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.

“I Want to Teach Engineering to a Billion”: Anant Agarwal, President of EdX (Part 1)

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

Professor Anant Agarwal was my graduate advisor at MIT in the mid-nineties. In Anant, I found a kindred entrepreneurial spirit, someone who encouraged me to pursue my entrepreneurial dreams, even if that meant quitting the PhD program at MIT. Over the past 20 years, both of us have pursued the path of serial entrepreneurs. In this story, I speak with Anant about his latest venture, EdX, a massively online open courseware (MOOC) project that is backed by MIT and Harvard to the tune of $60 million.

Sramana: Anant, the last time we spoke you were doing a big project with Tilera that involved multi-core computing. Now you are running EdX. What prompted the shift?

Anant Agarwal: I have been a serial entrepreneur all of my life. I started by running a chicken farm at my home in Bangalore when I was 12 years old. This time around I am doing a social entrepreneurial program. I am the president of EdX, which is a startup company in Cambridge. It looks and feels like a startup in every way. The tempo is fast, the pace of innovation is fast, and we have highly driven people working here. >>>

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Equity Financing from Customers: Modernizing Medicine CEO Daniel Cane, Boca Raton, Florida (Part 1)

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

Daniel is president and CEO of south Florida–based Modernizing Medicine, Inc., a healthcare company that aims to change the way medical information is created, consumed, and used to increase efficiency, lower costs, and improve outcomes. Daniel has a BS from Cornell University where, as an undergraduate, he co-founded Blackboard Inc. Daniel serves as the vice-chairman of the board at the South Florida Science Museum and is a member of the Foundation Board at Florida Atlantic University. He is an active member of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, the Boca Chamber of Commerce, and several local advisory boards.

Sramana: Daniel, let’s start with your personal background in order to set the context for your entrepreneurial journey. Where are you from?

Daniel Cane: I grew up in south Florida. I had an entrepreneurial youth with the usual sets of lemonade stands and other endeavors to make a few bucks here and there. The beginning of my modern entrepreneurial experience happened during my sophomore year at Cornell University. I founded a company called CourseInfo with a very simple premise. >>>

Bootstrapping to Exit in Israel: Eli Sasson, Founder of Minicom (Part 1)

Eli Sasson is the founder and president of Minicom Advanced Systems, a global leader of IT management solutions for data centers, server rooms, and rack environments. Eli co-founded Minicom in 1988 and sold it to TrippLite in April 2012. Prior to founding Minicom, he earned his MBA from Tel Aviv University. Eli was born and raised in Israel and founded Minimcom in Israel as well.

Sramana: Eli, tell us a bit of the story that leads to your entrepreneurial story. Where are you from?

Eli Sasson: I am an Israeli who was born in Jerusalem. Like everyone else, I served in the Army before going on to do my studies at the university level. I studied economics followed by an MBA in Tel Aviv. I graduated in 1988. After graduation, I went out into the real world. When I was in school, I had a job as a student assistant in the computer lab at the university’s business school. >>>

From Czechoslovakia to Silicon Valley: Roman Stanek’s Journey to GoodData (Part 1)

Roman Stanek is the founder and CEO of GoodData, a cloud-based business intelligence platform. He is a serial entrepreneur who founded NetBeans and Systinet prior to founding GoodData. He began his career working as a country manager for Powersoft in 1993, followed by a role with Sybase in 1995.

Sramana: Roman, where are you from? What is your personal story that leads up to your entrepreneurial story?

Roman Stanek: I was born in Czechoslovakia. It was a different regime and a different environment. I did my schooling during the communist days. Once I got out of college, I started building my businesses. In a sense I never really worked for a company. I did my college in Czechoslovakia. People do not realize that studying computers in communist Czechoslovakia meant that we had no access to computers. >>>

Bootstrapping to $40 Million: iCIMS CEO Colin Day (Part 1)

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

Colin Day is the founder, CEO and president of iCIMS, a SaaS provider of HR solutions. Prior to founding iCIMS, Colin worked in sales and new business development at Comrise Technology, an IT staffing firm. After successfully opening a new branch office in Washington D.C., Colin recognized an opportunity to carve a technical platform out of the company, and iCIMS was born. Colin graduated from Cornell University with a degree in psychology

Sramana: Colin, let’s start with your background. Where are you from? What is the story that led to your entrepreneurial career?

