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.

Why the Traditional Venture Capital Model Is Failing Startups

The traditional venture capital model is facing a structural problem. Startup failure rates remain high, employee equity often fails to deliver meaningful financial returns, and the conventional tools investors use to support portfolio companies are proving insufficient.

Data from Carta on the 2018 startup cohort illustrates the scale of the problem. Of 4,369 startups founded that year, 2,707 had already shut down. Only 57 achieved unicorn status, while just 15 went public. These numbers raise important questions about how venture backed companies are financed, managed, and scaled. They also expose a fundamental weakness in the incentives that connect investors, founders, and early employees.

The Hidden Cost of Startup Failure for Employees

The consequences of startup failure extend well beyond founders and investors. Early stage companies depend heavily on experienced operators, including CFOs, COOs, sales executives, and commercial leaders. Many of these professionals accept below market salaries in exchange for equity. The expectation is that their contributions will eventually translate into meaningful financial returns through an acquisition or public offering. This expectation frequently goes unfulfilled.

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Featured Videos

Cloud Stocks: Microsoft Banks on Azure and Offers Buyouts to a Third of Workforce

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced its first quarter results that outpaced market expectations. The market was impressed and the stock climbed 4% in the after-hours trading session.

Why the Decline of Easy Pre-Seed Funding Could Be Good for Tech Startups

For years, early stage technology startups could raise substantial capital based on little more than an idea, an impressive founding team, and a compelling pitch deck. In some cases, founders secured millions before demonstrating that customers were willing to pay for the products they intended to build.

That funding environment created a fundamental distortion in entrepreneurship. Raising capital increasingly became a measure of startup progress, even when customer demand, revenue, and business fundamentals remained unproven.

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Video FAQs

November 12 – 749th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 749th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, November 12, 2026, at 8 a.m. PST / 11 a.m. EST / 5 p.m. CET / 9:30 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.

748th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable Recording

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

Roundtable Recap: November 5 – From Corporate VP to Founder: Why Big Tech Buyouts Are the Ultimate Seed Round

A Vice President at Oracle recently read my piece on Microsoft’s voluntary buyouts and the 1Mby1M Career Lifeboat strategy. Having taken a similar exit package himself, he walked away from corporate executive life and joined our free public roundtable last week seeking a roadmap to build his own business. His story is not an isolated one. It represents a structural shift across Big Tech.

For years, senior tech executives, product leaders, and engineering leaders operated under the illusion of corporate security. However, today’s tech environment defined by relentless AI realignments, efficiency mandates, and recurring reorgs has rewritten that contract. High paying corporate roles carry immense friction, yet senior leaders hesitate to leave because of the golden handcuffs.

Will Alphabet’s TPUs Offset its Declining Search Business?

Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG) recently announced its third quarter results that failed to meet market expectations. The performance sent the stock tumbling 13%, the worst drop since it went public in 2004.

November 5 – 748th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 748th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, November 5, 2026, at 8 a.m. PST / 11 a.m. EST / 5 p.m. CET / 9:30 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.