Roundtable Recap: June 11 – Sustainability First, Blitzscaling Second

If you are looking for an accelerator to work with that protects you from either going out of business rapidly, or becoming a zombie, please read my new paper, How to Evaluate a Technology Startup Accelerator.

Please remember, most equity charging accelerators operate with the Blitzscaling out of the gate philosophy pioneered by Y Combinator. This works in Silicon Valley where capital is abundantly available, and the appetite for risk is high. It doesn’t work in most other geographies.
As such, most equity-charging, Blitzscaling parroting accelerators manufacture dead and zombie startups 90% of the time. In some geographies, the failure percentage shoots up to 99%.
While evaluating an accelerator, keep this statistic in mind.

Featured Videos

Top Equity-Free Accelerators in Finland

This article summarizes the top equity-free accelerators in Finland for bootstrapped and solo founders, and compares them to 1Mby1M.

By Guest Author Rishi Rajesh | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Over the past few years, Helsinki, Finland has become a premier hub for providing startups with access to top non-equity accelerators that offer real support with no cost of ownership. In today’s global landscape where an exchange of 5-10% equity is standardized for typical three-month programs that nudge you towards Demo Day, Finland has a surprisingly unique amount of programs that offer the same mentorship with an additional bonus: Letting Finnish founders keep 100% of what they are trying to scale.

Top Virtual Accelerators in Tunisia

This article summarizes the top virtual accelerators in Tunisia and compares them to 1Mby1M across key dimensions.

By Guest Author Cecelia Kirchner | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Traditional startup accelerators have long played a critical role in building  entrepreneurial enterprises into successful ventures. Such programs depend on systemization of the ‘blitzscaling’ strategy, wherein an enterprise is grown at a hyper- active scale in order to stand before venture capitalists on ‘Demo Day.’ Yet these rigidly-set programs are not constructed to adapt to the entrepreneur and nurture long-term success.

Video FAQs

Top Non-Equity Accelerators in Florida

This article summarizes the top non-equity accelerators in Florida for bootstrapped and solo founders, comparing them to 1Mby1M across key dimensions like equity, delivery model, stage focus, and mentoring depth.

By Guest Author Kanav Sah | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

In The Accelerator Conundrum series, Sramana Mitra identifies a structural flaw baked into the dominant accelerator model: founders are asked to give up 7-10% equity at the earliest and most uncertain stage of their venture, in exchange for short-term cohort programming that rarely translates into long-term sustainability. The better path is Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, and it starts with equity preservation.

Top Virtual Accelerators in Seattle

This article summarizes the top virtual accelerators in Seattle and compares them to 1Mby1M.

By Guest Author Jenish Budhathoki | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Seattle is one of the most dynamic startup cities in the United States. Home to Amazon, Microsoft, and a thriving community of deep tech, AI, and enterprise software startups, Seattle has built an ecosystem that rivals Silicon Valley in technical talent and innovation density. The city hosts over 28 accelerators and incubators accepting applications in 2026, spanning industries from biotech and maritime tech to cloud computing and AI. Yet for all its dynamism, Seattle’s accelerator landscape has a fundamental problem — one that mirrors a challenge facing founders across the entire country.

Cisco Lays Off to Fund AI Boom

Last month, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) announced its third quarter results that delivered record revenues. The company is benefiting from AI-related orders. Besides announcing a record quarter, it also announced significant layoffs.

Top Virtual Accelerators in Finland

This article reviews the top virtual accelerators in Finland for bootrapped and solo founders, and examines how they compare to 1Mby1M across key metrics.

By Guest Author Rishi Rajesh | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

How has a country that hosts close to 5.6 million people quickly become one of the world’s largest tech startup powerhouses? Finland punches par above its weight in the global startup arena. The ecosystem boasts around 2000+ active startups, has raised a record of $1.6 billion in 2025 alone, and has produced over 21 unicorns, including household names such as Supercell, Wolt, and Oura. 

Top Virtual Accelerators in France

This paper outlines some of the leading virtual accelerators in France and compares them against 1Mby1M across key dimensions. This paper is based on The Accelerator Conundrum blog series – a multipart research paper written by Sramana Mitra, Founder & CEO of 1Mby1M, who questions the prevailing belief that startups need to blitzscale right from the start, favoring instead the Bootstrap First strategy.

By Guest Author Kase Chang| Reviewed by Sramana Mitra