https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/19/airtable-ceo-howie-liu-on-the-continued-importance-of-getting-a-unicorn-valuation/

When in 2015, Slack raised money at a $1 billion valuation, founder Stewart Butterfield spoke candidly about why it was important to him, and why if Slack wasn’t assigned a valuation north of that number at that point in time, Slack wouldn’t raise anything. Said Butterfield, speaking to Fortune, it “means that we’re a part of that conversation about companies worth $1 billion.”

Fast forward nearly four years, and things apparently haven’t changed much. Indeed, Howie Liu, the cofounder and CEO of Airtable — a 5.5-year-old, San Francisco-based company that sees itself as a coding platform for non-techies — says Airtable was very much focused on being valued at north of $1 billion when it closed its most recent round in November.