Today’s 701st FREE online 1Mby1M Roundtable for Entrepreneurs is starting in 30 minutes, on Thursday, September 4, 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!
Sramana Mitra: The venture equation, which a lot of entrepreneurs struggle to grasp, is you have to go from zero to a hundred million dollars in five to seven years once you’ve entered the venture timeline. If you’re not doing that, then it’s hard to make the fund equations work.
There are some small funds that are doing Bootstrapping to Exit or Seedstrapping to Exit kind of deals. That’s a slightly different investment thesis, but they still need to find high-velocity companies to be able to exit them. Velocity is critical—without it, exits don’t really happen.
>>>Yesterday, cloud security provider Zscaler’s (NASDAQ: ZS) announced its fourth quarterly performance that outpaced market expectations. The company continues to focus on growth through AI offerings.
>>>Sramana Mitra: This is interesting. I’ve tracked a company that pioneered selling diamonds online—Blue Nile. You must be familiar with them. The entrepreneur came from the diamond industry; his family had roots there. He had a key insight: in the U.S., diamonds are primarily purchased by men for engagement rings.
>>>Sramana Mitra: Let’s do a few case studies of what you have invested in. As you’re describing those stories, tell us a bit about how you found these companies or how they found you, and what did you see in those companies that made you want to write those checks?
>>>9. Does 1Mby1M support founders trying to build long-term, viable companies even if they become non-VC attractive?
>>>8. Will I receive support navigating investor renegotiations — down rounds, partial exits, or changing the business model narrative?
>>>7. Can I get mentorship on forming efficient, cross-functional units for lean operations?
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