Building a Startup Is a Marathon Not a Sprint

I want to share with you an observation from running the 1Mby1M program since 2008. Almost 700 free mentoring roundtables with over 300k entrepreneurs. Thousands of case studies of successful entrepreneurs – the who’s who of tech startups – through interview based methodology development. Thousands and thousands of premium member coaching sessions.

A lot of entrepreneurs are looking for silver bullets. 

They are not necessarily interested in doing the hard work needed to build a sustainable business. 

Building a business is a marathon, not a sprint. 

We don’t have silver bullets. No one does. 

>>>

Featured Videos

AI Startup Case Studies and Courses with Coupons

Artificial intelligence continues to be one of the most transformative forces in technology and some of the most successful startups are emerging directly from this wave of innovation. Our latest set of courses explores how founders across industries are building, bootstrapping and scaling AI ventures that solve real-world problems.

In How to Build AI / Machine Learning Startups, you’ll learn the fundamentals of identifying market needs, validating ideas and architecting scalable AI business models. How to Bootstrap an AI Startup First and Blitzscale Later takes you through the proven 1Mby1M philosophy of building sustainably before chasing hypergrowth.

>>>

Building an AI EdTech Company: College Guidance Network CEO Jon Carson (Part 1)

Jon has identified a gigantic hole in high school college counseling and is plugging it with AI.
You have read interviews with the entrepreneurs behind Empowerly and Prepory, companies going after the same problem, but with more manual solutions. College Guidance Network is doing so with AI.

Bootstrapping an EdTech Startup with a Paycheck to over $5M: Karyn Koven, CEO of LanguageBird (Part 1)

Karyn has built a technology-enabled business that is already over $5M in revenue and sits at the cusp of a tremendous scaling opportunity by leveraging AI. If you are mulling AI startup ideas, this kind of tech-enabled service that is fully optimized with AI could create tremendous value.

New Generative AI Marketing Startups Course and Coupons

Marketing is one of the fastest-moving industries being reshaped by AI, and startups are at the forefront of this transformation. Our new course, Generative AI Marketing Startup Case Studies, showcases how entrepreneurs are using generative AI to revolutionize content creation, personalization, workflow automation, and analytics. Whether you’re a founder, marketer, or product builder, you’ll gain insider perspectives on how early movers in this space turned emerging technology into scalable businesses.

This course gives you a front-row seat to see how real startups identified gaps in the marketing ecosystem, validated their ideas, and built defensible products that deliver measurable ROI. You’ll learn what strategies worked, where others stumbled, and how to apply these lessons to your own entrepreneurial journey in a competitive and rapidly evolving field.

For a month, we’re offering up to 85% off this course and all others listed below.

All coupons expire on October 15, 2025, so don’t miss your chance to enroll today!

Artificial Intelligence:

Generative AI Marketing Startup Case Studies: TRY1MBY1MSEP2025GAIM

AI Cybersecurity Startup Case Studies: TRY1MBY1MSEP2025AICS

How to Bootstrap an AI Startup First and Blitzscale Later: TRY1MBY1MSEP2025AIBB

AI FinTech Startup Case Studies: TRY1MBY1MSEP2025AIFT

AI HealthTech Startup Case Studies: TRY1MBY1MSEP2025AIHT

>>>

Startup Success Comes from Customers Not Speculators

I want to share with you an insight from running the 1Mby1M program since 2008. Over 700 free mentoring roundtables with over 300k entrepreneurs. Thousands of case studies of successful entrepreneurs – the who’s who of tech startups – through interview based methodology development.

It is a complex exercise to give people a message that goes against the grain of media hype. 

>>>

How Entrepreneurs Learn Through Real Case Studies

I want to share with you some things we have learned in running the 1Mby1M program since 2008. Over 700 free mentoring roundtables with over 300k entrepreneurs. Thousands of case studies of successful entrepreneurs – the who’s who of tech startups – through interview based methodology development.

Our hypothesis about case-study based learning and mentoring is working very well. 

>>>

How Entrepreneurs Learn Through Honest Feedback

I want to share with you some things we have learned in running the 1Mby1M program since 2008. Over 700 free mentoring roundtables. Over 300k entrepreneurs have participated.

It is extremely difficult to give negative feedback to entrepreneurs without triggering a defensive reaction. I was not good at this when we started.

>>>

Bootstrapping an EdTech Venture to $6M, Ready to Scale with AI: Daniel Santos, CEO of Prepory (Part 1)

This story is a great example of an EdTech company that has built a validated, bootstrapped, profitable business that can potentially be scaled using AI.

1Mby1M Introduces Sramana Mitra’s Digital Mind – An AI Mentor for Startups

Dear Entrepreneurs,

We have some exciting news …

We’re ready to offer you a privileged (preview) access to the new AI Mentor product from 1Mby1M: Sramana’s Digital Mind.

You can “talk” to Sramana’s Digital Mind and ask questions about your strategy, your options, your idea, and anything else that is top of mind and needs discussion. Do you need help with Ideation? Validation? Positioning? Market Sizing? Go to Market Strategy? Funding?

Please try it and let us know how you like it.

The product is developed on top of technology from Delphi AI and connects to a large body of my writings, videos, lectures, speeches, mentoring sessions and more.

>>>