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.

Personalized Alerts In The Enterprise: xMatters CEO Troy McAlpin (Part 1)

SM: Troy, let’s begin by looking into your past. Where does your story begin?

TM: I am from the Bay Area. I was raised by a disabled single mother, and I was the oldest in the family. I had a younger sister and learned responsibility very early. >>>

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Child Entrepreneur Caleb Sima: Cofounder Of SPI Dynamics (Part 1)

Prior to taking the helm of Armorize, Caleb Sima was co-founder and CTO to SPI Dynamics, the world’s leading and de facto standard for Web application security scanning. After being acquired by HP, Caleb was made HP’s Chief Technologist – Application Security Center, where he helped HP build a SaaS version of HP’s application security offerings. He also directed the lifecycle of HP’s Web application security solutions where he led a team of accomplished security experts that have received worldwide recognition for identifying new security threats and devising advanced countermeasures. Caleb has been engaged in the Internet security arena since 1996, a time when the concept of Internet security was just emerging. After being a security engineer for S1, he joined Internet Security Systems’ (later IBM) elite X-Force research and development team, where he founded the first pen testing team and bootstrapped the company’s enterprise security assessment business.

SM: Caleb, let’s begin by reviewing your background. Where are you from? Where does your story begin?

CS: I was born in Hawaii and moved to Atlanta when I was seven. I grew up in Atlanta and did not leave there until last year, when I moved to San Francisco. When I was a kid I got into a lot of trouble. I was very rebellious, and I was constantly grounded. I was not allowed to watch TV or play with my friends. Most of the time I was stuck in my room and was only allowed to read books. >>>

From Steve Jobs’s Soulmate To Founder Of Fotopedia: Jean-Marie Hullot (Part 1)

Jean-Marie Hullot was the CTO of NeXT and a close associate of Steve Jobs. He is also the the founder of Fotopedia, a photo encyclopedia that lets photographers and enthusiasts collaborate on, curate, and share high-quality photography over the Internet. TechCrunch has given the social photo site and its iPhone and iPad apps a rave review. Robert Scoble has also provided an enthusiastic endorsement on Scobleizer. Fotopedia Heritage, a collection of photographs and information about UNESCO World Heritage sites, was released to the Apple App Store on August 10 and is a top New and Noteworthy app. Detailed information can be found at www.fotopedia.com/products/heritage-info. In this interview, Jean-Marie shared stories of his close encounters with death, Jobs, and entrepreneurship. >>>

Child Entrepreneur Kevin Sproles: CEO Of Volusion (Part 1)

Kevin Sproles is the founder and CEO of Volusion, an online e-commerce solution for the SMB market. He began his career by coding and designing in high school. Most of his clients had a common need, a shopping cart system, so he developed the first version of Volusion before graduating. Today Volusion has over 150 employees, and Kevin has won several business awards for his success with Volusion, including Businessweek’s “Best 25 Entrepreneurs Under 25” and the San Fernando Valley Business Journal’s “40 Under 40 Leadership Award.”

SM: Kevin, take us back to where you story begins. What is the background information we should know that leads to the Volusion story?

KS: I started Volusion when I was sixteen, when I was still in high school. I started the company as a custom Web development company, and I created various websites for clients. >>>

Learning From Failures: IMVU Founder Will Harvey (Part 1)

Will Harvey is a serial entrepreneur who began writing software at a very early age. He wrote Music Construction Set, which was the first music sheet editor for personal computers, when he was fifteen. In 1995, he founded Sandcastle. In 1998, he founded There, Inc., which was a virtual 3-D social world. He founded his second virtual world, IMVU, in 2003. He has also been associated with a series of video games, many of which have been published by Electronic Arts. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in computer science from Stanford University.

SM: Will, where are you from and what is the beginning of your personal story?

