The Truth About Startup Fundability

There is too much money chasing too few venture scale deals. As a result, sometimes, VCs fund deals that should not be funded to appease their Limited Partners. And then, they drive these ventures to failure. Let me explain.

Let us say, you have been successful in raising $5M in venture capital.

Featured Videos

Startup Asia: Caucasus Startup Accelerator Ecosystem

This article presents an overview of the Caucasus Startup accelerator ecosystem. It explores its strengths and challenges and why the 1Mby1M global virtual accelerator is well-suited for the Caucasus.

The Caucasus — often called the “Crossroads of Eurasia” — includes a remarkably diverse mix of countries: Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. Each of these economies enjoys different levels of maturity, geopolitical complexity, and innovation capacity. Yet across this region, a common dynamic is emerging: a growing startup ecosystem, early-stage accelerator programs, and rising ambition — but also structural gaps that prevent many founders from building strong, sustainable, globally scaled businesses.

Protect Your Ownership While You Build Your Startup

Pre-seed fund-raising is extremely expensive. One of the popular business models in our industry is accelerators investing $200k against 10-15% equity. These are bad terms. Protect your ownership and avoid taking money on these terms.

Early in the game, when you do not have much validation, you should NOT raise a priced equity round. 

Your business is not yet READY to be valued.

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Startup Asia: Middle East Accelerator Ecosystem

This article presents a snapshot of the Middle East Startup accelerator ecosystem and country-level dynamics. It explores its strengths and challenges and why the 1Mby1M global virtual accelerator is well-suited for founders in the Middle East.

Introduction

The Middle East is a region of deep historical complexity, geopolitical contrasts, and extraordinary entrepreneurial potential. Across countries such as Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, UAE, Yemen, Syria, Palestine, and Israel, the startup ecosystem has been evolving rapidly—but unevenly. Wealthy nations with sophisticated infrastructure coexist alongside fragile or conflict-affected economies. Venture capital is abundant in some markets, scarce in others. And despite a growing number of incubators and accelerators, structural gaps persist across the region.

Avoid These 10 Common Entrepreneur Mistakes

There are many entrepreneur mistakes that are perfectly avoidable. You don’t need to make those mistakes yourself to learn from them. I want to give you pointers on how to avoid them.

Look at my Udemy course: Case Studies of Entrepreneur Mistakes with Sramana Mitra. Throughout this course we talk about common mistakes that entrepreneurs make, and look at a lot of different case studies to illustrate the different types of mistakes that we see frequently.

We roleplay. You should too.

How Real Unicorn Startups Are Actually Built

There are two completely different ways to build a Unicorn: Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later (the 1Mby1M way), or Speculatively Blitzscale. Your probability of success with the first method is much higher.

Let’s look at an example.

How Freelancers Become Successful Solo Entrepreneurs

Are you a freelancer on Upwork or Fiverr? In the age of AI, you can build a million dollar business by thinking like an entrepreneur. Solo entrepreneurs are becoming the rage now. You have a leg up over them.

You are already on your own, outside of the corporate system.

You have mastered the art of hunting for business.

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Startup Asia: South Asia Startup Accelerator Ecosystem

This article presents an overview of the South Asia Startup accelerator ecosystem. It explores its shortcomings and how 1Mby1M can transform the South Asia startup accelerator ecosystem.

South Asia — encompassing India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan — is one of the fastest-growing and most complex startup regions in the world. With a combined population of over 1.9 billion, the region represents enormous entrepreneurial energy, deep informal economies, and rapidly evolving digital infrastructure. Yet, the startup accelerator landscape is far from uniform. Many local startup acceleration programs remain fragmented, donor-dependent, or heavily skewed toward equity-taking, cohort-based models that don’t always meet the nuanced needs of founders across the region.