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Roundtable Recap: November 20 – Manipur Discovers 1Mby1M

Posted on Friday, Nov 21st 2025
This roundtable recap image shows Sramana Mitra on screen at the start of the webinar.

During this week’s roundtable, we had our first ever entrepreneur pitch from the tiny Indian state of Manipur, tucked away in the fast Eastern corner, by the Myanmar border. In a discussion at the end of the session, we learned that the state has about 90 startups, and a WhatsApp group has about 180 entrepreneurs and aspiring founders.

This reminded me why I started 1Mby1M: to democratize entrepreneurship education, incubation and acceleration.

BioLeads

As for our entrepreneur pitches, first we had Ritvik Dubey from Toronto, Canada, pitch BioLeads. We discussed TAM and Fundability.

Ridezz

Next, we had Sunny Paliwal from Jaipur, India, pitch Ridezz, a 2-wheeler ride sharing app. We discussed how to bootstrap to validation.

Nibiaa

Then we had Aeroshil Nameirakpam from Imphal, India, pitch nibiaa. Imphal is the capital of Manipur. Nibiaa is generating a small amount of revenue. The company has good potential to grow, but needs to tighten its go-to-market strategy quite a bit. It can be done.

You can listen to the recording here:

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Daniel Ibri, Mindset Ventures (Part 5)

Posted on Friday, Nov 21st 2025

Sramana Mitra: Earlier you said you wanted to discuss how venture capital is changing. We have a little time, so I want to explore that.

There’s a point of view circulating that even though venture capital is focused on vertical AI right now, AGI could make vertical AI irrelevant. And if AGI arrives during the timeframe when current gen-AI companies mature and prepare for exits, those exit opportunities might disappear. These are existential threats for venture capital. How do you think about that?

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Startup Asia: Why the 1Mby1M Global Virtual Accelerator Is a Game-Changer for Asia Startup Accelerator Ecosysten

Posted on Thursday, Nov 20th 2025

This article presents an overview of the Asia Startup accelerator ecosystem. It explores its shortcomings and why the 1Mby1M global virtual accelerator is a game-changer for Asia startup accelerator ecosystem.

Asia startup accelerator ecosystem

Asia’s startup landscape is one of the most dynamic in the world — vast, diverse, and full of promise. Yet it is also fragmented, unevenly supported, and often poorly aligned with accelerator models imported from Silicon Valley. Across the continent, founders face common structural challenges despite wildly different cultural, economic, and regulatory environments.

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Video FAQs

New Zealand’s Startup Accelerator Ecosystem: Bootstrapping First Blueprint for Sustainable Success

Posted on Thursday, Nov 20th 2025
Photo Credit: Claudio Bianchi from Pixabay

As we’ve seen in earlier parts of this series, New Zealand’s startup ecosystem is small but sophisticated, distributed yet deeply creative. From Auckland’s fintech and SaaS hubs to Wellington’s design-led ventures and Christchurch’s engineering heartland, the country consistently produces high-quality entrepreneurs. But the hard truth is this: venture-style blitzscaling doesn’t fit the New Zealand context.

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Validate Your Startup Idea Before Writing Any Code

Posted on Thursday, Nov 20th 2025
A person coding on their laptop to illustrate that you should validate your startup idea with customers before writing code.

Techie founders generally operate in their comfort zones: they like to write code. They often start developing software before they validate with customers. As such, they often build solutions looking for problems.

Do NOT write code before you immerse yourself in customers and develop a deep understanding of what pain you are solving.

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New Zealand’s Startup Accelerator Ecosystem: Regional Hubs and the Geography of Innovation

Posted on Thursday, Nov 20th 2025
Aoraki/Mt. Cook, NZ

In the previous segment, we explored the structural realities of New Zealand’s startup ecosystem — a small domestic market, limited venture capital, and a compelling need for global reach from day one. In this part, let’s look at the geography of innovation across the country — the regional hubs, their strengths, their accelerator cultures, and how the 1Mby1M virtual accelerator complements and extends their efforts.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Daniel Ibri, Mindset Ventures (Part 4)

Posted on Thursday, Nov 20th 2025

Sramana Mitra: Another important point: the probability of building a true unicorn—not an artificial one inflated with liquidation preferences—is extremely low. Many overfunded companies become “zombiecorns” or fail due to overfunding.

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New Zealand’s Startup Accelerator Ecosystem: The Conundrum

Posted on Wednesday, Nov 19th 2025
Auckland, NZ

New Zealand has always punched above its weight. With just over five million people, this island nation has built a surprisingly vibrant startup ecosystem. From Wellington’s creative SaaS ventures to Christchurch’s engineering-driven deep tech, innovation has become part of New Zealand’s national identity. Yet, for all its accomplishments, founders here face a familiar challenge — distance, funding scarcity, and the need for global reach from day one.

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