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.

212th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Christina Brodbeck, Rivet Ventures

Christina Brodbeck, Founding Partner at Rivet Ventures, talks about the firm’s investment thesis of funding companies that target the female demographic in its purchase decision cycle. Very interesting and under-served market.

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Featured Videos

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Nathan Lustig of Magma 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 Nathan Lustig was recorded in October 2017. 

Nathan Lustig, Managing Partner of Magma Partners, a Latin-America-focused fund. He talks about their strategy, as well as the dynamics of the LatAm market.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about Magma Partners. What is the focus of the firm? How big is the fund? What size investment do you make?

Nathan Lustig: We’re a US-Latin American venture capital fund. We got started in 2014. In our first fund, we had $2 million of >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Sandeep Singhal of Nexus 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 Sandeep Singhal was recorded in July 2016. 

Sandeep Singhal, Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners, is a key player in the India-US startup corridor. The discussion spans trends in SaaS, Open Source, and the Indian venture capital market in general. If you are working in the technology startup sector with an interest in India, this is a worthwhile discussion.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with some kind of basic level setting. The Indian SaaS startup scene has gone 

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389th Roundtable Recording On March 8, 2018: With Rob Schultz, Serra Ventures

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

7 Investor Podcasts Cover the Series A Gap

In the current investment climate, where capital is moving further and further upstream with all these larger funds wanting to invest in much larger Series A deals, entrepreneurs (and investors) need to find a way to mitigate the Series A gap. There’s clearly a Series A gap, with 50,000 to 70,000 seed-stage investments happening while only 1,200 to 1,500 Series A’s take place. Each of the following investors recently discussed this situation with me, along with other current entrepreneur-investor issues, during 30-minute podcast interviews. Startup entrepreneurs who need financing must be mindful of the Series A gap.

Nate Redmond, Managing Partner at Alpha Edison, a VC who has put trust-driven ventures at the center of his investment thesis. It’s a very interesting conversation for both entrepreneurs and investors to listen to.
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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Sasha Mirchandani of Kae 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 Sasha Mirchandani was recorded in February 2016. 

Sasha Mirchandani, Managing Partner of Kae Capital, an early stage venture fund, is also a co-founder of Mumbai Angels. Sasha re-emphasized that Indian VCs only invest in India-facing B-to-C ventures and global B-to-B startups. India-facing B-to-B is not a sector that gets any investment, with few exceptions. We discussed the lack of exits in India, as well as the missing late-stage funding for B-to-C ventures facing the Indian market. Those of you who are working out of India would do well to keep these key points in mind.

Sramana Mitra: If you could tell us a bit about our fund and your investment in recent years and how that dovetails with the trends in the Indian industry. >>>

Roundtable Recap: March 8 – Perspectives from Investors in Under-Served Geographies

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Rob Schultz, Managing Partner at Serra Ventures, on catering to startups in under-served geographies. His point of view aligns with what we’ve heard from the likes of Nitin Rai of Elevate Capital in Oregon, Mark Hasebroock of Dundee Venture Capital in Nebraska, and others.

Online Food Delivery Service
As for the entrepreneur pitches, Antriksh Pathak from New Delhi, India, pitched an online food delivery service that is already in revenue. We discussed positioning and growth strategy.

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388th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Gary Little, Canvas Ventures

Gary Little, Co-founder at Canvas Ventures, discusses the various types of venture capital and the evolution of the industry into a rather segmented current eco-system. For an entrepreneur trying to raise money, all this is extremely complicated, but essential to understand, or else, you will find yourself trying to fit a round peg into a square hole.

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215th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Mark Hasebroock, Dundee Venture Capital

Mark Hasebroock is Founder at Dundee Venture Capital, based in Omaha, Nebraska. The firm invests in the Midwest, likes small, capital-efficient deals and are open to early exits.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Padmaja Ruparel of Indian Angel Network (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 Padmaja Ruparel was recorded in December 2017. 

Padmaja Ruparel is Co-founder, Indian Angel Network (IAN), and Founding Partner, IAN Fund. She has been a key player in shaping India’s still somewhat nascent startup eco-system. Those interested in Indian startups and the funding trends should read on.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about Indian Angel Network and the journey you’ve had building it. What is going on there now? What is working? What is not working? What have you learned through this process? >>>

213th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Alan Chiu, XSeed

Alan Chiu is Partner at XSeed, a seed-focused venture fund based in Silicon Valley. Alan talks about the level of risk his firm is willing to take and under what circumstances.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Sunil Bhargava of Tandem 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 Sunil Bhargava was recorded in October 2017. 

Sunil Bhargava, Founder and Managing Partner, Tandem Capital, helped us explore the difference of post-seed versus pre-Series A financing.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about Tandem. What is the focus of the firm? How big is the fund? What size investments are you making?

Sunil Bhargava: We are currently investing out of our third fund. It’s a $100 million fund. Our first check is usually $1 million >>>

388th Roundtable Recording on March 1, 2018: With Gary Little, Canvas Ventures

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

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Susan Mason of Aligned 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 Susan Mason was recorded in October 2015. 

Susan Mason, General Partner at Aligned Ventures, talks about the dysfunctions of the broader venture capital model, and what her firm is doing to address those. Excellent conversation.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s introduce our audience to you and the model that you have come up with. The current mainstream venture capital industry, in my opinion, is spinning out of control. Let’s talk about your observations about what’s happening in the industry today and how you are doing something different to counter that. >>>

214th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Amos Ben-Meir, Sand Hill Angels

Amos Ben-Meir, Investor & Board Director at Sand Hill Angels, is a veteran angel investor. You will hear lots of details on working with a prominent angel group, as well as other types of syndicates.

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