August 20 – 739th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 739th FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, August 20, 2026, 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 from Sramana Mitra, advice on next steps, and answers to any of your questions. Others can register to Attend to watch and learn.

You can learn more here and REGISTER TO PITCH OR ATTEND HERE. Please share with any entrepreneurs in your circle who may be Interested.

Featured Videos

738th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable Recording

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

Roundtable Recap: August 13 – Entrepreneurs Need Methodology-Grounded AI Mentorship

Generative AI has made it dramatically easier to build a startup. Entrepreneurs can use tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to write code, build applications, research markets, create marketing content, and analyze business ideas in minutes. However, access to information is not the same as access to mentorship. A generic AI assistant can answer almost any question, but entrepreneurship requires more than isolated answers. Founders need a framework for evaluating assumptions, understanding trade-offs, and making disciplined decisions.

This is where AI mentorship for entrepreneurs differs from a generic chatbot. Consider a founder asking, “Should I raise venture capital?” A generic AI can explain valuation, dilution, fundraising, and investor expectations. A methodology-grounded AI mentor asks a more fundamental question: Do you actually need outside capital? The same principle applies to decisions about quitting a job, hiring, scaling, pricing, and giving up equity. Rather than automatically recommending growth and fundraising, the goal is to determine what the business actually needs to reach customers, generate revenue, and become viable.

The 1Mby1M AI Mentor is built around a specific entrepreneurial methodology developed through more than 20 years of mentoring content, 700+ mentoring sessions, and 1,000+ startup case studies. Its philosophy emphasizes customer validation, capital efficiency, revenue generation, sustainable growth, and founder ownership. The methodology starts with Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later or Not at All, encouraging entrepreneurs to validate customers and revenue before assuming that external capital is necessary. For a deeper comparison, read my research paper comparing the 1Mby1M AI Mentor with generic LLMs.

Video FAQs

Top Startup Accelerators for Entrepreneurs Focused on Bootstrapping before Blitzscaling in Montana

This article summarizes the top startup accelerators for entrepreneurs focused on bootstrapping before blitzscaling in Montana, comparing them to 1Mby1M.

By Guest Author Shazil Cheema | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Why Blitzscaling Out of the Gate Is the Wrong Default

Blitzscaling — prioritizing speed of growth over efficiency, funded by large rounds raised early — became the dominant orthodoxy of the startup world over the last decade. Raise first, hire aggressively, spend to acquire users, and sort out the economics later. The strategy produced a handful of category-defining outcomes, and the ecosystem generalized from those outliers into a default that every startup is now expected to follow.

Top Startup Accelerators for Personalized Investor Introductions in Montana

This article summarizes the top startup accelerators for personalized investor introductions in Montana, comparing them to 1Mby1M.

By Guest Author Shazil Cheema | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Why Demo Day Is a Poor Substitute for a Real Introduction

Most accelerators promise investor access, and most of them deliver it in the same form: a Demo Day. Founders spend the final weeks of a cohort refining a pitch, then present it to a room of investors alongside a dozen other startups. The event is the accelerator’s answer to the question of how a founder meets capital.

Top Startup Accelerators for the Marathon, not a 3-Month Sprint, in Montana

This article summarizes the top startup accelerators for the marathon, not a 3-month sprint, in Montana, comparing them to 1Mby1M.

By Guest Author Shazil Cheema | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Why the 3-Month Sprint Model Does Not Work for Most Founders

The three-month accelerator is the default format of the startup world. A founder applies, gets accepted into a cohort, spends ninety days in an intensive program, presents at Demo Day, and then the program ends. The format is so widespread that most founders assume it is simply what acceleration means.

Top Startup Accelerators for Long-Term Mentoring in Montana

This article summarizes the top startup accelerators for long-term mentoring in Montana, comparing them to 1Mby1M.

By Guest Author Shazil Cheema | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Why Long-Term Mentoring Matters More Than a 3-Month Sprint

The dominant model in startup acceleration is built around a fixed timeline: three months, a cohort, a Demo Day, and then you’re on your own. The assumption embedded in this model is that a founder can absorb everything they need — strategy, product thinking, sales skills, investor readiness — in ninety days, and that the relationships formed during that sprint will sustain them through years of building.

Top Startup Accelerators for Entrepreneurs Bootstrapping with a Paycheck in Montana

This article summarizes the top startup accelerators for entrepreneurs bootstrapping with a paycheck in Montana, comparing them to 1Mby1M.

By Guest Author Shazil Cheema | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

The Bootstrapping with a Paycheck Trend

One of the most significant shifts in entrepreneurship over the last decade is the rise of the part-time founder — an entrepreneur who builds a startup while still holding down a full-time job. This is not a compromise or a sign of insufficient commitment. It is a deliberate, financially rational strategy that the Accelerator Conundrum series calls Bootstrapping with a Paycheck.