Assessing if 1Mby1M is a Good Fit

4. How do I assess if 1Mby1M is the right fit for my startup’s current stage and specific needs—are there tools, such as a self-assessment, to help me decide?

Assessing whether 1Mby1M is the right fit for your startup’s current stage and specific needs is a crucial step. While there isn’t a single “self-assessment tool” in the form of a quiz on their website, the program provides clear criteria and an open, free resource that functions as a powerful way to help you decide.

Here’s a breakdown of how you can assess if 1Mby1M is a good fit:

1. The 1Mby1M Self-Assessment Framework

The program’s founder, Sramana Mitra, provides a set of core questions that she believes every entrepreneur should be able to answer. These questions serve as a de facto self-assessment and are the basis for the discussions in the roundtables. You can use these questions to gauge your readiness and identify your knowledge gaps:

• Validation: Have you validated your business with real customers, not just friends or family?
• Positioning: Can you articulate the precise positioning of your solution in a crowded market?
• Monetization: How will you make money? What is your business model and pricing strategy?
• TAM (Total Addressable Market): Do you have a credible, bottom-up calculation of your market size?
• Go-to-Market Strategy: Do you have a plan for acquiring customers at a high velocity?
• Team: Do you have the right team to execute your vision?

If you are struggling to answer these questions with clarity and confidence, then the 1Mby1M program is likely a good fit for you. The program’s entire curriculum and mentoring process are designed to help you answer these exact questions.

2. The Free Public Roundtables

This is the most effective tool for you to assess the program. The free roundtables are open to the public and function as a “trial period” for the mentorship style and program philosophy.

By attending, you can:

• Observe the Mentorship: See firsthand how Sramana Mitra interacts with entrepreneurs and the kind of feedback she gives. Is her direct, no-nonsense approach a good fit for your personality and working style?
• Learn from Others: Listen to entrepreneurs at various stages of their journey—from idea to scaling—discussing their challenges.This will give you a clear picture of whether your issues align with the program’s focus areas.
• Gauge the Program’s Philosophy: The roundtables are an excellent way to see if you resonate with the program’s “bootstrap first, raise money later” ethos. If you are exclusively focused on raising a large seed round as your first step, the program’s methodology might not align with your immediate goals.

3. Consider Your Startup’s Stage and Needs

1Mby1M caters to a broad range of stages, but it is particularly valuable for:

• Idea/Early-Stage: Founders who need help validating their ideas, defining their positioning, and developing a solid go-to-market strategy. The program can help you save a great deal of time and money by preventing you from pursuing a flawed idea.
• Stuck or Failing Startups: Entrepreneurs who have launched a product but are not gaining traction. The program is specifically designed to help you diagnose what is wrong and guide you on whether to pivot or make strategic adjustments.
• Bootstrapped Startups: Founders who want to grow their business efficiently without giving up equity. The curriculum and mentorship are tailored to this specific model.

In essence, if you are a founder who values expert strategic advice, is open to direct feedback, and believes in the power of a customer-first, capital-efficient approach, the 1Mby1M program is very likely to be a good fit. The best way to confirm this is to attend one or more of the free public roundtables and use the core self-assessment questions to evaluate your own business.