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.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Aniruddha Malpani of Malpani 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 Aniruddha Malpani of Malpani Ventures was recorded in September 2017. 

Aniruddha Malpani, Director and Founder of Malpani Ventures, is an active angel investor in the Indian circuit. He discusses what he looks for in companies he wants to invest in.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about Malpani Ventures. What is the focus of your firm? How big is the fund and what sized investments are you making? >>>

Featured Videos

Roundtable Recap: June 7 – Investor in Three SaaS Unicorns

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Ravi Mohan, Managing Director at Shasta Ventures, a firm that has invested in three SaaS Unicorns. Ravi discussed these investments: Apptio, Anaplan, and Zuora.

You will find our entrepreneur Journeys coverage on Anaplan and Apptio here.

Social Chains
As for entrepreneur pitches, we started with Srini Katta from San Francisco, California, pitching Social Chains, a social media platform a la Facebook and LinkedIn but with a token-based authentication twist. Quite interesting!

>>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Ann Winblad of Hummer Winblad (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 Ann Winblad, Winblad was recorded in December 2014. 

Ann Winblad, Co-founder of Hummer Winblad, is one of the most successful women VCs in our industry, and as I mentioned in my introduction, I have never heard her whining about bias against women. One of the most encouraging things she discussed today is how her firm is sourcing interesting ventures from all over the world, not just Silicon Valley. Mulesoft, one of their hot portfolio companies, had its CEO based in Malta, originally! >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Asheem Chandna of Greylock 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 Asheem Chandna, Greylock Ventures was recorded in September 2016. 

Asheem Chandna, General Partner at Greylock Ventures, talks on the topic of funding fat startups, something Asheem has done routinely, one of the very few VCs still doing so. Very interesting discussion.

Sramana Mitra: We’re going to start with some level-setting. You’re one of the very few VCs who still practices real venture capital – as in financing concepts for developing significant products. These are not revenue-generating businesses, which is where venture capital is slowly moving to or has already moved to. Please share with us a couple of case studies of concept to scale financing that you’ve done and that have worked out particularly well. What is your thinking in how you choose to do those kinds of businesses? What can we learn from it?

>>>

12 VCs, Angels and Seed Investors Pinpoint Where They Want to Invest via the Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum

To benefit entrepreneurs who are seeking funding, I’ve asked many investors to pinpoint what they want to invest in and exactly what they are looking for in startups. Industry trends, segments, locations and areas of personal interest all play roles in developing an investor’s investment thesis. Read the following investor interviews to learn exactly what these VCs, Angels, and seed investors are looking for in startups.

Ashu Garg, General Partner at Foundation Capital, outlines the top trends driving startups and venture capital from his firm’s perspective.

>>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Cem Sertoglu of Earlybird Venture 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 Cem Sertoglu, Earlybird Venture Capital was recorded in October 2017. 

Cem Sertoglu is Partner at Earlybird Venture Capital, based in Turkey. Cem brings the spotlight on Turkey and the Eastern and Central European startup eco-systems.

>>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Cindy Padnos of Illuminate 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 Cindy Padnos, Illuminate Ventures was recorded in September 2017. 

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.

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? >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Ashmeet Sidana of Engineering 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 Ashmeet Sidana, Engineering Capital was recorded in December 2015. 

Ashmeet Sidana, Founder of Engineering Capital, a seed-stage venture fund focusing on infrastructure technology, had a lot of insights to offer, and delivered one particular piece of wisdom that is close to my heart. He says, “Funding is like candy. Don’t eat too much candy. Whole wheat bread and proteins are customers and revenues. That’s what you should focus on.” Brilliant analogy, don’t you think?

>>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Ashish Gupta of Helion 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 Ashish Gupta, Helion Ventures was recorded in May 2015. 

Ashish Gupta, Co-Founder of Helion Ventures, one of the key players in India’s venture capital eco-system. If the topic interests you, this discussion is extremely crisp and insightful.

Sramana Mitra: Ashish and I met when Ashish had done Junglee, which Amazon acquired. I met him when he was about to set off for India to start Helion Ventures. We connected a

>>>

5 Investor Podcasts Discuss A Wide Variety Of Startup Interests

There are currently about 500 funds spanning pre-seed, seed, post-seed, pre-Series A and startup investing is constantly evolving. Entrepreneurs with an eye on financing need to keep up with the trends and special interests of VCs, Angels and seed investors. Have a listen to my recent 30-minute podcast interviews with five investors who have a wide range of interests, from AI concepts to women entrepreneurs, from Indian startups to non-Unicorn ventures. Perhaps your startup fits within one of their areas of interest?

Ankit Jain is Founding Partner at Gradient Ventures, Google’s new AI venture fund, which will invest in and connect early stage startups with Google’s resources, innovation, and technical leadership in artificial intelligence.

>>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Brian Jacobs of Emergence 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 Brian Jacobs, Emergence Capital was recorded in October 2014. 

Brian Jacobs is General Partner, Emergence Capital, SaaS/Cloud domain experts boasting a fabulous portfolio, including solid exits like SuccessFactors, Yammer, and Veeva. He discusses his views on where cloud opportunities are likely to be at this point. While we’re in a mature market, he is still bullish on innovation.

Sramana Mitra: Silicon Valley seems like an incredibly arrogant place. Silicon Valley was actually afraid when the dot-com bubble had burst. You can actually feel the fear in the air. Against that backdrop, Emergence 

>>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Ashu Garg of Foundation 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 Ashu Garg, Foundation Capital was recorded in March 2016. 

Ashu Garg, General Partner at Foundation Capital, outlines the top trends driving startups and venture capital from his firm’s perspective.

Sramana Mitra: What is your read of how the venture capital industry has evolved in the Silicon Valley over the last five years? >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Charlie O’Donnell of Brooklyn Bridge 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 Charlie O’Donnell, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures was recorded in November 2017. 

Charlie O’Donnell, Partner at Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, talks about his Seed investing activities and related industry trends.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by getting acquainted. Tell us about Brooklyn Bridge Ventures as well as yourself.

Charlie O’Donnell: Brooklyn Bridge Ventures is a seed fund based in Brooklyn, New York. It’s the first fund to be located in Brooklyn. I’ve spent the vast majority of my career in the venture capital asset class, which is actually pretty rare. Usually people >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Darshan Vyas of LOUD 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 Darshan Vyas, LOUD Capital was recorded in September 2017. 

Darshan Vyas, Co-Founder Managing Director, LOUD Capital, discusses seed investing in the startup eco-system in the Mid-West from Ohio.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about LOUD Capital. What is the focus of the firm? How big is your fund? What size investments do you make? >>>

196th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Ankit Jain, Gradient Ventures

Ankit Jain is Founding Partner at Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI venture fund.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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