The Accelerator Conundrum: Navigating Your Path to Startup Success

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.

439th Roundtable Recording on April 11, 2019: With Michael Smerklo, Next Coast Ventures

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

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Roundtable Recap: April 11 – Technologist Entrepreneurs Need To Learn Business

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Michael Smerklo, Co-founder and Managing Director at Next Coast Ventures. We discussed some of the ventures his firm has invested in and the philosophy in general.

XTend Online

As for the entrepreneur pitches, up first we had Chris Ziomkowski in Klong Luang, Thailand, pitching XTend Online, a high performance chip company.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Matt Holleran of Cloud Apps Capital Partners (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Matt Holleran as recorded in February 2019.

Matt Holleran, General Partner at Cloud Apps Capital Partners, talks about his firm’s investment thesis in what he calls Series A. His is one of the rare firms that invest at the concept stage.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about yourself,a bit of your background, and about Cloud Apps. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Arihant Patni of Ideaspring Capital (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Arihant Patni as recorded in February 2019.

Arihant Patni is Managing Director at Ideaspring Capital, a fund focused on enterprise companies born in India and selling to the global market.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s get you and Ideaspring introduced to our audience. Tell us a bit about yourself as well as Ideaspring. What fund size are you working with? What kind of investments do you like to make? >>>

438th Roundtable Recording on April 4, 2019

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

184th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Bill Bice, Verge Fund

Bill Bice, Partner at Verge Fund, discusses New Mexico’s startup ecosystem and his fund’s activities in that region.

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185th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Sarbvir Singh, WaterBridge Ventures

Sarbvir Singh, Managing Partner at WaterBridge Ventures, talks about the firm’s India-focused investment thesis.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Rebecca Kaden of Union Square Ventures (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Rebecca Kaden was recorded in February 2019.

Rebecca Kaden, General Partner at Union Square Ventures, discusses her firm’s capital efficient investment thesis and debates the pros and cons of blitz scaling.

Sramana Mitra: Union Square has been around for a while and has been very influential in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Tell us a bit about where you are today. What is the vision? What is the investment thesis at this point of the game? >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Swapna Gupta of Qualcomm Ventures (Part 1)

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

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Swapna Gupta was recorded in February 2019.

Swapna Gupta, Senior Investment Manager at Qualcomm Ventures, explains the firm’s investment strategy.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s have you introduce the firm to our audience first.

Swapna Gupta: Qualcomm Ventures is a global billion-dollar fund. Qualcomm Ventures India is a $150 million dedicated fund for India for investing across sectors. We have been in India for the last 10 years. We have a healthy portfolio of about 25 plus companies. We have been investing in consumer, enterprise, and hardware companies. It’s an exciting time to be in the ecosystem. >>>

437th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Hemant Mohapatra, Lightspeed Venture Partners

Hemant Mohapatra, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, India, talks about some of the large, open opportunities in the Indian market that are of interest to him.

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186th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Shalini Prakash, 500 Startups

Shalini Prakash, Venture Partner at 500 Startups, India, talks about the opportunities in the Indian market.

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436th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Sumant Mandal, March Capital Partners

Sumant Mandal is Managing Director at March Capital Partners, a firm that invests largely in enterprise facing businesses with deep technical differentiation. The conversation includes excellent insights into the changing dynamics of the networking space and how companies like Cisco and Juniper are managing their existential threats.

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437th Roundtable Recording on March 28, 2019: With Hemant Mohapatra, Lightspeed Venture Partners

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

Roundtable Recap: March 28 – Large, Open Opportunities for Indian Entrepreneurs

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Hemant Mohapatra, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, India. Hemant talked about some of the large open opportunities in the Indian market that are of interest to him.

Overland Bound
As for entrepreneur pitches, up first we had Michael Murguia from Dublin, California, Overland Bound, an adventure travel app that is already monetizing through an annual subscription.

Kulfy App
Then, Basanth Valeti from New York, New York, pitched Kulfy App, a personalized gif platform, that is also monetizing through corporate events.

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435th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With David Lambert, Right Side Capital Management

David Lambert, 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.

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