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.

Bootstrap an AI Startup First, Raise Money Later: Sean Minter, Founder CEO of AmplifAI (Part 1)

Sean has bootstrapped AmplifAI to $1M, and then raised over $15M in two rounds of financing. Read on to learn the nuances of his strategy and execution.

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1Mby1M Udemy Courses with Sramana Mitra: Methodology

Developed as an integral part of the esteemed core 1Mby1M curriculum, these courses impart knowledge honed over 15 years. They dissect the mechanics and methodology of building startups with the help of lectures and case studies.

Building a $100M+ FinTech Venture from Michigan: Ryan Rosett, Founder and Co-CEO of Credibly (Part 1)

Ryan has bootstrapped a FinTech small business lending business from Michigan, raised Private Equity funding to scale, and then bought the PE stake back through a Management Buy-out. Excellent case study!

Sramana Mitra: All right, Ryan, let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised? What kind of background?

Positioning a Generative AI Startup: Erik Severinghaus, Founder and CEO of Bloomfilter (Part 1)

Erik discusses his journey as a serial entrepreneur and we deep dive into the Positioning of Bloomfilter.

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

Bootstrapping First, then Raising Money to Build a $10M+ Generative AI Startup: Anthony Scodary, Co-Founder of Gridspace (Part 1)

Gridspace is a wonderful case study of a speech technology company on the bleeding edge of Machine Learning and Generative AI. You will learn how the founders managed to bootstrap to large paying customers and then raise strategic funding. You will also learn the nuances of how they used various Open Source components and existing ML models to get to a point where they can afford to develop more original technology. You will also learn the importance of solutions versus technology platforms.

Building a Generative AI Venture from Portugal: João Aroso, CEO of Leadzai (Part 1)

João is a serial entrepreneur who has built several businesses from Portugal. His current company has found its path to scalability with the advent of Generative AI. He discusses challenges of business models and pricing in great depth.

A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey into FinTech: Felix Rodriguez, Founder and CEO of finally (Part 1)

Felix has done nine ventures and sold several of them. He is currently building a venture-funded,
AI-enabled FinTech venture. Really intelligent, scrappy maneuvering in various alleys of online entrepreneurship.

Building a Global ERP Company from Estonia: Katana CEO Kristjan Vilosius (Part 1)

ERP is an entrenched category full of incumbents. Katana is a wonderful story of excellent positioning and strategy work to find market foothold.

Sramana Mitra: All right, Kristjan, let’s start with your personal background. Where are you from, where were you born, raised, what kind of circumstances?

Kristjan Vilosius: Firstly, thank you for having me here today. I’m the CEO and one of the three co-founders at Katana. And my personal story starts in the early eighties when I was born in Estonia, which was part of the Soviet Union back then. I don’t remember much of it since I was very young, but I spent part of my childhood in the Soviet Union.

Bringing a Generative AI Product to Market: RJ Talyor, Founder CEO, Backstroke and Pattern89 (Part 1)

RJ talks thoughtfully about product idea validation in two AI companies, Pattern89 and Backstroke.
Backstroke is operating in the cutting edge of Generative AI and delivering clear ROI solving a very specific problem.

Sramana Mitra: All right, RJ, let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised? What kind of background?

RJ Talyor: Thanks for having me. I’m born and raised here in Indianapolis, Indiana. I always thought I’d leave, but I graduated from college with an English degree out of an entrepreneurial honors program. I ended up in this entrepreneurial fellowship right after school here in Indianapolis. It paired Indiana grads with leaders across the state and I got into a role at ExactTarget, which was, at the time, a small startup. We grew to be a $2.7B acquisition by Salesforce and became the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud within the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. So my career grew there over that ten years.

Long Bootstrapped Journey into Cutting-Edge Generative AI: Jeff Kuo, Founder of Ragic (Part 1)

Businesses are finding unexpected benefits by incorporating Generative AI into their product roadmaps. Ragic has built a $5M ARR no-code platform in the market. A Generative AI front-end is adding unprecedented usability and adoption momentum. Fascinating!

Sramana Mitra: Alright, Jeff, let’s go to the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised? What kind of background?

Jeff Kuo: I was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan. I mostly grew up here, but in my childhood, I lived for two years in the US in Michigan.