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.

Roundtable Recap: May 9 – Spotlight on African Startups and Venture Capital

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest, Eghosa Omoigui, Managing Partner at EchoVC Partners, a firm focused on the African market. It was a fascinating discussion.

The Westland Concept

As for the entrepreneur pitches, up first we had Rui Jorge Romao from Coto, Portugal, pitch The Westland Concept. Rui wants to build a sustainable clothing brand.

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Featured Videos

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With David Lambert of Right Side Capital Management (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 David Lambert was recorded in March 2019.

David Lambert, Managing Director at Right Side Capital Management, a firm that invests small chunks of capital efficient ventures. The firm is very much in line with the Bootstrapping to Exit philosophy we’ve been discussing.

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

442nd 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Vikas Choudhury, Pivot Ventures

Vikas Choudhury is Managing Partner at Pivot Ventures, and President at Reliance Jio. He is one of the earliest Angel investors in India, and invested in early successes like InMobi and Myntra. We discuss the evolution of the Indian startup and venture capital industry.

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438th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Cristobal Perdomo, Jaguar Ventures

Cristobal Perdomo is Co-founder and General Partner at Jaguar Ventures, a venture fund that invests in Latin America. 

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442nd Roundtable Recording on May 2, 2019: With Vikas Choudhury, Pivot Ventures

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

Roundtable Recap: May 2 – India Has Come A Long Way

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest, Vikas Choudhury, Managing Partner at Pivot Ventures, and President at Reliance Jio. Vikas is one of the earliest Angel investors in India, and invested in early successes like InMobi and Myntra. We discussed the evolution of the Indian startup and venture capital industry.

Playpal

As for the entrepreneur pitches, up first we had Eesha Sheikh from Colorado pitching a Digital Health concept.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Mark Selcow of Costanoa 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 Mark Selcow was recorded in March 2019.

Mark Selcow, General Partner at Costanoa Ventures, talks about the firm’s primarily B2B investment thesis and strong penchant for investing in companies that have grown outside the Bay Area.

Sramana Mitra: We had Greg Sands of Costanoa a few months ago. We’re going to continue the conversation today with Mark. Let me just recap a little bit of the vital statistics of the fund that we’re talking about here.

440th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Shripati Acharya, Prime Venture Partners

Shripati Acharya is Managing Partner at Priven Advisors, advising Prime Venture Partners, a firm focused on core technology ventures in India. Unlike most VCs, Prime does do concept-stage investments.

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439th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Michael Smerklo, Next Coast Ventures

Michael Smerklo, Co-founder and Managing Director at Next Coast Ventures, talks about some of the ventures his firm has invested in and the philosophy in general.

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440th Roundtable Recording on April 17, 2019: With Shripati Acharya, Prime Venture Partners

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

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Harald Nieder of Redalpine Venture 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 Harald Nieder was recorded in March 2019.

Harald Nieder is a Partner at Redalpine Venture Partners, a European firm primarily focused on Germany and Switzerland.

Sramana Mitra: So tell us about yourself as well as Redalpine. Let’s get you introduced to our audience.

Roundtable Recap: April 17 – A Discussion on Concept-stage Financing

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Shripati Acharya, Managing Partner at Priven Advisors, advising Prime Venture Partners, a firm focused on core technology ventures in India. Unlike most VCs, Prime does concept-stage investments.

Oracle project

As for the entrepreneur pitches, up first we had Arun Philips from Bangalore, India, who is also an Oracle-sponsored 1Mby1M Premium member. He pitched a blockchain based impact assessment solution.

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181st 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Taylor Greene, Collaborative Fund

Taylor Greene, Managing Director at Collaborative Fund, shares his firm’s investment thesis.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Rahul Chowdhri of Stellaris Venture 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 Rahul Chowdhri was recorded in March 2019.

Rahul Chowdhri, Investor at Stellaris Venture Partners, shares some fascinating examples of consumer ventures catering to the next 400 million consumers in India.

182nd 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with the Founders of Endiya Partners

Endiya Partners’ founding team – Managing Director Sateesh Andra, Managing Director Dr. Ramesh Byrapaneni and Director Abhishek Srivastava – talk about their Seed and Pre-Series A VC fund focused on India.

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