Welcome to Axis Perrotta, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech, business, and politics.

I'm Dan Pramak. On today's show, the small business loans program is out of money, and Facebook takes a giant step toward fighting coronavirus misinformation.

But first, the last dance of the unicorns.

Every year, Forbes magazine does a cover package called the Midas List, which basically tracks

the most successful venture capitalists.

It does so via a fairly complicated and sometimes opaque set of calculations, which focus

more on VC-backed startups that have gone public or been sold, but also gives great weight

to how VCs themselves value companies

that are still private, particularly so-called unicorns or private startups valued at $1 billion

or more.

Why it matters right now is that many of the investors celebrated on this list are in the midst

of triaging, hemorrhaging portfolio companies, as the coronavirus pandemic has led to

mass layoffs and other troubles for

startups that had considered themselves to be quote unquote high growth just a month or two

ago. Now, sure, some are actually flying higher, ask anyone who invested in Zoom. But for the most

part, we might look back at this particular Midas list as the Bible of Peak Tech startup, and some

of those on it as the greatest Gatsby's.

So let's dig in with Alex Conrad, senior editor at Forbes and keeper of the Midas list.

So Alex, before we get in some of the kind of questions about kind of how you did it this year,

just talk to me a little bit about the process and what was your biggest, if not takeaway,

maybe surprise after you guys crunched all the numbers this time around?

So we've done the Midas list for 19 years.

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