Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped an EdTech Venture to $6M

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

Sramana Mitra: Alright, Daniel, let’s go to the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised? What kind of background?

Daniel Santos: I was born and raised in South Florida. I was born in a small community called Opa-locka, raised in Hialeah. They’re generally low-income, primarily Latino populations. My parents were first-generation immigrants from the Dominican Republic.

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An Overview of Startup Accelerators in the Greater New York Region

By Guest Author Armaan Kapur

The Accelerator Conundrumis a multipart series that challenges the prevailing wisdom of the tech startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs should Blitzscale out of the gate. Written by Sramana Mitra, the Founder and CEO of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first global virtual accelerator, it emphatically argues that a better strategy is to Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, focus on customers, revenues and profits. 1Mby1M’s mission is to help a Million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond. Sramana’s Digital Mind AI Mentor virtually mentors entrepreneurs around the world in 57 languages. Try it out!

Over a series of ten posts, inspired by The Accelerator Conundrum Series, I’ve gone deep into the ecosystem of accelerators in the Greater New York region — virtual, non-equity, long-term, bootstrapped, solo-focused, and everything in between. What started as a way to make sense of the chaos has turned into a roadmap for founders trying to navigate their options.

Startup Africa: Algeria’s Startup Accelerator Ecosystem – A Deep Dive

The Accelerator Conundrum is a multipart series that challenges the prevailing wisdom of the tech startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs should Blitzscale out of the gate. Written by Sramana Mitra, the Founder and CEO of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first global virtual accelerator, it emphatically argues that a better strategy is to Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, focus on customers, revenues and profits. 1Mby1M’s mission is to help a Million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond. Sramana’s Digital Mind AI Mentor virtually mentors entrepreneurs around the world in 57 languages. Try it out!

Algeria’s startup ecosystem is a growing but still developing landscape, buoyed by government support through initiatives like the Startup Act and the Algeria Startup Fund. While these efforts have fostered a number of incubators and accelerators, they often operate on the traditional model, which I’ve found to be a conundrum for long-term entrepreneurial success. If you haven’t already, please read my The Accelerator Conundrum blog series.

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Building a Venture Scale FinTech SaaS Startup: Mike Whitmire, co-founder and CEO of FloQast (Part 1)

Mike has raised over $300M and built an over $250M ARR FinTech SaaS business. Now, AI offers FloQast an opportunity to further strengthen their product roadmap with deep domain knowledge.

Startup Africa: Morocco’s Startup Accelerator-Ecosystem – A Deep Dive

The Accelerator Conundrum is a multipart series that challenges the prevailing wisdom of the tech startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs should Blitzscale out of the gate. Written by Sramana Mitra, the Founder and CEO of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first global virtual accelerator, it emphatically argues that a better strategy is to Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, focus on customers, revenues and profits. 1Mby1M’s mission is to help a Million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond. Sramana’s Digital Mind AI Mentor virtually mentors entrepreneurs around the world in 57 languages. Try it out!

I’ve spent a lot of time dissecting the startup ecosystem, and my The Accelerator Conundrum blog series goes deep into why traditional, cohort-based, equity-taking accelerators often fail entrepreneurs. For the Moroccan startup community, this is a particularly important discussion. Morocco’s startup scene is vibrant, with a young, tech-savvy population and government initiatives like Morocco Digital 2030. However, the ecosystem is still fragmented, with challenges like limited access to funding and a need for more robust, later-stage support. This is where the 1Mby1M virtual accelerator model becomes a powerful antidote to these issues.

Startup Africa: Tunisia’s Startup Accelerator Ecosystem – A Deep Dive

The Accelerator Conundrum is a multipart series that challenges the prevailing wisdom of the tech startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs should Blitzscale out of the gate. Written by Sramana Mitra, the Founder and CEO of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first global virtual accelerator, it emphatically argues that a better strategy is to Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, focus on customers, revenues and profits. 1Mby1M’s mission is to help a Million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond. Sramana’s Digital Mind AI Mentor virtually mentors entrepreneurs around the world in 57 languages. Try it out!

Tunisia has emerged as a leader in the North African startup scene, thanks in large part to its groundbreaking “Startup Act,” a government initiative that has created a supportive legal and financial framework for entrepreneurs. This has led to the rise of a number of prominent incubators and accelerators. However, the same Accelerator Conundrum I’ve discussed in my series applies here as well. The question for a Tunisian entrepreneur is not just “Which accelerator should I join?” but rather, “Which model of support best serves my long-term goals?”

Startup Africa: Egypt’s Startup Accelerator Ecosystem – A Deep Dive

The Accelerator Conundrum is a multipart series that challenges the prevailing wisdom of the tech startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs should Blitzscale out of the gate. Written by Sramana Mitra, the Founder and CEO of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first global virtual accelerator, it emphatically argues that a better strategy is to Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, focus on customers, revenues and profits. 1Mby1M’s mission is to help a Million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond. Sramana’s Digital Mind AI Mentor virtually mentors entrepreneurs around the world in 57 languages. Try it out!

Egypt’s startup ecosystem is a powerful force in the MENA region, driven by its large, young population and a tech-savvy culture. The government has played a crucial role, with initiatives from entities like the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC). Despite this, the ecosystem, like many, is still grappling with The Accelerator Conundrum: the reliance on traditional, cohort-based models obsessed with Blitzscaling out of the gate that don’t always serve the long-term needs of a startup.

Startup Africa: North Africa’s Startup Accelerator Ecosystem – An Overview

The Accelerator Conundrumis a multipart series that challenges the prevailing wisdom of the tech startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs should Blitzscale out of the gate. Written by Sramana Mitra, the Founder and CEO of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first global virtual accelerator, it emphatically argues that a better strategy is to Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, focus on customers, revenues and profits. 1Mby1M’s mission is to help a Million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond. Sramana’s Digital Mind AI Mentor virtually mentors entrepreneurs around the world in 57 languages. Try it out!

North Africa’s startup ecosystem is in the midst of a profound transformation. With a large, young, and tech-savvy population, countries like Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria are showing immense entrepreneurial promise. Governments across the region have launched initiatives to support this growth, creating a new wave of incubators and accelerators. But while these efforts are a step in the right direction, they are often built on a traditional model that, as I’ve argued in my The Accelerator Conundrum blog series, presents a fundamental conundrum for long-term entrepreneurial success.