Bootstrapping Course: Welcome

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Featured Videos

The Startup Velocity Question: What Hinders Acceleration in VC Funded Companies?

I have been running 1Mby1M since 2010. I find myself saying to entrepreneurs ad nauseam that VCs want to invest in startups that can go from zero to $100 million in revenue in 5 to 7 years.

Startups that do not have what it takes to achieve velocity should not be venture funded.

Experienced VCs, over time, have developed heuristics to gauge what constitutes a high growth venture investment thesis. 

The Accelerator Conundrum: Navigating Your Path to Startup Success

The Accelerator Conundrum is a multipart series that challenges the prevailing wisdom of the tech startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs should Blitzscale out of the gate. Written by Sramana Mitra, the Founder and CEO of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first global virtual accelerator, it emphatically argues that a better strategy is to Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, focus on customers, revenues and profits. 1Mby1M’s mission is to help a Million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond. Sramana’s Digital Mind AI Mentor virtually mentors entrepreneurs around the world in 57 languages. Try it out!

Alright, let’s cut through the noise and get to the brutal truth of the startup accelerator world. Many entrepreneurs, starry-eyed and naive, leap headfirst into 3-month accelerator programs without truly understanding the long-term implications. It’s time for an incisive commentary, a necessary dissection.

October 15 – 745th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 745th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, October 15, 2026, at 8 a.m. PDT / 11 a.m. EDT / 5 p.m. CEST / 8:30 p.m. India IST.

If you are a serious entrepreneur, register to Pitch and sell your business idea. You’ll receive straightforward feedback from Sramana Mitra, advice on next steps, and answers to any of your questions. Others can register to Attend to watch and learn.

You can learn more here and REGISTER TO PITCH OR ATTEND HERE. Please share with any entrepreneurs in your circle who may be Interested.

Featured Videos

Roundtable Recap: October 1 – The Danger of the Everything Pitch: Why Focus Is the Ultimate Founder Superpower

At today’s roundtable mentoring session, an ambitious founder pitched a startup concept that immediately set off every alarm bell in the room. His business plan was an exercise in strategic sprawl: seven distinct revenue surfaces, targeting two massive and culturally complex geographic markets simultaneously (Africa and India), while attempting to run B2C and B2B models side-by-side. To cap it off, his Total Addressable Market (TAM) calculation relied on a top-down macro-projection, and he was actively looking to raise institutional capital on this chaotic foundation.

It is a classic symptom of early-stage delusion. Founders often believe that projecting massive complexity and omnipresence makes them look visionary to investors. In reality, it signals a profound lack of focus, operational naivety, and an imminent recipe for cash-burn disaster.

An Overview of Top Startup Accelerators in Indonesia

This article is an overview of a series of articles summarizing the top startup accelerators in Indonesia for bootstrapped and solo founders, comparing them to 1Mby1M.

By Guest Author Aina Fauzy | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Over the past 10 posts, we have conducted an in-depth research series evaluating the startup acceleration landscape in Indonesia. While Southeast Asia’s largest economy continues to foster immense entrepreneurial potential, early-stage founders face a critical dilemma: traditional acceleration models often push premature dilution, forced 3-month sprints, and blitzscaling at the expense of fundamental unit economics.

Video FAQs

AI Startup Courses to Build, Bootstrap, and Scale Your Business

Artificial intelligence is reshaping industries at an unprecedented rate, but turning an innovative AI concept into a sustainable, high-growth startup requires far more than just technical know-how. To succeed, founders need proven strategies for identifying market gaps, validating customer demand, choosing the right funding path, and scaling operations efficiently. Our collection of specialized AI startup courses features actionable frameworks and real-world case studies from successful entrepreneurs across high-impact verticals including Generative AI, HealthTech, FinTech, Cybersecurity, Customer Support, and Machine Learning.

Whether you’re a developer stepping into entrepreneurship, an early-stage founder refining your strategy, or a professional looking to capitalize on the AI revolution, these courses provide the practical blueprint you need to build and grow your business. You can access these expert-led AI courses at up to 85% off using our exclusive coupon codes, alongside a suite of completely free guides designed to help solo, Indian, European, and global founders evaluate accelerators and alternative funding models. Review the list of course codes below to claim your savings and accelerate your startup journey today!

October 1 – 744th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 744th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, October 1, 2026, at 8 a.m. PDT / 11 a.m. EDT / 5 p.m. CEST / 8:30 p.m. India IST.

If you are a serious entrepreneur, register to Pitch and sell your business idea. You’ll receive straightforward feedback from Sramana Mitra, advice on next steps, and answers to any of your questions. Others can register to Attend to watch and learn.

You can learn more here and REGISTER TO PITCH OR ATTEND HERE. Please share with any entrepreneurs in your circle who may be Interested.

743rd 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable Recording

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here:

Roundtable Recap: September 24 – Getting Go-to-Market Right

Navigating the early-stage Go-to-Market journey is fraught with hidden traps that can stall growth even after initial traction is achieved. From overcoming pricing insecurity during paid pilots and unlocking true ROI-based positioning, to sidestepping the siren song of premature pre-seed dilution, B2B enterprise founders face a myriad of strategic hurdles.

On the B2C side, validating whether a product can hold its own and get customers to pay month after month for a subscription product is an equally vital step.

In this roundtable, we dissected these critical Go-to-Market challenges, exploring how founders can break free from conventional VC-centric dogmas, build precise market alignment, and scale sustainable, capital-efficient enterprises on their own terms.

Top Startup Accelerators for Validation-Focused Entrepreneurs in Indonesia

This article summarizes the top startup accelerators for validation-focused entrepreneurs in Indonesia, comparing them to 1Mby1M.

By Guest Author Aina Fauzy | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

One of the primary reasons startups fail is that they build products nobody wants. Founders often fall into The Validation Vacuum: a dangerous void where entrepreneurs spend months (and significant capital) coding, designing, and launching a product based purely on unverified assumptions rather than real customer feedback.