WH: I am a California native. The sequence of events that led to IMVU began when I was a high school student and wrote one of the first products for Electronic Arts. It was the first music sheet editor for personal computers. >>>

Can You Do It All? Eventbrite Cofounder And Mother Julia Hartz (Part 1)

Julia is cofounder and president of Eventbrite and is responsible for the overall vision and strategy of the company. She is a former television network executive and comes to Eventbrite by way of Hollywood. During her tenure in the television industry, Julia was a creative executive at FX Networks and helped to supervise “The Shield,” “Nascar Drivers: 360,” “Nip/Tuck,” “Rescue Me,” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” Prior to FX Networks, she was in creative development at MTV Networks, where she was fortunate enough to work on several popular shows such as “Jackass.” Julia holds a BA from Pepperdine University and lives in San Francisco with her husband Kevin and their young daughter.

SM: Julia, let’s go back to your story’s beginning. Where are you from? Where did you grow up?

JH: I grew up in Santa Cruz. My parents divorced when I was two, but they remained good friends and always lived within blocks of each other. My mother was remarried when I was five. I had one of those idyllic childhoods on the beach. I had no worries about safety like we do today. >>>

Built To Enjoy: Andrew Fox’s 100% Owned $30M ClubPlanet (Part 1)

Andrew Fox is the cofounder and chairman of ClubPlanet and the CEO of Track Entertainment. He has spent the past six years running entertainment and service companies. ClubPlanet is the largest and most comprehensive nightlife destination on the Internet and provides content, listings, tickets, and many other features for nightlife events in over 35 cities around the world. Fox is also the founder of 3-G Communications, which finances and leases cellular towers in North America. He is a member of the executive committee of the Ad Club of New York and director of the New York City chapter of ChairScholars Foundation, Inc., a national nonprofit organization that provides scholarships to children and adolescents with disabilities.

SM: To start, tell me about yourself. Where do you come from? What is your background?

AF: I am from New York City. I was born here, but I moved to Florida when I was five. My mom has very bad allergies and needed to move there. I grew up in Tampa, Florida, which was a great place to grow up, but I always knew that I wanted to move back to New York. >>>

From Free To Premium With Ease: YouSendIt Cofounder Ranjith Kumaran (Part 1)

Ranjith Kumaran is the founder and chief technology officer for YouSendIt. Prior to YouSendIt, Kumaran held marketing positions at Verisity Design, and he was the director of sales engineering at Celoxica. He has also worked as a software systems engineer at Red Hat. Kumaran received a bachelor of engineering degree in computer engineering from McGill University and is an active member of TiE Silicon Valley.

SM: Ranjith, tell me about yourself. Where does your story begin?

RK: I was born in England. My father was there doing his PhD in physical chemistry. I was only there for about a year, but I am still pulling for England in the World Cup. >>>

Rolling Up E-mail Security SaaS: Gary Steele, CEO Of Proofpoint (Part 1)

Gary Steele is the CEO of Proofpoint, a company which is a leader in e-mail security, data loss prevention, and e-mail archiving solutions. Prior to joining Proofpoint, Gary served as the CEO of Portera, an applications company delivering solutions for the professional services industry. Prior to Portera, Gary was the vice president and general manager of the middleware and data warehousing product group at Sybase, Inc., an organization of more than 350 people spanning four regions and generating $150 million in revenue. Gary’s prior experience includes business development, marketing, and engineering roles at Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard. He has a B.S. in computer science from Washington State University.

SM: Gary, let’s begin with a review of your background. Where are you from?

GS: I grew up in a small agricultural community of 600 people in the Northwest. It was a million miles away from technology. >>>

Cleantech In Food: Purfresh CEO Dave Cope (Part 1)

Dave Cope joined Purfresh in 2004 as chief marketing officer and was promoted to CEO in 2006. Prior to Purfresh he was president and CEO of BizGenics and held a variety of executive positions for Extricity, Marimba, Illustra, and IBM. Mr. Cope holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biochemistry from San Jose State University.

SM: Dave, let’s start with your background. Where are you from?

DC: I was born and raised in San Jose. My family is from the Bay Area as well. My grandfather played football for the University of Santa Clara, went on to play for the New York Giants, and then opened a chain of sporting good stores across the western United States. >>>