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 AI Investor Forum: With Ashmeet Sidana, Chief Engineer at Engineering Capital (Part 1)

Ashmeet Sidana, Chief Engineer at Engineering Capital, talks about his AI investment thesis. It’s a wonderful discussion that not only entrepreneurs should listen to, but investors should also listen in to calibrate their own investment thesis.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Julien Pham, 3CC Third Culture Capital (Part 1)

Julien Pham, Founder GP at 3CC | Third Culture Capital, talks about the firm’s focus on HealthTech. Julien is a physician by training. Excellent discussion!

Sramana Mitra: It’s my pleasure to welcome back Julien Pham from 3CC, Third Culture Capital for a catch up conversation. Juliane, welcome back.

The Startup Velocity Question: Is it the Product?

Product and Technology are not the same. 

While technology failures are difficult to recover from, product issues can be addressed.

Often, once a startup starts to engage with the market, it develops a more sophisticated understanding of the market’s needs. Features, functions, integrations, APIs – a lot of input comes into the company through customer immersion.

Best of Bootstrapping: Some Seed Investors Who Like Bootstrapped Startups

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

I’d like to encourage bootstrapping entrepreneurs to start thinking about certain investors as bootstrapping partners. These investors, typically, LIKE capital efficient businesses.

They do not want to force feed capital into companies, unlike certain larger funds.

Their fund sizes are small, and they are set up to make money off smaller exits. [Re: Bootstrapping to Exit]

Please listen to a few conversations to get a feel for the point of view. There are many more on the Seed Capital series on our blog. You can also listen to the 1Mby1M Podcasts for more.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Max Brickman, Founder at Heartland Ventures (Part 1)

Max Brickman, Founder at Heartland Ventures, talks about his firm’s investment thesis.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with a little bit of introduction about your background.

Max Brickman: I’m from Wisconsin. I started in the entrepreneurial space early on. I bought my first property in northern Wisconsin when I was 14. It was money from a landscaping company that I had.

Startup Ecosystem in Kolkata: Lack of Funding

Join us on Thursday, July 20, at 8:30 p.m. IST / 8 a.m. PDT for a special roundtable program: Brainstorming on Eastern India Startup Development. Come share your perspective, sign up to Speak and we will accommodate as many as possible with a few minutes to talk, register here. In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here.

There is no risk capital available in Kolkata.

This is a refrain that I have heard before many times: there is no risk capital. There is no venture capital. There is no Angel capital. There is no seed capital.

The truth is, in the Valley, most funding goes to validated businesses that are bootstrapped by founders. Or to repeat entrepreneurs with a significant track record of success.

608th 1Mby1M Roundtable Recording

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

608th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Max Brickman, Heartland Ventures

Max Brickman, Founder at Heartland Ventures, talks about his firm’s investment thesis.

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Use Bootstrapping with Services to Increase Your Probability of Fund Raising

Raising funding for startups in Silicon Valley is a low probability game. Fewer than 1% who try actually succeed.

Outside the Valley, the startup ecosystems are mostly immature, and the probability gets even lower.

The bar to raise seed funding is getting higher and higher. Seed investors are mostly operating as growth investors, expecting that the entrepreneur will somehow manage to bridge the gap and bring a concept to realization. In fact, what these investors really want is to invest in businesses that have traction, not just validation.

In short, they want to come to the rescue of victory.

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How to Raise Pre-seed Startup Funding

The toughest round of funding an entrepreneur will seek to raise is pre-seed investment. It has the lowest probability of success, the highest amount of ambiguity, is poorly defined, and causes the greatest amount of confusion and missteps out there.

Over 99% of the entrepreneurs who seek financing are rejected.

So, my humble advice to all entrepreneurs: please learn to assess your own probability of getting funded.

For our Seed Capital series of podcasts and blog interviews, I’ve interviewed hundreds of investors, especially micro-VCs and angels who play an important role in the early-stage game.

As I expected, a large number of investors are still chasing Unicorns. They are interested in investing in companies that will go from 0 to $100M in 5-7 years. And they will consume a great deal of capital in the quest of hitting the coveted billion-dollar valuation mark.

However, I am pleased to report that I have spoken with a good number of investors who recognize the niche opportunities.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Sergey Jakimov, Co-Founder and Partner at LongeVC (Part 1)

Sergey Jakimov is Co-founder and Partner at LongeVC, a firm focused on the Longevity space. We discuss trends and opportunities in this sector full of whitespaces waiting for the entrepreneur’s magic touch.

Sramana Mitra: Give us a little bit of an introduction about your background as well as about LongeVC.

Best of Bootstrapping: Illuminate Ventures’ Cindy Padnos Discusses Seed Rounds

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 the Investor Introductions page. Then, start looking for entrepreneur – investor fit. Today, I introduce you to Cindy Padnos, Illuminate Ventures.

Cindy Padnos, Founder and Managing Partner at Illuminate Ventures, discusses a topic that we’ve been highlighting recently: the need for multiple seed rounds as a way to bridge the Series A gap. You can listen to a podcast of our conversation here or watch the roundtable video below:

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about Illuminate Ventures. What is the focus of the firm? How big is the fund? What sized investments do you make?

Cindy Padnos: We’re on our third fund. It’s a $30 million fund. Our focus is exclusively in the enterprise or B2B category. We invest in startups that are SaaS business applications, cloud computing, mobile software targeted towards the enterprise.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping to Exit with David Lambert, Right Side 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 the Investor Introductions page. Then, start looking for entrepreneur – investor fit. Here is my conversation from 2019 with David Lambert of Right Side Capital Management.

David Lambert is Managing Director at Right Side Capital Management, a firm that invests small chunks of capital in capital efficient ventures. The firm is very much in line with the Bootstrapping to Exit philosophy we’ve been discussing. You can listen to a podcast of our conversation here or watch the roundtable video below:

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about yourself. Tell us about Right Side. Let’s get acquainted.

David Lambert: I have predominantly been a career entrepreneur before starting Right Side Capital. I came out to the San Francisco Bay Area to go to Stanford in the late 80’s. A month after I graduated, I started my first company.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Kyle Asman, Managing Director at Backswing Ventures (Part 1)

Kyle Asman is Managing Director at Backswing Ventures, a firm that has a non-Unicorn investment thesis.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s get acquainted. Tell us about your background and also about Backswing Ventures.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Bhaskar Ghosh, Partner and CTO at 8VC (Part 1)

Bhaskar Ghosh, Partner and CTO at 8VC, discusses his firm’s investment thesis, and we have an interesting discussion about the definition of a “good” entrepreneur.