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.

Managing a Successful Pivot from B-to-C to B-to-B: Jifiti Co-Founder and CMO Shaul Weisband (Part 1)

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

Jifiti started life as a B-to-C gift-giving service. That didn’t work. Read how they maneuvered their way to a successful B-to-B business.

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

Shaul Weisband: I was born the United States. I moved with my family, when I was seven, to Israel. Israel is pretty much where I was raised and went to school. That’s where I founded our company Jifiti at the end of 2011. Our development and operations teams are still there. Our US office is based in Columbus. That is where I relocated with my business partner around four years ago to head our local offices here in the US and focus on our business development and marketing. >>>

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Raising Funding on AngelList: Contactually CEO Zvi Band (Part 1)

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

Zvi has raised several rounds of financing on AngelList in the process of building Contactually. Among other things, his experience with the platform is interesting in this interview.

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

Zvi Band: I was born in Boston. I was mainly raised on the West Coast. Then my family moved to the DC area to follow my father’s career. I’ve been now a DC resident for the past 15 years. I would qualify myself as a builder. As a kid, I always had Legos in my hands. Legos turned into software and software turned into companies. >>>

Building a Fast Growing FinTech Company from Utah: MX CEO Ryan Caldwell (Part 1)

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

Ryan self-financed, with some seed money, a FinTech company selling to small financial institutions. Today, the company has delivered 185% y-o-y growth for five consecutive years.

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?

Ryan Caldwell: I was born in Berlin, Germany. My father was a lawyer in the military. He was stationed in Germany at that time. My older brother and I were both born in Germany.

Sramana Mitra: What did you do for college? >>>

Building a Big Data Venture: Hiro Yoshikawa, CEO of Treasure Data (Part 1)

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

A very interesting story of a big data infrastructure management startup.

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?

Hiro Yoshikawa: I am a native Japanese. I was born in Tokyo in 1978 and was raised on the outskirts. Even when I was a very small kid, I loved literature. Mostly, I like Japanese novels like Murakami. Do you know Murakami?

Sramana Mitra: I do. Were you reading in Japanese or in English? >>>

Diamond Auctions Online: Benny De-Kalo, CEO of Worthy.com (Part 1)

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

I recently had dinner in Berlin with Alex and Suzi Zache, founders of Auctionata, an online auction house that has scaled to over $150 million in revenue. You can refresh that story here. Here’s another online auction story that is scaling nicely as well, specifically in diamond auctions. The company is at over $50 million in revenue.

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?

Benny De-Kalo: I was born in Tel Aviv, Israel. I moved to New York after the military service, which is mandatory in Israel. I went to school in New York and >>>

Bootstrapping to $15 Million in Three Years: Connatix CEO David Kashak (Part 1)

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

Extraordinarily tight, disciplined strategy and execution has enabled David to build a tremendously fast growth company with a small team. A lot to learn!

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?

David Kashak: I was born in Israel. I grew up in Israel and studied engineering at Tel Aviv University. After studying, I started as a programmer in a cyber security company in Israel. At one point, they offered to relocate me to New York. That offer was very interesting because I wanted to get more exposure to business. I moved to New York. >>>

Bootstrapping Using Services: James Kane, CEO of RWS (Part 1)

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

We’re big believers in Bootstrapping Using Services, as you know. Here’s yet another story of an entrepreneur who has scaled to over $10 million in revenue using the method.

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?

James Kane: I grew up in a very small town in far northern New York. It’s a college town of about 2,000 people. My father was a university professor. He taught Mechanical Engineering at Clarkson University. >>>

Bootstrapping to Inflection: Dan Stewart, CEO of Happy Grasshopper (Part 1)

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

Dan Stewart is a 1M1M entrepreneur. Read how he has navigated his way to an inflection point that has brought him to the cusp of 4x growth in 2017.

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?

Dan Stewart: My family moved around quite a lot as I was growing up. I rarely stayed in a school for more than a year. That took me from West Virginia and Chicago, down to Florida. >>>

A Serial Entrepreneur’s Journey: Moshe Vaknin, CEO of YouAppi (Part 1)

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

Moshe has been doing startups for 18 years now. Some have worked, some not so well. This time around, he is building something bigger and more robust than his prior outings. Read Moshe Vaknin’s inspiring journey through startup land.

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?

Moshe Vaknin: I was born in Israel and grew up in a city by the beach called Ashkelon. It finds a mention in the Bible. Samson and Delilah were from that city. I was born there and grew up there until the age of 18. I went to the military and spent three years there. After you finish with military, you typically don’t know what to do in life. >>>

Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship from Utah: Ben Dilts, Founder and CTO of Lucid Software (Part 1)

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

Utah is becoming a wonderful hub for capital efficient technology entrepreneurship. People are not as delusional about artificial Unicorns, gratuitous fundraising, and high burn rates. They focus, instead, on fundamentals.

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?

Ben Dilts: I was actually born here in Salt Lake City, but my parents moved to Pennsylvania. I grew up just outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania since I was about two years old until I left for college. I came out to Utah again to go to school. I came out to Brigham Young University to study Computer Science. I fell in >>>