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.

Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship: Glamping Hub CEO Ruben Martinez (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Travel has been a popular category for entrepreneurs to build capital-efficient businesses in. Read the story of Glamping Hub.

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?

Ruben Martinez: I was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I went out to University of New Mexico for a year before I transferred to a university here in Denver, Colorado.

Featured Videos

Bootstrapping First from Colorado, Then Scaling with VC Funds: Faction CEO Luke Norris (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Luke has executed a tremendously effective Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later strategy with Faction.

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?

Luke Norris: I was born in Nevada. 

Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship: Jeff Wilkins, CEO of Motili (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Jeff has turned $1M of personal investment (with his Co-Founder) to $80 million in revenue. Pretty capital-efficient, this entrepreneur’s journey!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with where your story begins. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Jeff Wilkins: I grew on the East Coast. I was born in Bethesda, Maryland, outside of Washington DC and moved around a lot as a kid. I spend time in Maryland, North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania.

Candid Discussion of a Bootstrapper’s Journey through Failures to Success: Robly CEO Adam Robinson (Part 1)

Entrepreneurs love to discuss success. Few are willing to discuss what they tried and failed at. Adam does a terrific job of sharing his journey through various failed experiments to a model that is now gaining traction.

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?

Best of Bootstrapping: BioConnect CEO Bootstraps with Sophisticated Strategic Maneuvering

BioConnect CEO Rob Douglas has built a thriving founder-financed business from Toronto using very sophisticated strategic maneuvering. I just loved discussing the strategic nuances of this business. You’ll learn a LOT from reading this 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?

Rob Douglas: I’m a Canadian. I was born just outside of Toronto. I have grown up in and around the city of Toronto. I’m married. I have two kids. Both of them are in their 20’s. I have spent most of my entrepreneurial life primarily focused on markets outside of Canada. US and EMEA have been primary markets over my career.

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Building Two Open-Source Startups in a Row: Sysdig CEO Loris Degioanni (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Loris has specialized expertise in building Open Source companies. Read how he has done it twice.

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?

Loris Degioanni: As you can tell from my accent, I wasn’t born in the United States. I was born in Italy. I was born in a unique part of Italy. I was raised in a little town called Menaggio in one of the mountain valleys connecting Northern Italy and Southern France.

Building Businesses in Aftermarket Designer Merchandise: ShopWorn CEO Richard Birnbaum (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Richard has built several business in the “shopworn” designer merchandise segment. Learn more about the business through his journey.

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?

Richard Birnbaum: I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. I was born into a family of merchants. My father taught me at a young age that everything is about value. Even when we’d go to a diner as a kid, he couldn’t go on raving enough about what a great deal it is they’re offering us. He’d say, “We get a salad. We got Jell-O for dessert.” He instilled in me, at an early age, that it’s all about value and giving the customer a great deal.

Best of Bootstrapping: How FormAssembly CEO Bootstrapped a Virtual Company with a Paycheck

Cedric’s story is a textbook case study of the kind of entrepreneur we want to see emerge and grow in every corner of the world: a solo entrepreneur who is a developer and a product guy capable of getting to validation while holding onto a day job. Today, FormAssembly CEO Cedric Savarese has almost 50 employees spread around the world, and while it maintains a small office of fewer than 10 people in Indiana, the bulk of the company has scaled as a virtual workforce. Excellent model, and I encourage aspiring entrepreneurs to read this carefully.

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?

Cedric Savarese: I was born in France and expatriated to the US. I grew up in a small town not so far from Paris.

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Best of Bootstrapping: How RainmakerForce CEO Mack Sundaram Bootstrapped Decisively to $5 Million+

Mack has built a successful business optimized for autonomy and profitability. Excellent navigation!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go to the very beginning of your journey. Tell us where you’re from. Where did you grow up? Where were you born and raised?

Mack Sundaram: I was born in South India in a village near Chennai. I spent some time of my childhood in Chennai and Pondicherry. I later went to school in New Delhi. Since then, I moved over to the United States where I had an opportunity to pursue a doctoral degree in Economics. That’s where the transition happened.

We’re a middle class family from India. There was a lot of support and pressure for doing well in education. I appreciate my parents for doing that, but there was always the push to find something that you really like to do. I still remember my parents telling me many times as a child that I’ve got to find something.

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Bootstrapping With A Paycheck to YCombinator and $10M Series A: Ryan Chan, CEO of UpKeep (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Ryan took a hobby project that he bootstrapped with a paycheck and managed to get into YCombinator.

From there, he raised a $10M Series A from a top-tier Silicon Valley firm, Emergence Capital.

Excellent execution thus far.

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