571st Roundtable for Entrepreneurs Starting NOW: Live Tweeting by @1Mby1M

Today’s 571st FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable For Entrepreneurs is starting NOW, on Thursday, April 14, 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

571st Roundtable for Entrepreneurs Starting in 30 Minutes: Live Tweeting by @1Mby1M

Today’s 571st FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs is starting in 30 minutes, on Thursday, April 14, 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!

Cloud Stocks: Zoom Adds Contact Center Capabilities to Enhance its UCaaS Stack

According to a report published earlier this year, the global video conferencing market is expected to grow at 11% CAGR to reach $9.95 billion by 2028. Zoom (Nasdaq: ZM) recently reported its quarterly results that continued to outpace market expectations.

Video FAQs

From Hard Core Techie to Successful Entrepreneur: Francis Dinha, CEO of OpenVPN (Part 1)

Francis has bootstrapped OpenVPN to $3M ARR with JUST $1M in financing. Wonderful story!

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

Francis Dinha: I was born in northern Iraq in a place called Amadiya. I lived there until I was six years old. Due to the Baghdad-Iraqi war, we had to escape. There was a lot of bombing. I remember the bombing of our village. It reminds me of the current situation in Ukraine. We had to escape to Baghdad.

Best of Bootstrapping: How Can You Play the Low-Probability Game of Start-up Funding Intelligently?

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

Let’s start with a quote from Marc Andreessen:

“At our venture capital firm we only invest in a sort of Silicon Valley–style tech. We see 3,000 inbound deals a year. And those are inbound and coming through our referral network, so those are sort of prequalified. We can do maybe 15 or 20 investments out of the 3,000 a year. So I like to say our day job is crushing entrepreneurs’ hopes and dreams. Our main skill is saying no, and getting people to not hate us.” Source: Inside the mind of Marc Andreessen – Fortune Management

I run One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), a global virtual accelerator for startups. 2022 is our twelfth year supporting entrepreneurs.

Thousands upon thousands of entrepreneurs have approached us for help with their funding at a stage where their chances of getting funding is ZERO. We can’t help them, regardless of how powerful our investor connections are. We can’t help a startup get funding before they become fundable. It pains me to see how many entrepreneurs have no idea what makes a startup fundable.

>>>

From Developer to Serial Entrepreneur: Hevo Data CEO Manish Jethani (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: When you moved out in 2011, you had already transitioned from being a hardcore nerdy developer to someone experienced in sales. You had some understanding of what it takes to close enterprise deals. What happens next?

Manish Jethani: I still felt like an engineer who was trying to apply the engineering concepts to sales. The engineer in me has never left. Nothing gives me more joy than creating something. Building a product is still very thrilling.

Cloud Stocks: Upstart Focuses on the Automobile Market for Growth

According to a recent report, the global digital lending platform market is expected to grow 17% CAGR to reach $20.31 billion by 2027. San Mateo-based Upstart (NASDAQ: UPST) is a leading player in the market that continues to deliver impressive growth.

From Hardcore Techie to Unicorn Entrepreneur: Dheeraj Pandey, Founder of Nutanix (Part 6 )

Sramana Mitra: Did you do shareholder communication?

Dheeraj Pandey: All the time. I like it. There was a thesis to be sold as well. After we went public is when we started to transition the business model. It probably was the biggest business model transition the IT world has ever seen – going from hardware, to software, to subscription in three years. Communication is not something you can shy away from in these things.