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 Laurel Touby, Managing Director at Supernode Ventures 2021 (Part 1)

Laurel Touby, Managing Director of Supernode Ventures, talks about pre-seed investing in Latin America.

Sramana Mitra: How has COVID been? How have you been? How has the business environment for you been?

Featured Videos

Best of Bootstrapping: Discussing Unicorn Investments with Ravi Mohan of Shasta Ventures

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 Ravi Mohan.

Ravi Mohan is Managing Director at Shasta Ventures, a firm that has invested in three SaaS Unicorns. Ravi discusses these investments: Apptio, Anaplan, and Zuora. You can listen to the podcast interview here and the entire roundtable program here:

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With John Frankel, Partner at ff Venture Capital 2021 (Part 1)

John Frankel is Partner at ff Venture Capital. We had an extensive discussion about Covid’s impact on the startup ecosystem, the changes we notice, so forth.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s catch up. How has the pandemic year been? What are you doing these days?

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Rajeev Madhavan, Founder and General Partner at Clear Ventures 2021 (Part 1)

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

Rajeev Madhavan is Founder and General Partner at Clear Ventures, a firm focused on seed-stage deep tech investing.

Sramana Mitra: We are going to start today’s session with a conversation with Rajeeev Madhavan, the founder and general partner of Clear Ventures. I have known him for a long time. He has been here before. You may have listened to his previous session. It has been a while and we want to catch up. Welcome back to the show!

Best of Bootstrapping: Discussing Future Unicorns with Warren Weiss, Foundation Capital

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 Warren Weiss.

Warren Weiss, General Partner at Foundation Capital, has a long track record in the Silicon Valley venture capital industry. When we spoke in 2015, he shared areas that he and Foundation are excited about as opportunities for building future Unicorns. You can listen to the podcast interview here and the entire roundtable program here:

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525th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Sumant Mandal, March Capital

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.

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525th Roundtable Recording on April 1, 2021: With Sumant Mandal, March Capital

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

Roundtable Recap: April 1 – Virtual Companies Becoming Ubiquitous

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Sumant Mandal, Co-founder and Managing Partner at March Capital. Sumant emphasized the impact of Covid on virtual companies and remote teams and discussed his investment thesis.

VXPass

As for our entrepreneur pitch, we had Zachary Weiner from Miami, Florida, pitch VXPass, a digital record service for Covid vaccination and testing.

Resource

Next, we had David Casey from Berkeley, California, pitch Resource, a cryptocurrency based barter marketplace.

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522nd 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Laurel Touby, Supernode Ventures

Laurel Touby, Managing Director of Supernode Ventures, talks about pre-seed investing in Latin America.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Eric Benhamou, Founder and General Partner at Benhamou Global Ventures 2021 (Part 1)

Eric Benhamou is Founder and General Partner at Benhamou Global Ventures.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s focus on where you are in terms of the fund. What fund are you on? What is the size of the fund? What is the fund strategy now?

524th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Cindy Padnos, Illuminate Ventures

Cindy Padnos, Founder and Managing Director at Illuminate Ventures, discusses the impact of Covid on the fund’s portfolio, as well as trends she sees.

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523rd 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Tim Guleri, Sierra Ventures

Tim Guleri is Managing Director at Sierra Ventures. We have a terrific discussion on Business Model Innovation and Distribution Innovation that Tim believes trumps technology innovation. We go through some excellent examples. Do give this a listen!

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Daniel Cohen, General Partner at Viola Ventures (Part 1)

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

Daniel Cohen, General partner at Viola Ventures, discusses AI, PaaS, and deep tech investments.

Sramana Mitra: We have known each other for ten years. We have observed the industry for a very long time. We often have guests with whom we’ve had long relationships.

524th Roundtable Recording on March 25, 2021: With Cindy Padnos, Illuminate Ventures

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

Roundtable Recap: March 25 – Spotlight on Art Market Disruption Ideas

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Cindy Padnos, Founder and Managing Director at Illuminate Ventures. Cindy discussed the impact of Covid on the fund’s portfolio, as well as trends she sees.

ArtandFound.co

As for our entrepreneur pitch, we had Aditya Mehta from Mumbia, India, pitch Art&Found, a digital art marketplace based on NFTs.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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