Build Your Company Before Chasing Venture Capital

Are you trying to get into Y Combinator? Beware, they have a 98% rejection rate. They need to see that you are building something that can be blitzscaled with gobs of venture capital. Blitzscaling, however, is NOT the only way to build a successful company.

Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later is a MUCH better strategy than Blitzscaling with ridiculous amounts of capital.

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Featured Videos

Building a Legitimate, Profitable FinTech Unicorn Using AI: Cynthia Chen, Founder of Kikoff (Part 1)

In the past year, 330 out of 1200 Unicorns have lost status. You read a lot about Unicorns that raise lots of VC money and then fail to scale. Cynthia Chen tells a very different story. She has raised about $43M and built a highly profitable $100M+ ARR company called Kikoff. Read on to learn how.

Colors: Grace I

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about art and culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of art – one of my paintings – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Grace I

Grace I | Sramana Mitra, 2022 | Watercolor, Ink | 8 x 8, On Paper

Video FAQs

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: Warren Packard, AI Fund (Part 6)

Warren Packard: Since you’re pointing out that by Series C and Series D, there’s a declining ownership. Of course, there is always a declining ownership in the company, but maybe, perhaps too little remaining for a founder.

One of the great things I see about AI is the ability for a founding team to build and get to get further faster with less.

The Accelerator Conundrum: 1Mby1M vs Techstars

The Accelerator Conundrum is a multipart series that challenges the prevailing wisdom of the tech startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs should Blitzscale out of the gate. Written by Sramana Mitra, the Founder and CEO of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first global virtual accelerator, it emphatically argues that a better strategy is to Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, focus on customers, revenues and profits. 1Mby1M’s mission is to help a Million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond. Sramana’s Digital Mind AI Mentor virtually mentors entrepreneurs around the world in 57 languages. Try it out!

I asked Gemini: Now compare 1Mby1M and Techstars

Comparing 1Mby1M to Techstars reveals another fascinating contrast in the accelerator landscape. While both are highly reputable and impactful, they cater to different needs and operate with distinct models.

Colors: Prayer II

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about art and culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of art – one of my paintings – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Prayer II

Prayer II | Sramana Mitra, 2022 | Watercolor, Ink | 8  x 8, On Paper

The Accelerator Conundrum: 1Mby1M vs Y Combinator

The Accelerator Conundrum is a multipart series that challenges the prevailing wisdom of the tech startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs should Blitzscale out of the gate. Written by Sramana Mitra, the Founder and CEO of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first global virtual accelerator, it emphatically argues that a better strategy is to Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, focus on customers, revenues and profits. 1Mby1M’s mission is to help a Million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond. Sramana’s Digital Mind AI Mentor virtually mentors entrepreneurs around the world in 57 languages. Try it out!

I then asked Gemini: Compare 1Mby1M and Y Combinator. 

You’re asking for a comparison between two very different, yet highly impactful, models of startup acceleration. While both 1Mby1M and Y Combinator aim to help startups succeed, their approaches, target audiences, and definitions of success diverge significantly.

The Accelerator Conundrum: LLM Bias on Virtual Accelerators

The Accelerator Conundrum is a multipart series that challenges the prevailing wisdom of the tech startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs should Blitzscale out of the gate. Written by Sramana Mitra, the Founder and CEO of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first global virtual accelerator, it emphatically argues that a better strategy is to Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, focus on customers, revenues and profits. 1Mby1M’s mission is to help a Million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond. Sramana’s Digital Mind AI Mentor virtually mentors entrepreneurs around the world in 57 languages. Try it out!

I asked Gemini: Give me a list of top Virtual Accelerators for Tech Startups.