The Recursion Octopus and Narwhal became our unofficial mascots!! We were on zoom for this announcement and Chris set his background image to a scene of narwhals, a hint to the $1B valuation we got in the forthcoming round. (A $1B private company is nicknamed a ‘unicorn’ but unicorns are often mythical; a narwhal is the real unicorn). Also in that meeting, folks were referencing ‘octopus money’ - a reference to when we decided we’d get a pet octopus when we reached $1B in revenue. Octopuses need a large tank to be kept in captivity ethically, so Chris deemed we could afford one at that revenue level. After the meeting an engineer (Eric Fish) posted this image, saying ‘I just got out of a meeting that felt like this’. It has evolved into our informal mascot and Chris’s tattoo.