Also: Commenting on a crisis, Wall Street donors v. Ivy League, Tesla stalls.
Good morning.
Almost 10 years ago, Fortune famously published a magazine cover with a unicorn dressed in a hoodie. Today, that unicorn returns, but with a twist—it’s a unicorpse. The two covers bookend the last decade—a period in which free money fed a wild herd of startups that measured success by the speed at which they reached billion dollar valuations. But that era has ended, and many unicorns are now paying the price for their growth-at-any-cost approach. Wellcome Trust’s Geoff Love tells Fortune’s Jessica Mathews:
“It’s one thing to fail when you’re a small company and you fail to get product-market fit. It’s quite something else to fail when you are at a valuation in the many billions and have raised hundreds of millions of capital. That’s awful.”
 Fortune’s cover from February 2015, when running a startup was a lot less stressful, next to our February/March 2023 cover.Cover Illustrations by Jeremy Enecio (2) You can read Jessica’s story and our coverage of dying unicorns here.
And speaking of corpses, Boeing’s problems keep getting worse. Doors popping out in mid-flight, loose bolts everywhere, wheels falling off on the runway. Can anyone keep these images out of their head when flying? CEO Dave Calhoun deserves credit for his push for transparency. But recognizing that the aircraft manufacturer has a culture problem is only step one. Steps two through 10 are fixing it.
And finally, I talked to Etsy CEO Josh Silverman this week about the company’s new generative AI-powered gift discovery tool. Etsy used ChatGPT to help identify gift buyer personas and come up with appropriate lists of gifts from the 115 million items on the Etsy platform. But it doesn’t ask customers to interact directly with a chat bot. Why? Because consumers aren’t yet ready for that experience, Silverman says. And the computer costs are high. “Computer adoption is going to lag technical capability,” Silverman says.
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
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No comment
Just over a quarter of companies lack guidelines to determine when to comment on a crisis, reports a survey of chief human resources officers. Executives now face blowback whatever their decision, whether they take a stand, keep quiet, or respond too slowly. Employees are increasingly making their voices heard: “Seeing how much companies respond to employee pressure was surprising,” says Anthony Nyber, director of the Center for Executive Succession at the University of South Carolina. Fortune
Academic freedom
The bitter fight between Wall Street donors and Ivy League universities, sparked by the Israel-Hamas war, has its roots in long-running complaints about U.S. higher education. Alumni and donors are frustrated with soaring tuition costs and alleged mismanagement by administrators. Students have their own concerns: A recent Morning Consult survey reports that almost 40% of people in their 20s believe college did not prepare them for the workplace. Fortune
Tesla stalls
Tesla is promising to release its next model as early as late 2025 as it tries to revive flagging growth. CEO Elon Musk said the new car would be more affordable than Tesla’s current premium models. Tesla shares slumped by almost 6% in extended trading Wednesday after the company declined to give full-year guidance. Bloomberg
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Generative AI: Now decides next A new global report from the Deloitte AI Institute™, “The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise: Now decides next,” explores how actions taken now will help guide how Generative AI adoption unfolds and if its benefits are fully realized. Read more.
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