1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Marina and Nick Davidov, DVC (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: You’re not the only ones who invest only in repeat founders. Most of the venture capital industry does the same. It’s very hard for first-time founders to raise money because of that. We help a lot of first-time founders, and it’s a real challenge.

Let’s go deeper into your AI investment thesis with a more specific question.

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Colors: Door II

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about art and culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of art – one of my paintings – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Door II

Door II | Sramana Mitra, 2023 | Watercolor, Ink, Pastel | 9  x 12, On Paper

Startup Success Comes from Customers Not Speculators

I want to share with you an insight from running the 1Mby1M program since 2008. Over 700 free mentoring roundtables with over 300k entrepreneurs. Thousands of case studies of successful entrepreneurs – the who’s who of tech startups – through interview based methodology development.

It is a complex exercise to give people a message that goes against the grain of media hype. 

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Cloud Stocks: Adobe Doubles Down on Agentic AI Strategy

Yesterday, Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) reported its quarterly results that were ahead of market expectations. The stock has not had a good run so far this year, having dropped 21% so far on worries that “AI is eating software”. Analysts believe that AI will make the infrastructure companies more valuable and SaaS companies will suffer. Adobe is addressing the concern by aggressively integrating AI features into its Creative Cloud products, developing its own generative AI platform called Firefly, and expanding into enterprise AI solutions.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Marina and Nick Davidov, DVC (Part 1)

Marina and Nick Davidov are Cofounders and Managing Partners at DVC, a firm that backs only repeat founders doing AI startups. We had a terrific conversation on cutting edge issues within the AI ecosystem.

September 25 – 703rd 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 703rd FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, September 25, 2025, at 8 a.m. PDT / 11 a.m. EDT / 5 p.m. CEST / 8:30 p.m. India IST.

If you are a serious entrepreneur, register to Pitch and sell your business idea. You’ll receive straightforward feedback, advice on next steps, and answers to any of your questions. Others can register to Attend to watch, learn, and interact through the online chat.

You can learn more here and and REGISTER TO PITCH OR ATTEND HERE. Register and you will receive the recording by email, even if you are unable to attend. Please share with any entrepreneurs in your circle who may be Interested.

702nd 1Mby1M Roundtable Recording

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

Roundtable Recap: September 11 – The 1Mby1M AI Mentor Does Some Things Better than Me

During this week’s roundtable, we had four excellent discussions on entrepreneur pitches.

EV Ecosystem

First up we had Yves Nzuzi-Khuabi from Lake Macquarie, Australia, pitch EV Ecosystem, a 2-sided marketplace for electric vehicle accessories and services.

Surge

Then we had Ishu Darshan from Gurugram, India, pitch Surge, a team collaboration product.

Marketta

Then Sean Morris from Kerry, Ireland, pitched Marketta, a customer survey product.

Detoxit

Last we had Utkarsh Pandey from Lucknow, India, pitch Detoxit, an app for detoxing from phone and social media addiction.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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