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.

673rd 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Angel Investor Raju Reddy

Entrepreneur, Angel Investor, and Board Member Raju Reddy discusses his AI investment thesis.

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Featured Videos

2025 Resolution: Secure Meaningful Investor Introductions for Your Startup

Will you be seeking investor introductions for your startup in 2025?

Top VC funds operate in the 98% rejection rate zone.

Let’s avoid the pitfalls of wasting time and money without achieving results.

If you are looking for investor introductions, you have to be READY.

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2025 Resolution: Make VCs Pursue YOU to Fund Your Startup

Please post this on your wall in 2025:

“Startups: Do NOT Go to VCs as Beggars. Go as Kings.”

This is the 1Mby1M mantra and it works.

Over 99% of founders chase funding before they are fundable.

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2025 Resolution: Make Your Startup Fundable

As you know, I categorically support bootstrapped entrepreneurs.

There are numerous startups now that have achieved some revenue without any external funding.

However, it has taken time. Sometimes, it has taken 5-7 years to get there.

VCs, however, are looking for velocity.
Their goal is to achieve $100M in 5-7 years.

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AI Investor Forum: Gus Tai on AI in Healthcare (Part 1)

Gus Tai, Investor, Board Member and Retired General Partner at Trinity Ventures, discusses AI in Healthcare startups. Fascinating, comprehensive discussion with concrete pointers.

AI Investor Forum: Gus Tai on AI in Education (Part 1)

Gus Tai, Investor, Board Member and Retired General Partner at Trinity Ventures, discusses ideas and opportunities in Education with an AI-augmented framework.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: With Mo Islam, Partner at Threshold Ventures (Part 1)

Mo Islam, Partner at Threshold Ventures. discusses his firm’s AI investment thesis. We had an excellent discussion on AI-enabled drug discovery, AI-enabled medical imaging, etc.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: With Krishnakumar Natarajan, Co-Founder of Mela Ventures (Part 1)

Krishnakumar Natarajan, Co-founder at Mela Ventures, discusses his firm’s AI investment thesis.

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

Daniel Cohen, General Partner at Viola Ventures, discusses his firm’s AI Investment thesis. If you have been following this series, you know that it has yielded a lot of insights.

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

Benjamin Narasin, Founder and General Partner at Tenacity Venture Capital, discusses his AI investment point of view.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: With Venktesh Shukla, Founder and Managing Partner at Monta Vista Capital (Part 1)

Venktesh Shukla, Founder and Managing Partner at Monta Vista Capital, discusses why he wants to see Human-in-the-Loop Generative AI startups. We’re hearing this a lot right now.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: With Investor Gus Tai (Part 1)

At a recent roundtable, we had Gus Tai, Investor, Board Member and Retired General Partner at Trinity Ventures discuss the implications of human-centric AI, white spaces, comparables, and more.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: With Gaurav Chaturvedi, Partner at Kae Capital (Part 1)

Gaurav Chaturvedi, Partner at Kae Capital, discusses the trends he is seeing in the Indian startup ecosystem.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: With Ashish Gupta, Partner at Clearvision Ventures (Part 1)

Ashish Gupta, Partner at Clearvision Ventures, has been in the industry for a long time and has an interesting perspective on AI investing.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: With Yash Hemaraj, General Partner at BGV (Part 1)

Yash Hemaraj is General Partner at BGV, and Founding Partner at Arka Venture Labs. This is a very interesting discussion that goes into the nuances of high velocity Positioning and Go To Market strategies.