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 AI Investor Forum: With Sailesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Partner at Rocketship.vc (Part 1)

Sailesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Partner at Rocketship.vc, discusses his AI investment thesis and shares his firm’s use of AI in monitoring investment-worthy startups.

Featured Videos

653rd 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Ashish Gupta, Clearvision Ventures

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

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652nd 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Yash Hemaraj, General Partner at BGV

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.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: With Jukka Alanen, Rebellion Ventures (Part 1)

Jukka Alanen, Managing Partner at Rebellion Ventures, discusses his portfolio, investment thesis and related trends.

650th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Jishnu Bhattacharjee, Nexus Venture Partners

Jishnu Bhattacharjee, Managing Partner at Nexus Venture Partners, has been investing in AI startups for over a decade. This is an excellent and insightful discussion about his AI investment thesis.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: With Rajeev Madhavan, Clear Ventures (Part 1)

Rajeev Madhavan, Founder and General Partner at Clear Ventures, discusses how he is investing in AI startups and what he is learning from the market.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator AI Investor Forum: With Naganand Doraswamy, Managing Partner and Founder at Ideaspring Capital (Part 1)

Naganand Doraswamy, Managing Partner and Founder at Ideaspring Capital, discusses how he is thinking about investing in AI. There’s a lot of confusion around AI right now. The hype is astronomical. Amidst this noisy environment, we’re trying to bring you some signal, some wisdom.

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.

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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