Colin Day: I am a dual citizen of the U.K. and the U.S. I was born in the States, but both of my parents and my entire family are from the U.K. I grew up primarily in Washington D.C., with a brief stint in Switzerland. I took off to New York to go to school at Cornell University. After that I moved to New Jersey to start my career. >>>

Building a Made-in-India ERP Product Company: Ramco CEO Virender Aggarwal (Part 1)

Virender Aggarwal is the CEO of Ramco Systems, an enterprise software company focused on cloud computing products and services. Prior to his current role, he was the president and APAC region head for an IT services firm based in Singapore. In previous stints he was a key player in building the IT services and consulting businesses in emerging markets. Virender has a masters in business management from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science.

Sramana: Virender, let’s start with some of the corporate background on Ramco. Let’s set some context about where Ramco comes from, and then we can dive into more detail.

Virender Aggarwal: I am not one of the founders of Ramco; I joined the company recently. Ramco is an in-house IT setup of the Madras Cements Group. It is operated as a division of that company and evolved from them [by] writing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) product in-house. It was launched by Bill Gates in 1996. At that time it was a hard-charging product, and they were able to sell ERP products all over the world, including installations in the U.S. and Europe. >>>

Leading Michigan’s Emergence as a Tech Startup Hub: Billhighway CEO Vince Thomas (Part 1)

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

Vince Thomas is the founder and CEO of Billhighway, a provider of cloud-based financial management solutions tailor-made for nonprofit, donor, and member-based organizations. He developed Billhighway in college as a way to help manage finances among college roommates and in the years since the company has become the pioneer and leader in financial performance optimization for member and donor based groups. In 2011 he was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. He graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a degree in finance.

Sramana: Vince, let’s start with your story. Where are you from? Where were you born and where did you grow up?

Vince Thomas: I was born in Detroit, Michigan. I come from Italian and Lebanese decent. I was born into an entrepreneurial family. Both of my grandparents had their own businesses, as did my parents. I grew up in business throughout all different kinds of industries. >>>

Bootstrapping to $35M via Affiliate Fees: Swagbucks Co-founder Scott Dudelson (Part 1)

Scott Dudelson is the cofounder of Swagbucks.com, a premier rewards site that is a subsidiary to Prodégé. Prior to co-founding Swagbucks.com he founded Music for Charity Productions, a company which helped connect bands with charitable organizations. He graduated with a BA from UCLA.

Sramana: Scott, let’s start at the beginning of your story. Where are you from, and what kind of background leads up to the Swagbucks story?

Scott Dudelson: I am from Southern California. I graduated from UCLA. After UCLA I wanted to get into the music business, and my start was producing concerts. I love live music, and I felt that producing concerts would be a great way to continually be around live music. Shortly after graduation, I started a consulting company called Music for Charity Productions. >>>

Scaling a Platform for Device-Agnostic Web Interfaces: Michael Mullany, CEO of Sencha (Part 1)

Michael Mullany is the CEO of Sencha, a leading provider of open-source web application frameworks and tools to major enterprises and developers and a leader in HTML5. Michael has held product and executive marketing roles at influential Silicon Valley startups Netscape, Loudcloud, and VMware. At virtualization leader VMware, he served as the vice president of worldwide marketing during its break-out into server computing. He holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BA in economics from Harvard College.

Sramana: Michael, let’s start with the beginning of your story. Who are you and where do you come from?

Michael Mullany: I am originally from Ireland. I came over here for college when I was 18. I loved the country and environment, so I stayed. I got interested in technology in my mid-20s. I moved to California to get my MBA at Stanford, and my first internship was at Netscape in the 1990s. I have been involved in creating new technologies and getting them to market since the mid-1990s. >>>

Turning a Services Company to a $30M Product Company: Bridgeline Digital CEO Thomas Massie (Part 1)

Thomas Massie is the chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer of Bridgeline Digital, company that enables its customers to maximize the performance of their mission-critical websites, intranets, and online stores. Prior to BridgeLine he was a member of the board of directors of MapInfo Corp, a publicly developer of location intelligence software solutions. From 1991 to 2000, he was the founder, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Focus Enhancement, a publicly held developer of proprietary video conversion ASIC chip technology. From 1986 to 1991, Massie was the founder and chairman of the board of Mass Microsystems.

Sramana: Thomas, let’s set the context of your story by reviewing your background. Where are you from?

Thomas Massie: I am a serial entrepreneur. I grew up in Michigan with a single mother. I was the first person in my family to graduate high school and college. I ended up going into the military right out of high school, which helped me pay for me college. >>>