Several leading Boston AI and technology voices gathered to discuss how artificial intelligence is reshaping entrepreneurship, innovation, and business growth. Speakers included leaders from MIT, Northeastern, Bain Capital, Flagship Pioneering, and global AI pioneers like Yann LeCun and Andrew Ng.

Every generation of entrepreneurs believes it’s the one that can skip steps. Start earlier. Move faster. Figure it out on the fly. That story is compelling. It’s also incomplete. In a recent Fortune article, Jeff Bezos offered advice to Gen Z that cuts directly against the dominant startup mythology: get real work experience before launching a company. Bezos didn’t say this as a critic of entrepreneurship. He said it as someone who built Amazon—starting at age 30, after nearly a decade of professional experience. This wasn’t a casual comment. It was a strategic observation.

When people hear the word “unicorn” in entrepreneurship, they usually think of sky-high valuations, venture capital blitzes, and startup hype. But the real lesson from studying billion-dollar founders isn’t about valuation at all — it’s about control, strategy, and disciplined leadership. In Unicorn Entrepreneurship: 5 Steps That Separate Leaders From Followers, Forbes contributor Dileep Rao synthesizes his research on 125 founders of billion-dollar companies and reveals a surprisingly repeatable pattern that separates category-defining leaders from the rest.