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.

Resilient Entrepreneurship: Inspire CEO Brian Loew (Part 1)

Brian and his team went five years with little or no revenue. Revenues started flowing in year six, and now, in the 10th year, the company is doing over $5 million in revenue, growing 80% y-o-y.

Read Inspire’s journey of resilience and persistence.

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?

Brian Loew: I grew up in Northern Virginia in the suburbs of Washington DC. Both my parents are teachers. My father is a university professor. My mother was an elementary school teacher and, later, a computer programmer. I grew up as a sort of normal suburban kid. I went to the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, which was a big influence. Then I went on to George Washington University and double majored in Physics and Economics. I was always the entrepreneurial kid. >>>

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Managing Multiple Pivots While Scaling to $50 Million: MotionPoint CEO Will Fleming (Part 1)

Will and his partner started with a somewhat flawed business idea, but has successfully built up to a $50M company.

Along the way, pivots had to happen, and are still happening. Interesting study in customer-driven strategy.

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

Will Fleming: I was born in New York City and moved around a bit as a child. The first lengthy stop was my grade school years. That was probably, in retrospect, the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey. Although of course, I couldn’t know it at that time. One of my favourite entrepreneurial memories of the grade school years was when I was 9 years old. There was a magazine I got called Boy’s Life. I found an advertisement at the back of the magazine and I wrote to them to receive a whole bunch of flower seeds. >>>

Bootstrapping a Niche E-Commerce Venture: Elite Fixtures CEO Steven Annese (Part 1)

I’ve always been bullish about niche e-commerce. Here’s yet another story of an entrepreneur who has successfully bootstrapped a company in high-end light fixtures.

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?

Steven Annese: I’m a child of an Italian immigrant. I was born in New Jersey. It was in the 70s when most of the Italians migrated.

Sramana Mitra: What about college?

Steven Annese: University was interesting. I wanted to migrate somewhere out west or south. Unfortunately, since my parents were immigrant, they didn’t want me to leave the house. So I had to go to school locally. I attended St. Peters University in Jersey City. >>>

Bootstrapping Using Services: Bay Dynamics Co-Founders Feris Rifai and Ryan Stolte (Part 1)

Feris and Ryan wanted to work together on a new venture. They first built a services company, then introduced an OEM product, and eventually bootstrapped a product under their own brand. The company has recently raised its first venture money after many years of being in business as a profitable, growing entity.

Sramana Mitra: One of you should probably get started. I want to go back to the very beginning of your journey, and learn about your pre-Bay Dynamics story. Where were you born, raised and, in what kind of background?

Feris Rifai: I was born in Beirut, Lebanon. That’s where I was raised till I was 18 years old. I then came to the United States to go to college. I went to school at Indiana University. It was a great experience for me. Throughout my journey when I was much younger in Lebanon, it was a bit of a difficult upbringing because we couldn’t find a way to get safety to be a part of our lives. I think it’s taught me a lot. It has helped me be, believe it or not, very optimistic. >>>

Buying Control Back from VCs: Jason Robbins, CEO of ePromos (Part 1)

Jason raised both angel round and a VC round early on, but eventually, the company turned out to be a good, solid, profitable business, but not the kind of rocket VCs like to fund. Read how he negotiated with them to gain control of the venture.

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

Jason Robbins: I was born in Brooklyn and did most of my studies at Syracuse in the New York area. I worked at Manhattan. I went to Columbia for my MBA. I’ve been around the country and the world a lot but most of my stuff has been in the New York area. Most recently, I picked up and moved from New York to Florida. I have been living in Florida with my entire family since August. >>>

Innovating in Fintech: Jason Hogg, CEO of Lending.com (Part 1)

FinTech is hot these days. Jason has particular expertise in the segment, and he discusses his multiple ventures.

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

Jason Hogg: I’m from New York originally and grew up just outside the city. My dad was actually the CEO of MasterCard, which was located in the city at that time. Before that, he had been with American Express and ran their international business. I ended up spending my early youth in England as well. I was born in the States, moved over to England for a few years, and then came back.

Sramana Mitra: After high school, what did you do in terms of further education? >>>

Peruvian Entrepreneur, Bootstrapping to $200 Million: Belisario Rosas, CEO of WEI (Part 1)

We hear a lot from Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs. We hear some from Europeans. But thus far, not as much from Latin American entrepreneurs. Belisario Rosas is Peruvian, and is also interested in fostering further entrepreneurship in Latin America.

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

Belisario Rosas: I was born in Lima, Peru.

Sramana Mitra: Did you grow up in Lima?

Belisario Rosas: Yes, I did. I went through elementary, middle school, and high school in Lima. When I left, I wanted to study Medicine. So I went to McGill University in Montreal, Canada to study Medicine. In the second year, I felt that it wasn’t my call. I had a liking >>>

Building a Capital Marketplace for Mid-Market Businesses: Axial CEO Peter Lehrman (Part 1)

Capital marketplaces are quite the trend these days. This story traces the evolution of Axial. This is a very different marketplace from AngelList.

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

Peter Lehrman: I was born and raised in New York City. I was also educated in New York. I went off to college at the University of Virginia. I came back to New York. My timing of graduating from school was pretty bad. I graduated in 2001 from undergrad and 2008 from graduate school. When I came back from undergrad, I joined my brother who co-founded a company here in New York. I spent the first six years of my career developing that business with him and his co-founder.

Sramana Mitra: What business is that?

Peter Lehrman: It goes by the name GLG today. It’s an expert network that’s largely used by the world’s investors to make better investing decisions. >>>

Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later: Wrike CEO Andrew Filev (Part 1)

Andrew has built a company with a rigorous data-driven approach. Learn how!

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?

Andrew Filev: I was born in St. Petersburg in Russia. I got interested in computers pretty early. I spent a lot of my childhood playing with computers, building and programming, and designing. I also had a big interest in other sciences as well. I competed in different math, physics, and chemistry competitions.

Part of my heritage and the reason why I did a lot of that was that if I go back in time and compare my upbringing with what I see today for my kids, there was very little entertainment. Everything was pretty scarce. I spent my childhood summers mostly reading books and playing chess >>>

An Emerging Success Story from Indiana: Fathom Voice CEO Cameron Weeks (Part 1)

It’s always thrilling for me to encounter entrepreneurs who are succeeding in off-center places, and Fathom Voice is a great example of one from Indiana.

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?

Cameron Weeks: I was born in a very small town in Indiana, just north of Indianapolis. Its total population was just 3,000. My graduating class had around 56 people.

Sramana Mitra: Where did you study? >>>