“As a start-up valuation increases, the options definitely decrease,” said Jon Callaghan, a partner with True Ventures who has been investing since the early 1990s. When you’re valued at more than $1 billion, he said, “you have to have a flawless execution, as it’s upping the ante quite a bit.”

You know what’s cool? A billion dollars.

Nick Bilton ranting about entrepreneurs who wish to get their startup to the 1 billion dollar valuation club. Startups which have crossed 1 billion:

Twitter is valued at $8.5 billion; LivingSocial at $5 billion; Dropbox, $4 billion; Square, $3.25 billion; Spotify, $3 billion; Rovio, $3 billion; Airbnb, $2.5 billion; Pinterest, $1.5 billion; Box, $1.2 billion; Gilt Groupe, $1.1 billion; and Evernote, $1 billion.