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.

Roundtable Recap: February 14 – GMV and Revenue Need Clear Distinction in Marketplaces

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Daniel Cohen, General Partner, Viola Ventures, who discussed the Israeli startup market and his firm’s focus within that segment.

Sagisu
As for entrepreneur pitches, 1Mby1M Premium member Mithun Kadur from Monroe, NJ, pitched Sagisu, a logistics and transportation marketplace company focused on Indian enterprises. Sagisu is already in revenue and is moving along very nicely. I am very bullish on the company.

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Featured Videos

218th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Corey Schmid, Seven Peaks Ventures

Corey Schmid is General Partner at Seven Peaks Ventures, a firm with a focus on the Pacific Northwest.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Venktesh Shukla of TiE Angels (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 Venktesh Shukla was recorded in September 2017.

Venktesh Shukla, founder of TiE Angels and General Partner Monta Vista Capital, discusses some shifts happening in the world of seed investing.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about TiE Angels and how you work with investors and entrepreneurs.

Venktesh Shukla: TiE Angels is a 7-year-old organization that is a collection of individual investors who, in general, tend to focus on B2B companies. The whole idea is that the collective wisdom of the group helps make better decisions, >>>

6 Seed Investors Present a Variety of Investing Viewpoints via Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum

Not all investors have the same point of view on how they make money off their investments in startups. Read the following investor interviews to understand the wide diversity of investment theses that exist amongst investors.

Yanev Suissa is General Partner at SineWave Ventures, out of Washington, DC, and Silicon Valley. The firm invests alongside some major firms like Andreessen Horowitz and NEA. Yanev talks about how they invest, and also the trends he sees.

Victoria Pettibone, Managing Director of Astia Angels, a group focused on funding women entrepreneurs. She discusses what they like to invest in, as well as the trends she sees in the deal flow and the portfolio.

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219th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Tim Wilson, Artiman Ventures

Tim Wilson, Partner at Artiman Ventures, has been in the venture business for a long time, and refreshingly has the skill and the confidence to do very complex technology deals that are relatively early.

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220th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Greg Borchardt, Caerus Ventures

Greg Borchardt is Co-founder and Managing Partner at Caerus Ventures, a firm that has a focus on connected hardware. It’s an interesting and differentiated investment thesis that is worth listening to, especially for IoT entrepreneurs.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With T.M. Ravi of The Hive (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 T.M. Ravi was recorded in September 2016.

T.M. Ravi is Managing Director and Co-founder of The Hive, a venture studio. The discussion touches upon a couple of key issues: the prevalent incubator/accelerator model of 3-month classes, we agreed, is bogus; and Future of Work: Utopia or Dystopia?

Sramana Mitra: To set context, please introduce Hive to our audience. What kinds of companies do you incubate? What is the thesis around which you’re building this program? >>>

Roundtable Recap: February 8 – Niche is Beautiful Says Veteran Seed Investor Nitin Rai

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Nitin Rai, Managing Director at Elevate Capital. Nitin made a compelling case for investing in niche businesses with the upfront goal of scoring early exits. Excellent discussion!

PM First
As for the entrepreneur pitch, Phillip Cornell from Washington, DC, pitched PM First, an extraordinarily creative idea of turning economy seats into luxury cabins in airlines. Quite fascinating!

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Shomit Ghose of Onset Ventures (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our free Bootstrapping course and the Investor Introductions page.

We are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Shomit Ghose was recorded in December 2014.

Shomit Ghose, Partner at Onset Ventures, is also a veteran startup executive with multiple IPOs under his belt. He highlights the fact that 70,000 ventures received angel funding in 2014, but the number of companies receiving venture funding remains constant year over year at about 1,000 per year. Focusing on building value is of paramount importance, so that you can validate and prove your value proposition. >>>

3 Seed Investors Discuss European Startup Trends In Podcasts

In The Next European Renaissance,  I explored how Europe’s enthusiasm for culture combined with the enabling technology of today creates a good platform for generating new and important ideas. Then I shared advice and inspiration from a group of successful European entrepreneurs in 8 Founder Podcasts Discuss Building Startups in Europe. Now, for entrepreneurs interested in financing their startups, especially those based in Europe, I’m sharing the perspectives of three seed investors currently active in Europe. In these 30-minute podcast interviews, we thoroughly discuss the size of their investments, preferences, and the European startup trends they see in their dealflow.

Alastair Mitchell, Partner at EQT Ventures, talks about the European startup funding trends.

Hussain Kanji, Partner at Hoxton Ventures, is based in London and the primary focus is on European ventures.

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.

384th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Gaurav Jain, Afore Capital

Gaurav Jain is Managing Partner at Afore Capital, a firm focused on pre-seed investments. This is an excellent conversation for entrepreneurs looking for insights into pre-seed.

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221st 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Andrew Romans, Rubicon Venture Capital

Andrew Romans is General Partner of Rubicon Venture Capital. Our discussion includes an interesting segment on ICOs.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Victoria Pettibone of Astia Angels (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 Victoria Pettibone was recorded in October 2017. Victoria Pettibone, Managing Director of Astia Angels, a group focused on funding women entrepreneurs. She discusses what they like to invest in, as well as the trends she sees in the deal flow and the portfolio.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about Astia Angels. What are you doing? What is the focus of the group? What size investments are you making?

Victoria Pettibone: Astia is an organization >>>

Roundtable Recap: February 1 – A View into Pre-Seed Funding with Gaurav Jain of Afore Capital

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Gaurav Jain, Managing Partner at Afore Capital, a firm focused on pre-seed investments. It’s an excellent conversation for entrepreneurs looking for insights into pre-seed.

Bodhi Academy
As for the entrepreneur pitch, Vadiraj Katti from San Jose, California, Bodhi Academy, a concept focused on improving financial literacy in India. We worked on Vadi’s positioning strategy.

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9 Seed Investor Podcasts, Each Focusing On Different Types Of Startups

There are hundreds of seed investors actively looking for startups to invest in right now, but the types of businesses they are looking for are as varied as each individual investor. To give entrepreneurs the opportunity to hear directly from a wide variety of investors what interests them and the types of startups they focus on, we continue to interview some of the most active investors around the world. Here are my nine most recent conversations with seed investors shared as 30-minute podcast interviews. If you have an interest in financing your venture, listen and learn. Start taking notes on those investors who may be a good fit for your business.

Rajeev Madhavan, Founder and General Partner at Clear Ventures, was first a highly successful serial entrepreneur, and brings to the VC game an entrepreneur’s view of the world. Rajeev highlights the Series A gap in a big way.

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