and Lion, it’s not that I like this firm, it’s that I TRUST them, and know that I can overreach a bit in my business dealings, because I’m backed up by a Sherman tank of a firm that can solve any finance, contract, structure and people problems.

 If you find yourself facing really tough business problems from time to time, meet your new best friend, Unicorn and Lion.

Ali takes the title of “Chief” as it was intended: lead from the front and stay committed until the job is done.