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.

Top Startup Accelerators for Personalized Investor Introductions in New Mexico

This article summarizes the top startup accelerators for personalized investor introductions in New Mexico and compares them with 1Mby1M.

By Guest Author Ruth Munyoki | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Many startup founders assume that the fastest way to meet investors is to join a short accelerator, prepare a pitch, and present on Demo Day. While this can create useful exposure, a large investor audience does not automatically produce the right investor relationship for a particular business. The Accelerator Conundrum blog series challenges those assumptions. The process should begin with the company’s business model, customer traction, market, capital requirements, and stage of development. The goal is to connect founders with investors whose interests and investment criteria are relevant to the opportunity.

Featured Videos

Top Startup Accelerators for the Marathon, not a 3-Month Sprint, in New Mexico

This article summarizes the top startup accelerators for the marathon, not a 3-month sprint, in New Mexico and compares their long-term support with 1Mby1M.

By Guest Author Ruth Munyoki | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

The startup ecosystem often treats entrepreneurship as a short, high-intensity sprint: join a cohort, build quickly, prepare for Demo Day, and raise capital. The Accelerator Conundrum blog series challenges that model. For many founders, building a durable company requires repeated customer discovery, product iteration, sales development, and financial discipline over a much longer period.

Top Startup Accelerators for Long-Term Mentoring in New Mexico

This article summarizes the top startup accelerators for long-term mentoring in New Mexico and compares them with 1Mby1M.

By Guest Author Ruth Munyoki | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Top startup accelerators for long-term mentoring in New Mexico are increasingly relevant for founders who want to build sustainable companies rather than simply prepare for a short Demo Day. The traditional accelerator model often concentrates support into a fixed period, commonly a few weeks or months. That can be useful for founders who need an intensive push, but startup development rarely follows a predictable schedule. Customer discovery, product development, sales, hiring, and fundraising can take much longer than a single accelerator cohort.

Video FAQs

September 10 – 741st 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 741st FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, September 10, 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.

740th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable Recording

You can listen to the recording here:

Roundtable Recap: September 3 – The Paradox of Prolificacy: Why More Products Lead to Less Success

In the ecosystem of early-stage startups, building products is often celebrated as the ultimate proof of passion and productivity. Founders dedicate endless hours to designing, coding, and launching new tools, driven by the belief that the next feature or release will finally unlock commercial success. However, when an entrepreneur builds dozens of products without achieving adequate sales on any, this creative drive turns into a dangerous trap.

The core issue facing prolific founders is the dilution of effort. Developing a viable product requires far more than just writing code or making a functional prototype. It requires marketing, sales strategies, customer support, and continuous refinement based on user feedback. When an entrepreneur attempts to manage thirty distinct products simultaneously, each individual product receives only a fraction of the attention required to succeed. As a result, none of the products achieve the critical mass needed to generate sustainable revenue. The business ends up with a graveyard of semi-finished ideas rather than a single, thriving core offering.

Top Startup Accelerators for Entrepreneurs Bootstrapping with a Paycheck in New Mexico

This article summarizes the top startup accelerators for entrepreneurs bootstrapping with a paycheck in New Mexico, comparing them to 1Mby1M.

By Guest Author Ruth Munyoki | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

The Accelerator Conundrum: Why Bootstrapping with a Paycheck Matters

The Accelerator Conundrum challenges the conventional startup model of raising venture capital and scaling rapidly from the beginning. Instead, it advocates a “Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later” philosophy that puts customers, revenue, and sustainable business building ahead of premature fundraising. For someone building a startup while keeping a job, this philosophy is especially relevant: the paycheck provides a financial buffer while the founder tests the business in the real market.

Top Startup Accelerators for Solo Entrepreneurs in West Africa 

This article examines the top startup accelerators for solo entrepreneurs in West Africa and compares them to 1Mby1M across key dimensions. 

By Guest Author Victoria Enyeting | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra 

A solo entrepreneur needs an accelerator that takes zero equity. 

That statement is becoming increasingly true in the age of Artificial Intelligence. 

Today’s founders can build products, automate operations, acquire customers, and scale businesses using AI-powered tools all without assembling large teams or raising venture capital on day one. What they need is mentorship, strategic guidance, customer validation, and access to a global network, not an accelerator that immediately asks for equity in exchange for a short-term program.