The Accelerator Conundrum: Navigating Your Path to Startup Success

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!

Alright, let’s cut through the noise and get to the brutal truth of the startup accelerator world. Many entrepreneurs, starry-eyed and naive, leap headfirst into 3-month accelerator programs without truly understanding the long-term implications. It’s time for an incisive commentary, a necessary dissection.

1Mby1M Udemy Courses with Sramana Mitra: Financing

Raising money to build a startup is a huge challenge. To be able to raise any money at all, you must first understand how investors think. We have developed the following courses catering to entrepreneurs in different stages of their entrepreneurial journey.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Seksom Suriyapa, Partner at Upfront Ventures (Part 1)

Seksom Suriyapa, Partner at Upfront Ventures, and formerly Head of Corp Dev at Twitter, SuccessFactors, and McAfee and Akamai discusses exit strategy from the buy-side perspective at length.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by having you talk a little bit about your background in corp dev doing acquisitions from the buy side from various significant companies before you switched to the venture side.

Featured Videos

557th Roundtable Recording with Eva Yazhari, Beyond Capital Ventures

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

Roundtable Recap: December 16 – Spotlight on Impact Investing

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Eva Yazhari, General Partner at Beyond Capital Ventures, discussing Impact Investing in Africa and India.

Magic Orb

As for entrepreneur pitches, we had Tarek Mhiri from Tunis, Tunisia, pitch Magic Orb, a micro-mentoring service for US universities to recruit international students.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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556th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Seong Kim, Chegg

Seong Kim, Corporate Strategy & Development for Chegg Inc., discusses exit strategy within EdTech.

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555th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Seksom Suriyapa, Upfront Ventures

Seksom Suriyapa, Partner at Upfront Ventures, and formerly head of Corp Dev at Twitter, SuccessFactors, McAfee and Akamai, discusses exit strategy from the buy-side perspective at length.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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554th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Deepak Gupta, WEH Ventures

Deepak Gupta, Founding Partner at WEH Ventures, discusses his fund’s pre-seed and seed funding strategy for Indian startups.

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556th Roundtable Recording with Seong Kim, Chegg

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

Roundtable Recap: December 9 – Discussion on EdTech Exit Strategy

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Seong Kim, Corporate Strategy & Development for Chegg Inc., to discuss exit strategy within EdTech.

Relai

As for entrepreneur pitches, we had 1Mby1M Premium member Claudia Giannoni from London, UK, pitching Relai, a real estate marketplace leveraging the SaaS-enabled marketplace trend that we like a lot.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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555th Roundtable Recording with Seksom Suriyapa, Upfront Ventures

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

Roundtable Recap: December 2 – More on Exit Strategy

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Seksom Suriyapa, Partner at Upfront Ventures, and formerly head of Corp Dev at Twitter, SuccessFactors, McAfee and Akamai. Seksom discussed exit strategy from the buy-side perspective at length.

OneNDF

As for entrepreneur pitches, up first we had 1Mby1M Premium member Nitin Khandelwal from New Delhi, India, pitching OneNDF. It was more a working session on his financial and fund-raising strategy.

ExtraSlice

Next, we had Binu Reghunathan from Bellevue, Washington, pitch ExtraSlice, a commercial real-estate marketplace that is taking advantage of the work-from-home trend and the desire for flexibility in office space.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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How to Teach Technology Entrepreneurship Using the 1Mby1M Methodology and Case Studies: How Investors Think

Considering how omnipresent the topic of fundraising is in the entrepreneurship media, it is entirely reasonable to dedicate a quarter or a semester to teaching how investors think.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Hamiz Awan, Founder and Partner at Plutus21 Capital (Part 1)

Hamiz Awan, Founder and Partner at Plutus21 Capital, discusses Blockchain infrastructure and platforms.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s introduce you to our audience. Tell us a bit about our background as well as about Plutus21 Capital. 

553rd 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Aniruddha Malpani, Malpani Ventures

Dr. Aniruddha Malpani, Founder of Malpani Ventures, is an active angel investor in Indian startups for the past decade. Wonderful conversation.

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553rd Roundtable Recording with Aniruddha Malpani, Malpani Ventures

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

Roundtable Recap: November 11 – Discussion with a Veteran Angel Investor in Indian Startups

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Dr. Aniruddha Malpani, Founder of Malpani Ventures, an active angel investor in Indian startups for the past decade. Wonderful conversation.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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