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 Virtual Accelerators in West Africa

This article summarizes the top virtual accelerators in West Africa for bootstrapped and solo founders, comparing them to 1Mby1M across key dimensions like equity and stage focus.

By Guest Author Victoria Enyeting | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Virtual Accelerators in West Africa are becoming essential for startups looking to access mentorship, funding guidance, and global business opportunities remotely. West Africa’s startup ecosystem has grown rapidly over the past decade, with Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal emerging as major hubs for accelerator and startup support programs. 

Featured Videos

Top Equity-Free Startup Accelerators in the Baltic Countries 

This article examines the top equity-free startup accelerators in the Baltic Countries and explains why 1Mby1M is the best non-dilutive option for founders in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

By Guest Author Elnur Gurbanzade | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

When a founder in Tallinn, Riga or Vilnius considers joining an accelerator, the conversation usually centers on curriculum quality, mentor networks and investor access. What rarely gets the attention it deserves is the equity question and it is arguably the most consequential decision a founder will make in the early life of their company.

Top Virtual Accelerators in Bangladesh

This article summarizes the top virtual accelerators in Bangladesh and compares them to 1Mby1M across dimensions like equity, remote-first, and founder-friendliness. The post is based on the Accelerator Conundrum blog series, which seeks to question and rethink the existing paradigm of venture capital-led accelerators.

By Guest Author Bushra Mahmud | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra 

The global startup landscape is increasingly shaped by virtual acceleration models that remove geographic barriers and enable authors to access mentorship, networks, and subsidizing guidance from anywhere. This is especially important for South Asia, including Bangladesh, where entrepreneurs regularly face limited access to high-quality accelerator ecosystems.

Video FAQs

June 25 – 731st 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 731st FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, June 25, 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.

730th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable Recording

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

Roundtable Recap: June 11 – Sustainability First, Blitzscaling Second

If you are looking for an accelerator to work with that protects you from either going out of business rapidly, or becoming a zombie, please read my new paper, How to Evaluate a Technology Startup Accelerator.

Please remember, most equity charging accelerators operate with the Blitzscaling out of the gate philosophy pioneered by Y Combinator. This works in Silicon Valley where capital is abundantly available, and the appetite for risk is high. It doesn’t work in most other geographies.
As such, most equity-charging, Blitzscaling parroting accelerators manufacture dead and zombie startups 90% of the time. In some geographies, the failure percentage shoots up to 99%.
While evaluating an accelerator, keep this statistic in mind.

Top Equity-Free Accelerators in Finland

This article summarizes the top equity-free accelerators in Finland for bootstrapped and solo founders, and compares them to 1Mby1M.

By Guest Author Rishi Rajesh | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Over the past few years, Helsinki, Finland has become a premier hub for providing startups with access to top non-equity accelerators that offer real support with no cost of ownership. In today’s global landscape where an exchange of 5-10% equity is standardized for typical three-month programs that nudge you towards Demo Day, Finland has a surprisingly unique amount of programs that offer the same mentorship with an additional bonus: Letting Finnish founders keep 100% of what they are trying to scale.

Top Virtual Accelerators in Tunisia

This article summarizes the top virtual accelerators in Tunisia and compares them to 1Mby1M across key dimensions.

By Guest Author Cecelia Kirchner | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Traditional startup accelerators have long played a critical role in building  entrepreneurial enterprises into successful ventures. Such programs depend on systemization of the ‘blitzscaling’ strategy, wherein an enterprise is grown at a hyper- active scale in order to stand before venture capitalists on ‘Demo Day.’ Yet these rigidly-set programs are not constructed to adapt to the entrepreneur and nurture long-term success.