
During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Shane Neman, Founder of EZ Texting and JoonBug.com, Principal at Neman Ventures. Shane has bootstrapped two companies as a solo entrepreneur, found successful exits for both, and is now an investor. Needless to say, he has no bias against solo entrepreneurs.
You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:
During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Stefan Batory, Co-founder and CEO of Booksy, a SaaS-enabled marketplace venture.
Koi Reader
As for our entrepreneur pitch today, we had Ashutosh Prasad from Dallas, Texas, pitching Koi Reader, a bootstrapped IoT company for the logistics industry.
Fitness Locater
We then had a conversation with entrepreneurs Jill and Rick Howard, who have recently joined the 1Mby1M Premium program and are also contemplating a SaaS-enabling Marketplace business
BeUniCom
Next up was Ashish Kumar who won a 1Mby1M Premium membership as the winner of the BizChamp Premier League, a virtual business hackathon for student startups. He is now validating an e-commerce venture.
You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

If you have been bootstrapping and think you are ready for investors, you need to learn how investors think. First, please study our free Bootstrapping course and Investor Introductions page. Then start looking for entrepreneur – investor fit. Today I introduce you to Sumant Mandal.
Sumant Mandal, Co-founder and Managing Partner at March Capital, emphasizes the impact of Covid on virtual companies and remote teams and discusses his investment thesis.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s catch up. Let’s also catch our audience up on how you are living the pandemic. What is happening with your fund and portfolio companies? What are you seeing?
>>>
Cindy Padnos, Founder and Managing Director at Illuminate Ventures, discusses the impact of Covid on the fund’s portfolio, as well as the trends she sees.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by welcoming back Cindy Padnos to our show. She is the founder and director of Illuminate Ventures and one of the active female investors in the Silicon Valley Movement. We have a lot more female investors, but she is one of the earlier ones. We had her here before and she has been doing a lot of work in this area for a long time.
>>>During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Alok Nandan, Founding General Partner, First Rays Venture Partners. Alok discussed the firm’s investment thesis which is very well defined and focused.
Tariy.at
As for our entrepreneur pitches, up first we had Andres Sigcha from Phoenix, Arizona, pitching Tariy.ai, a B-to-B venture.
YapPolitics
Next, we had Aidan Stephen from Los Angeles, California, pitching YapPolitics, a B-to-C venture.
You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping course and the Investor Introductions page.
Shane started as a solo entrepreneur and built two companies, bootstrapped both, and found successful exits for each.
Read on for more on his journey.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background did you have?
>>>
Over the years, we have developed a proven methodology for building tech startups. We recently started packaging the 1Mby1M methodology into short courses on Udemy. The courses are very reasonably priced. In addition, Udemy offers them at deep discounts from time to time. This is an extension of our strategy to democratize entrepreneurship education at scale, globally.
Below are the courses so far. To apply current discount coupons, click on your course within the blog series found HERE.
Bootstrapping:
Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later with Sramana Mitra
Bootstrapping a Startup with a Paycheck with Sramana Mitra
Bootstrapping a Startup with Services with Sramana Mitra
How to Bootstrap Startups by Piggybacking with Sramana Mitra
How to Bootstrap a Startup to Exit with Sramana Mitra
How To Succeed As A Solo Entrepreneur with Sramana Mitra
How Investors Think:
VC Due Diligence Questions For Startups With Sramana Mitra
Alternatives to Unicorn Chasing Investors with Sramana Mitra
How Pre-Seed Investors Think About Startups with Sramana Mitra
How Seed Investors Think About Startups with Sramana Mitra
Post-Seed and Pre-Series A Investors on Startups with Sramana Mitra
How Seed Investors Think About Deep Tech with Sramana Mitra
How Investors Think About Startups in India with Sramana Mitra
How Investors Think About European Startups with Sramana Mitra
How Investors Think of Startups in Latin America with Sramana Mitra
How Investors Think About Startups in the Midwest with Sramana Mitra
How Women Investors Think About Startups with Sramana Mitra
Lessons From The Trenches:
From Developer to Entrepreneur Case Studies | Sramana Mitra
How To Build Unicorn Tech Startups with Sramana Mitra
Entrepreneurship Case Studies from India 1 with Sramana Mitra
Entrepreneurship Case Studies from Europe 1 with Sramana Mitra
How to Build Tech Startups in Latin America with Sramana Mitra
Keys to Success for Women Entrepreneurs with Sramana Mitra
How Non-Technical Founders Build Startups with Sramana Mitra
Domain-specific Case Studies and Startup Ideas:
Generative AI Startup Strategy Case Studies | Sramana Mitra
PropTech Startup Case Studies with Sramana Mitra
Student Entrepreneur Startup Case Studies with Sramana Mitra
Startup Ideas for the Post Covid World with Sramana Mitra
How to Build E-commerce Startups with Sramana Mitra
How to Build 2-Sided E-commerce Marketplaces with Sramana Mitra
How To Build AI Startups with Sramana Mitra
How to Build Online Education Startups with Sramana Mitra
How to Build Digital Health Startups with Sramana Mitra
How to Build an Online Fashion Startup with Sramana Mitra
How to Build an IoT Startup with Sramana Mitra
How to Build a FinTech Startup with Sramana Mitra
How to Build a Cyber Security Startup with Sramana Mitra
How to Grow Communities of Entrepreneurs with Sramana Mitra
How to Teach Technology Entrepreneurship with Sramana Mitra
How to Build a Tech Entrepreneurship Blog with Sramana Mitra
We will continue to publish new courses throughout the year.

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Michael Smerklo, Co-founder and Managing Director at Next Coast Ventures. We had a terrific conversation about a range of issues including solo founders and their ill treatment by VCs.
We also had a conversation with entrepreneurs Jill and Rick Howard, who have just joined the 1Mby1M Premium program.
You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here: