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.

9.4M Dollars In Concept Financing To 100M In Bookings: Palo Alto Networks Founder Nir Zuk (Part 1)

Nir Zuk is a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CTO of Palo Alto Networks. Prior to Palo Alto Networks, he was the CTO at NetScreen Technologies, which was acquired by Juniper Networks in 2004. Prior to NetScreen, Nir was co-founder and CTO at OneSecure. Nir also served as a principal engineer at Check Point Software Technologies, where he was a lead developer of inspection technology.

SM: Let’s start by reviewing your background. Where are you from?

Nir Zuk: I was born and raised in Rehovot, Israel. The Weizmann Institute of Science is there; it is one of the top research institutions in the world. As a result, Rehovot is a very scientific town. I was exposed to science throughout my life. >>>

Featured Videos

Bootstrapping To $19 Million: Office Ally CEO Brian O’Neill (Part 1)

Brian O’Neill founded Office Ally in 2000 after observing poor business practices in the healthcare industry. Office Ally (covered in Deal Radar early this year) is a health information network connecting patients, providers, and payers. It offers a free practice management system, a free clearinghouse, a low-cost electronic health record ($29.95/month/provider) as well as a patient portal that enables e-visits and the creation of  personal health records (PHRs) and e-prescribing. The company earns revenue by charging insurance companies for the streamlined claims process its technologies enable.

SM: Brian, let’s begin by examining the roots of your entrepreneurial journey. Where does your story begin?

BO: I grew up in Ohio and I earned a degree in computer science before moving to California when I was twenty. >>>

Can You Do It All? BlackLine CEO Therese Tucker (Part 1)

Therese Tucker is the CEO and founder of BlackLine Systems, an account reconciliation and financial close software provider. Prior to that she served as CTO at SunGard Treasury Systems. Therese was comfortably retired from SunGard – and had two school-age children at home – when she decided to merge her two talents, technology and finance, into a successful business endeavor of her own in 2001. With just sixty employees BlackLine boasts a client roster that includes AT&T, Boeing, Costco, eBay, Northrop Grumman, and United Airlines.

SM: Therese, let’s start at the beginning of your story. What is your background?

TT: I grew up on a farm in Illinois. I am the youngest of four girls. My parents did not have much money. My father was a factory worker and farmer. >>>

A Real-Time, Multimedia Social Network You Might Not Know: Paltalk CEO Jason Katz (Part 1)

Jason Katz is the founder and CEO of Paltalk.com. Jason oversees the strategic direction of Paltalk and also manages the company’s system architecture. Jason is an authority on instant messaging as well as web based voice and video. Jason previously co-founded MJ Capital, a money management firm. Earlier in his career, he was a corporate lawyer at the New York City office of Fulbright & Jaworski.

SM: Jason, tell us about your background. Where are you from?

JK: I grew up in New York City in modest circumstances. Growing up in the city was not a great way for me to grow up because I like outdoors and sports. It was hard finding places to play sports sometimes. >>>

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. >>>

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. >>>