689th 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs Starting in 30 Minutes

Today’s 689th FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs is starting in 15 minutes, on Thursday, June 12, at 8 a.m. PDT / 11 a.m. EDT / 5 p.m. CEST / 8:30 p.m. India IST. CLICK HERE to join. PASSWORD: startup  All are welcome!

Featured Videos

1Mby1M AI Investor Forum: Nicholas Fok, General Partner, Erez Capital (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: For those of you who are listening, it’s actually not a bad business to do a wrapper. You can build a business by doing AI wrappers that are specific to a vertical or specific to a use case, and you would find customers. It’s better as a bootstrapped business. VCs are not going to invest in wrappers, because the VC funded company has to go from zero to a hundred million dollars in five to seven years. So, you need a defensible competitive advantage. You need an exit strategy and so forth, none of which are going to be viable with just a wrapper business.

Why VCs Keep Saying No

Are you trying to raise money for your startup and getting rejections? It’s worth understanding WHY. VCs are looking for Velocity. Their goal is to achieve $100M in revenue in 5-7 years. How do you do that?

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Video FAQs

Best of Bootstrapping: Founder Bootstrapped to $10M Using Services

Founder Sameer Maggon discussed bootstrapping SearchStax to $10 million using services with me in 2021. Excellently navigated journey!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, and in what kind of background?

Sameer Maggon: I grew up in Delhi. I did my engineering in Computer Science from Pune. Then I came back to my hometown to work for a document management company. Then I decided to learn more. I came to USC in Los Angeles and did my Masters in Computer Science. Since then, I’ve been in LA and worked in a variety of startups and larger companies in the greater Los Angeles area. 

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1Mby1M AI Investor Forum: Nicholas Fok, General Partner, Erez Capital (Part 1)

Nicholas Fok from Erez Capital discusses his firm’s investment thesis.

Grow Your Startup With a Paycheck

Are you still employed but dreaming of starting a company? I’m going to give you some contrarian advice: Do NOT quit your job. In 1Mby1M, we support entrepreneurs Bootstrapping with a Paycheck. There is no good reason to quit your job before validating your startup idea.

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Analysis of Amazon’s Adept AI Deal

According to a recent research, the global agentic AI market is expected to grow at 41% CAGR from $7.3 billion in 2025 to $41.3 billion by 2030. San Francisco-based Adept AI is trying to make its mark in this high growth, yet competitive space.

Bootstrapping versus Blitzscaling

There are many controversial topics swirling at the moment: Bootstrapping vs. Blitzscaling, Concept Financing, Applying to Y Combinator, and Bootstrapping with a Paycheck. In this article, please find links to specific discussions on each of those topics. You are most welcome to weigh in.

Remember, Entrepreneurship = Customers + Revenues + Profits; Financing and Exit are Optional.

The media has, unfortunately, muddled this issue. If you read what is celebrated, you would think Entrepreneurship = Financing.

This is absolutely false.

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