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.

428th Roundtable Recording on January 16, 2019: With Ondrej Bartos, Credo Ventures

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

Featured Videos

Roundtable Recap: January 16 – Spotlight on Entrepreneurship in Central Europe

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Ondrej Bartos, General Partner at Credo Ventures based in Prague, focused on investing in Central European startups. Their major success story is UiPath in robotics process automation that has raised $265 million at a $3 billion valuation. UiPath has over 2,100 customers and claims to have annual revenues of $150 million. We discuss the Romanian company in some detail.

WellWrap
As for the pitches, first up, we had Abi Kariguiddaiah, a 1Mby1M Premium member from Danville, California, pitch WellWrap.

SharesInside
Next, we had Dave Hannam from Zurich, Switzerland, pitch SharesInside, a company that is currently at a $1M ARR level.

>>>

427th Roundtable Recording on January 10, 2019: With Daniel Keiper-Knorr, SpeedInvest

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

414th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With George Spencer, Seyen Capital

^{George Spencer, Senior Managing Director at Seyen Capital, invests in SaaS companies, mostly in the Midwest, from a small fund out of Chicago. The interview contains an excellent discussion on ideal levels of capitalization for good exit prices.}

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Play | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Spencer Crawley of Firstminute 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 Spencer Crawley was recorded in November 2018.

Spencer Crawley is Co-Founder of Firstminute Capital, based in London and focused on European startups.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about your firm and yourself. 

Spencer Crawley: We’re a new seed fund. Obviously, that’s what the world needs – more seed funds. We’re based in London. We launched the fund in the summer of 2017. We’re a $100 million fund. We’re backed, predominantly, by tech entrepreneurs. We have about 50 founders of technology businesses invested in the fund. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Nihal Mehta of ENIAC 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 Nihal Mehta was recorded in November 2018.

Nihal Mehta, Founding General Partner at ENIAC Ventures, provides a great set of insights into his definition of a full-stack founding team. Either a set of co-founders who cover all the requisite skillsets, or a solo founder who is a full-stack person – both configurations can work. Listen to the discussion for more color on the topic.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s get you acquainted with our audience. Tell us about yourself and ENIAC Ventures. Give us a little bit of context. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Krishna Srinivasan of LiveOak 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 Krishna Srinivasan was recorded in November 2018.

Krishna Srinivasan is Founding General Partner at LiveOak Venture Partners, a firm focused on investing in Texas. Great conversation!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s first get our audience acquainted with yourself as well as with LiveOak. Tell us about the fund. Tell us a bit about your background. What do you like to invest in? How do you think about your portfolio?

Krishna Srinivasan: I grew up in India. I graduated from one of the IITs. I came to the United States to get a Masters from the

>>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Evangelos Simoudis of Synapse 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 Evangelos Simoudis was recorded in November 2018.

Evangelos Simoudis, Founder and Managing Director at Synapse Partners, takes us on a deep dive into AI investing.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s get acquainted. Tell us about the fund’s investing focus and your background. What size investments do you make? What kind of things do you like to dig into?

Evangelos Simoudis: I’m based in Silicon Valley. I’ve been here for about 30 years now. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Bill Baumel of Ohio Innovation Fund (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 Kara Weber was recorded in November 2018.

Bill Baumel, Managing Director at Ohio Innovation Fund, shares terrific insight into the region’s progress.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us a bit about yourself. Tell us about Ohio Innovation Fund. What is the investment focus? How big is the fund? What sized investments are you making? Let’s get you acquainted with our audience.

Bill Baumel: I grew up in Ohio. I went to Ohio State. I went to its archrival school in Michigan and actually was a venture capitalist in >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Kara Weber of Brilliant 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 Kara Weber was recorded in November 2018.

Kara Weber, Founder and General Partner at Brilliant Ventures, speaks extensively about her commitment to female founders.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s get you acquainted with our audience. Tell us about yourself and a bit about your investing focus. How big is the fund? What kind of investments do you like to make? Let’s get acquainted.

Kara Weber: I founded Brilliant Ventures a couple of years ago after a 20-plus year career as an entrepreneur and operator. I was one of the first >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Ray Chan of K5 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 Ray Chan was recorded in December 2018.

Ray Chan, Managing Director at K5 Ventures and Tech Coast Angels, shares his views on the segments his firms invest in.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s get introduced. Tell us about yourself a little bit as well as K5 Ventures. What do you like to invest in? What size is the fund?

Ray Chan: This reminds me of the interview we did about nine years ago. We are based in Southern California. I >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Shuly Galili of UpWest Labs (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 Shuly Galili was recorded in October 2018.

Shuly Galili, Founding Partner, UpWest Labs, talks to us about pre-seed and seed investments in the Israel – Silicon Valley corridor.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us a little bit about yourself as well as UpWest Labs. Introduce our audience to your work.

Shuly Galili: I co-founded UpWest Labs in 2012. It’s been almost seven years. We’ve been building a platform and a fund to invest and support very early stage pre-seed and seed founders, primarily out of Israel. We are based in Palo Alto and are invested in over 70 companies. We’re on our third fund where we are heavily focused on several industries.
>>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Devdutt Yellurkar of CRV (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 Devdutt Yellurkar was recorded in July 2018.

Devdutt Yellurkar, General Partner at CRV, discussed his investment principles. It was an excellent discussion!

Sramana Mitra: The first thing I’d like to do is introduce our audience to yourself as well as to CRV’s current activities, philosophy, and investment thesis. Let’s start there.

Devdutt Yellurkar: I’m still masquerading as a venture capitalist after only nine years into this gig. I got into this after a two-year sabbatical in India.  >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Miriam Rivera of Ulu 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 Miriam Rivera was recorded in October 2018.

Miriam Rivera, Partner at Ulu Ventures, a firm committed to diversity as its core investment philosophy.

Sramana Mitra: In order to introduce you to our audience, I think the first place we would like to start is to explain Ulu Ventures and your background. Tell us about your investing focus. How big is the fund? What kind of investments do you like to make? Let’s get to know one another? >>>

423rd 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Krishna Srinivasan, LiveOak Venture Partners

Krishna Srinivasan is Founding General Partner at LiveOak Venture Partners, a firm focused on investing in Texas. Great conversation!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Play | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS