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.

Roundtable Recap: September 16 – Startups from Tanzania, New Delhi and New York

During this week’s roundtable, we did a global romp through startup land.

Beem

First up we had Taha Jiwaji from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, pitch Beem, a terrific cPaaS company that is already doing over $1M in revenue.

OneNDF

Then we had Nitin Khandelwal from New Delhi, India, pitch OneNDF, a terrific FinTech company that is also doing over $1M in revenue, although not all of it through their FinTech platform yet.

Green Transport

Next Mohammed Tai and Jian Ming Lin pitching Green Transport, a concept stage idea. Mohammed is an intern in the 1Mby1M program.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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Featured Videos

9 Udemy Courses on How to Raise Pre-seed Startup Funding

The toughest round of funding an entrepreneur seeks to raise is pre-seed investment. It sports the lowest probability of success, the highest amount of ambiguity, is poorly defined, and is causing the greatest amount of confusion and road wreck out there.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Bradley Harrison, Founder and Managing Partner at Scout Ventures (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Bradley Harrison, Founder, Managing Partner at Scout Ventures, discusses how military professionals are engaging in entrepreneurship with an ecosystem supporting them. Quite fascinating!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s introduce you to our audience. Tell us a bit about your background as well as what you’re doing at Scout. 

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Geoff Ralston, President of Y Combinator (Part 1)

Geoff Ralston is President of Y Combinator. We had a terrific discussion on what we each are seeing in the startup ecosystem.

Sramana Mitra: Geoff has been involved with Y Combinator right from the beginning. Why don’t we take a look back on the evolution of Silicon Valley and Y Combinator.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Warren Weiss, Managing Partner at WestWave Capital (Part 1)

Warren Weiss is Managing Partner at WestWave Capital. We had a terrific discussion on small exits as seen by a seasoned investor.

Sramana Mitra: Warren is very well-known in the industry as “Bunny Weiss”. That’s his nickname. I’ve known him for a very long time. He was a General Partner at Foundation Capital for many years. Our families go back a long time. My husband and Bunny worked together under Steve Jobs. More recently, Bunny has started his own fund. He has also recently invested in one of the 1Mby1M companies.

543rd Roundtable Recording with Hamiz Awan, Plutus21 Capital

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

Roundtable Recap: August 26 – A Deep Dive into Blockchain Infrastructure

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Hamiz Awan, Founder and Partner at Plutus21 Capital, discussed BlockChain infrastructure and platforms.

xAQUA ODT

As for entrepreneur pitches, first up was Sanjib Nayak from Sacramento, CA, pitch xAQUA ODT, a data management venture that needs precise positioning.

Silk or Lace

Next, Suran Yoo from Dallas, Texas, pitched Silk or Lace, a hair piece marketplace that is already in revenue.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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541st 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Bradley Harrison, Scout Ventures

Bradley Harrison, Founder, Managing Partner at Scout Ventures, discusses how military professionals are engaging in entrepreneurship and an eco-system supporting them. Quite fascinating!

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542nd 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Warren Weiss, WestWave Capital

Warren Weiss is Managing Partner at WestWave Capital. We had a terrific discussion on small exits as seen by a seasoned investor.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Play | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

541st Roundtable Recording with Bradley Harrison, Scout Ventures

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

542nd Roundtable Recording with Warren Weiss, WestWave Capital

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

Roundtable Recap: August 19 – A Discussion on Small Exits

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Warren Weiss, Managing Partner at WestWave Capital and former General Partner at Foundation Capital. We had a terrific discussion on small exits as seen by a seasoned investor.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

>>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Ben Narasin, Founder and General Partner at Tenacity Venture Capital (Part 1)

Ben Narasin is Founder and General Partner at Tenacity Venture Capital, a new Seed fund.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by having you introduce yourself a little bit to our audience – both your personal background and the genesis of Tenacity.

Roundtable Recap: August 12 – Spotlight on Veteran Entrepreneurship

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Bradley Harrison, Founder, Managing Partner at Scout Ventures, for a terrific discussion on how military professionals are engaging in entrepreneurship and an eco-system supporting them. Quite fascinating!

atexto

As for our entrepreneur pitch, we had Esteban Gorupicz from Palo Alto, California, pitch atexto, an AI speech recognition technology for improving the accuracy of speech applications.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Rajeev Singh-Morales, Founder and Managing Partner at Alma Mundi Ventures (Part 1)

Rajeev Singh-Morales, Founder and Managing Partner at Alma Mundi Ventures, discusses the Europe – US bridge for tech startups.

Sramana Mitra: Your name is so interesting. It seems like there is a whole story in your name and your firm’s name. Do you want to start with a little bit of background?