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.

Blocking Ransomware at the Hard Drive Level: John Benkert, CEO of Cigent (Part 1)

Ransomware is a key Cyber Security challenge that drives enterprises and governments crazy. John has built a very interesting company to address this problem with a unique approach and lots of patented Intellectual Property. In this case study, you will also learn a lot about Go To Market Strategy through Firmware.

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

Featured Videos

Bootstrapping with Services at the Cusp of AI and FinTech: Vahe Andonians, Founder of Cognaize (Part 1)

In this case study, you will hear Vahe talk a lot about bootstrapping – bootstrapping to exit, bootstrapping with services, so on. You will also learn a nifty way of building domain knowledge on top of horizontal AI expertise. This is a valuable and extremely interesting way of building AI companies for entrepreneurs to consider.

Digital Nomad Building a $5M+ E-Commerce Business: IntelligentLabs CEO Rus Hughes (Part 1)

Rus lives the life of a digital nomad. He started life as a techie, and with a very small team and a cofounder, has built a $5M+ niche e-commerce business selling supplements. Excellent story full of lessons and nuances.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Tell me about where you grew up. What is the beginning of the story?

The Power of Bootstrapping: Achieving Small Exits for Capital-Efficient Startups

I’m a big advocate for building small, capital-efficient startups. Not all entrepreneurs need to chase Unicorns. Not all investors need to chase Unicorns. There are many more viable ideas for those smaller ventures and there are considerably more opportunities for their exits, which means cashing in earlier on your hard work.

One type of exit is under $50 million, and to achieve that, your strategy should be to build a capital-efficient company that shows product-market fit in an efficient, bootstrapped manner.

That capital-efficient strategy is required for all stakeholders to make money when harvesting through smaller exits.

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A Mini-MBA in Entrepreneurship for Working Professionals

Most adult professionals have jobs, families, and other responsibilities. People working in the tech industry have big salaries to forego if they want to start a company.

For ambitious folks who want to start a technology startup while working full-time, having a job means your income doesn’t depend on the immediate success of your startup business. We call this method Bootstrapping with a Paycheck and take entrepreneurs through the whole bootstrapping using a paycheck process with excellent case studies.

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A Conversation on Regional Language Content: Kocowa CEO KunHee Park (Part 1)

There’s quite a bit of white space in the domain of regional language content.

KunHee talks about Korean content. It should give you ideas that you can extrapolate into other languages.

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

Solo Entrepreneur to $10M+ Niche E-commerce Success: DoggieLawn Founder Natalie Youn (Part 1)

Natalie has done a superb job of positioning a niche product and building a great business starting solo.

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

From Developer to Entrepreneur: A Guide to Bootstrapping and Startup Creation

Millions of developers sit at their computers daydreaming about running their own company and making a difference in the world. They may even have fantastic ideas, but because they know nothing about business creation, they do not know how to turn ideas into a real company. 

The developer-to-entrepreneur way is not an easy one, but it can be done. It has been done repeatedly. At 1Mby1M, we specialize in helping developers make this transition effectively and successfully. 

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Bootstrapping to $3M a month: Prequel CEO Timur Khabirov (Part 1)

Timur has bootstrapped a digital app to $3M a month. Read on to learn how.

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

Building a Robotics Company from India: Ritukar Vijay CEO of Ottonomy (Part 1)

This is a very interesting story of bringing really complex technology from India to the global market with a complex sales cycle.

The long term potential is huge. The short term complexity of the business is equally huge. The founding team is doing an admirable job navigating the opportunity with commitment and resolve.