1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Heather Hiles, Founder and Managing Partner at Imminent Equity (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: One of the reasons why we got attracted to Udemy as a platform to work with is because of the reach and democratization. There is no barrier to entry. Has Udemy made an impact in the startup ecosystem?

Heather Hiles: It has. It has been transformative for people around the world. It’s one of the reasons that I was so thrilled to be asked to join the Board of Directors in 2020. Over my 35 years, I’ve become a bit of an expert in how to upskill people. I had just come from building the first state-wide community college online teaching program of actual competencies and job technical skills to underemployed people in order to upskill them.

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595th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Sergey Jakimov, LongeVC

Sergey Jakimov is Co-founder and Partner at LongeVC, a firm focused on the Longevity space. We discuss trends and opportunities in this sector full of whitespace waiting for the entrepreneur’s magic touch.

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November 10 – 596th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 596th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, November 10, 2022, at 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST/5 p.m. CET/9:30 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 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. All are welcome!

Video FAQs

595th Roundtable Recording with Sergey Jakimov, LongeVC

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

Roundtable Recap: November 3 – Spotlight on Longevity Startup Opportunities

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Sergey Jakimov, Co-founder and Partner at LongeVC, a firm focused on the Longevity space. We discussed trends and opportunities in this sector full of whitespace waiting for the entrepreneur’s magic touch.

13 Layers

As for entrepreneur pitches, we first had Justin Perron from Lexington, Kentucky, pitching 13 Layers.

Climate CRO

Next, we had Dr. Justin Lancaster from Barnard, Vermont, pitching Climate CRO.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Heather Hiles, Founder and Managing Partner at Imminent Equity (Part 3)

Heather Hiles: I spoke to the incoming class at Hass business school. I looked at hundreds of folks there and saw a very small minority of black and brown faces and even a smaller minority of folks who are from this country. I said, “How many of you are planning to go into investing?” Most hands went up. I say, “You’re at a deficit because you will be missing whole groups of opportunities of founders with who you have no interaction with and who will be creating the best solutions in the world.”

At Black Ops, we were able to get many LPs from the likes of Bank of America, JP Morgan, and Andreessen Horowitz. The VCs realized that there are communities of founders that they never encountered. I’m talking to 15 founders a week. We see the best and the brightest in our community and we will invest in them.

Thought Leader in Financial Technology: DealMaker CEO Rebecca Kacaba (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: I think this is a valuable discussion for people trying to understand equity crowdfunding. There need to be guard rails to protect consumers. I have seen what happened in the dot com crash. A lot of people got completely creamed out.

Rebecca Kacaba: Those were public stocks, generally en masse.

Sramana Mitra: Everything. There were public stocks and there were these friends and family investors. This is still happening. It’s not like it’s not happening still. People have dreams of making money off of startups.

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped with Services to $20M

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

VisiQuate Founder CEO Brian Robertson is a serial bootstrapper. In fact, he always bootstraps using services. Terrific entrepreneur to learn from.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go to the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background did you have?

Brian Robertson: I’m from Northern California. We’re not in the heart of Silicon Valley, but up in Sonoma County. I was born in Kansas City, Missouri, but I was only there for two weeks. My dad was in the Navy. His family was from the Midwest and we were there for a short period.

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