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. 

1Mby1M Udemy Courses with Sramana Mitra: Bootstrapping

Over the course of two years, we have released over 70 courses on Udemy with the aim to democratize entrepreneurship education at scale globally. This series of posts aims to help you find the one you need easily and provide you with discount coupons.

Israeli Founders Building a FinTech Venture: Omri Dor, Co-Founder and COO of Obligo (Part 1)

Omri tells a wonderful story of validating and navigating his original FinTech idea in Israel and building a company in the US.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Featured Videos

From Developer to Successful Machine Learning Entrepreneur: David Moss, Co-Founder, President and CTO of People Power Company (Part 1)

We have a huge audience of developers, engineers, and programmers who want to transition to becoming successful entrepreneurs.

This conversation explores the journey of such a developer. Fantastic story!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go to the very beginning of your journey. Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Dealing with Major Market Shifts: Aphrodite’s CEO Jonathan Foltz (Part 1)

Jonathan has had to shepherd his jewelry e-commerce venture through the pandemic first. Then came the Apple iOS battle with Facebook which has rendered small merchants ineffective on the Facebook platforms.

Read how a scrappy, creative entrepreneur is managing all the curveballs thrown at him.

4X Serial Entrepreneur from India: Kashyap Deorah, CEO of HyperTrack (Part 1)

Kashyap had early success with three of his companies, each of which had very small amounts of friends and family financing. He pretty much bootstrapped these three startups to rapid exits.

His fourth startup, HyperTrack, has been a challenging journey, but he has navigated it well, and turned around the earlier setbacks over the last five years.

Wonderful story.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

14 Courses on How To Build a Startup in the Midwest

This bundle of courses is for IT entrepreneurs who wish to start and grow a startup in the Midwest of the United States. If you are in that region, start by reviewing this course:

1. How Investors Think About Startups in the Midwest with Sramana Mitra

It will give you an inside look at the Mid-Western startup ecosystem and how you may fit into it. 

Bootstrapping a Vertical CRM Product using Services: Cleverping CEO Haysam Ali (Part 1)

Haysam has built a $10M services business and alongside, he has bootstrapped a vertical CRM product for the telecom industry.

Read on to understand the nuances.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Bootstrapping Using Services from Helsinki: Juha Lehtonen, CEO of FA Solutions (Part 1)

European companies often follow a methodical, deliberate approach to business building as opposed to mindlessly chasing venture capital.

Juha has used the principles of bootstrapping using services to build his venture from Finland.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised and in what kind of background?

From Developer to Successful Machine Learning Entrepreneur: Aparna Dhinakaran, Co-Founder, CPO of Arize (Part 1)

We have a huge audience of developers, engineers, and programmers who want to transition to becoming successful entrepreneurs.

This conversation explores the journey of such a developer. Fantastic story!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where did you grow up? What kind of circumstances?

Building a Global HR Tech Business from India: Adit Jain, CEO of Leena AI (Part 1)

Adit and his cofounders started Leena AI in India, bootstrapped to validation, applied to YCombinator, got in. Since then, they’ve built a fantastic, venture-funded global HR Tech business that is successfully competing with Salesforce and ServiceNow. Superb story!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Solo Entrepreneur Building a Venture Scale EdTech Company from India: Cuemath Founder Manan Khurma (Part 1)

Manan’s professor parents in Amritsar didn’t want him to be an entrepreneur. Now, he is changing the trajectory of Math education around the globe by leveraging an underused workforce: stay-at-home moms with strong mathematics background in India. Brilliant story!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?