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.

538th Roundtable Recording with Ben Narasin, Tenacity Venture Capital

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

Featured Videos

Roundtable Recap: July 15 – The Definition of Success is Personal

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Ben Narasin, Founder and General Partner at Tenacity Venture Capital, a new Seed fund.

Agricoltura

As for our entrepreneur pitch, we had Davide Balbi, from Cassino, Italy, pitching Agricoltura, a farming venture.

PontApp

Next, we had Charvi Garg from New Delhi, India, pitching the PontApp, a scheduling app that she needs to position more precisely.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

>>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Karthee Madasamy, Founder and Managing Partner at Mobile Foundation Ventures (Part 1)

Karthee Madasamy is the Founder and Managing Partner at Mobile Foundation Ventures. We discuss the nuances of Deep Tech investing.

Sramana Mitra: Karthee has been here before. We are going to catch up and level set on how COVID has been and how the ecosystem around us is evolving. Welcome back. It’s great to see you. 

Karthee Madasamy: It’s great to see you too. Thank you. 

537th Roundtable Recording on July 8, 2021: With Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot

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

Roundtable Recap: July 8 – Building HubSpot to a Unicorn: Dharmesh Shah’s Amazing Entrepreneurial Journey

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Dharmesh Shah, Founder and CTO of HubSpot. Dharmesh discussed his entrepreneurial journey with candor, humility and generosity. Wonderful conversation.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

>>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Jon Staenberg, Managing Partner at Staenberg Venture Partners 2021 (Part 1)

Jon Staenberg, Managing Partner at Staenberg Venture Partners, discusses the trends he is seeing and the investment thesis he is following.

Sramana Mitra:  How have you been? How has COVID been? Has everything been okay?

Jon Staenberg: I was just talking about that this morning. I feel very lucky. I traveled a lot during COVID. I got a lot of business done. I have to say that I feel very fortunate. Now, it seems like airports are busy. People are traveling and they are eager to get out. In fact, I hold investor and founder dinners in San Francisco and Seattle. I get a lot of unsolicited reminders that we should get going with those. 

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Shane Neman, Principal at Neman Ventures (Part 1)

Shane Neman is the Founder of EZ Texting, JoonBug.com, and 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 solopreneurs. 

Sramana Mitra: We are going to spend quite a bit of time today with Shane Neman. I met Shane a while ago in his Entrepreneur Journey story. I found a lot of interesting insights and lessons from his journey that I wanted to highlight and showcase for you. That is what we are going to do for a while today then we will see what else we have time for. Welcome to the show, Shane.

536th Roundtable Recording on June 24, 2021: With Rajeev Singh-Molares, Alma Mundi Ventures

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

Roundtable Recap: June 24 – Discussion on the Europe-US Bridge for Tech Startups

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Rajeev Singh-Morales at Alma Mundi Ventures. We discussed the Europe – US bridge for tech startups.

Adios

As for our entrepreneur pitch, we had Tarun Gulati from Pune, India, pitching Adios, an app for achieving mental clarity. It aligns with the mental health tech startup trend that Rajeev discussed earlier.

FaveKitchens

Next, we had Praveen Akula from Seattle, Washington, pitching FaveKitchens, a restaurant tech startup that is already doing significant revenue and wants to raise a round.

You can listen to the recording here:

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

>>>

How Investors Think

If you’ve been bootstrapping your company for a bit, and are wondering whether or not to raise money, remember, Investors are looking to multiply the money that they put into startups.

Multiply by how much? 2X? 3X? 5X? 10X? 20X?

>>>

534th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Jon Staenberg, Staenberg Venture Partners

Jon Staenberg, Managing Partner at Staenberg Venture Partners, discusses the trends he is seeing and investment thesis he is following.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

532nd 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Karthee Madasamy, MFV Ventures

Karthee Madasamy is Founder and Managing Partner at Mobile Foundation Ventures. We discuss the nuances of Deep Tech investing.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

534th Roundtable Recording on June 10, 2021: With Jon Staenberg, Staenberg Venture Partners

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

Roundtable Recap: June 10 – More on Two-sided Marketplaces

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Jon Staenberg, Managing Partner at Staenberg Venture Partners. We discussed the trends he is seeing and investment thesis he is following.

Foodoop

As for our entrepreneur pitch, we had Chandra Subramanian from Helsinki, Finland, pitch Foodoop, a two-sided marketplace for home cooks to offer their services to consumers.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

>>>

532nd Roundtable Recording on May 27, 2021: With Karthee Madasamy, MFV Ventures

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