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.

Pre-Seed Money via Crowdfunding: A Conversation with PleaseFund.Us’ James Bailey

James Bailey completed his economics degree at Durham University in 2005 and started working in a technical role at data marketing specialist Dunnhumby on the campaigns team. After leaving Dunnhumby, James worked full time on a large property development in Morocco. He approached Tarkan Ahmet with the goal to create the UK’s best crowdfunding platform back in April 2011. Since then, James has been working with Tarkan on growing PleaseFund.Us. They have based the company at their Queens Club, London, office, from where James has been working full time since August 2011.

Sramana Mitra: What is your offering in the domain of crowd funding to fund startup ventures?

James Bailey: PleaseFund.Us is a unique crowdfunding platform in terms of both service and offerings. >>>

Featured Videos

Seed Capital Using Crowdfunding: Korstiaan Zandvliet, CEO of Symbid, Amsterdam (Part 1)

Korstiaan Zandvliet holds an MSc in New Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship and has a background in sociology and business administration. He is a frequent writer of blog articles on social media, crowdsourcing and c. After holding a position as marketing manager for a Dutch software company (www.mendix.com), he co-founded a company called Symbid, which aims to help nascent entrepreneurs to overcome financing problems for their start-up or small business. Symbid focuses on entrepreneurial finance needs up to €2.5 million by using the concept of crowdfunding in a new way. In contrast to currently available crowdfunding sites, Symbid developed a financial and legal framework, which allows crowdfunders to actually become a shareholder of the offered crowdfunding propositions. For more information, visit www.symbid.com.

Sramana Mitra: Korstiaan, welcome to the blog. To start, would you tell us more about your offering is in the domain of crowdfunding to fund startup ventures? >>>

Seed Capital: Kae Capital Managing Director Sasha Mirchandani

As you may know, I’m a strong supporter of bootstrapping. But I understand that some companies simply can’t get off the ground without significant financing from investors like those at Kae Capital. My interview with managing director Sasha Mirchandani will help entrepreneurs who are looking for seed capital to understand what to expect if they should decide to pitch investors at Kae Capital.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Sasha. Tell us briefly about your group. >>>

Seed Capital: IndiaCo Investor Rahul Patwardhan

[We just received a tragic news that Rahul passed away of a cardiac arrest.]

The entrepreneur ecosystem continues to grow in India. This is an exciting time for both startups and investors. As my interview with Rahul Patwardhan of IndiaCo shows, there are investors for every sector. If they do their own due diligence before sending out pitches, those entrepreneurs who need funding to get their ventures started can find several potential investors in their chosen industries.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Rahul. Tell us briefly about your group. >>>

Seed Capital: Independent Investor Rehan yar Khan

The entrepreneur ecosystem in India is growing by leaps and bounds. Still, almost all of those who apply for funding are rejected, and it’s not always because they don’t have viable products or services. Often, entrepreneurs get rejected because they pitched to the wrong investor. An entrepreneur with an e-commerce company should not be pitching to an investor who specializes in green tech or manufacturing. Read carefully, entrepreneurs, if you want to pitch to Rehan yar Khan. >>>

Seed Capital: Independent Investor, Mukund Mohan

Sometimes, the reason an entrepreneur is denied funding isn’t because he doesn’t have what it takes to succeed. And it’s not because he doesn’t have a viable idea. Sometimes the only reason an entrepreneur gets turned away is because he didn’t pitch to the right investor. Read on to see what Mukund Mohan and his wife are looking for in a company and in an entrepreneur.

Sramana Mitra: Hi Mukund. Tell us briefly your background.

Mukund Mohan: My wife and I have been investing as individual investors in early stage technology companies for over 10 years, since 2001, in the Bay area, and since 2008, in India. We have invested in seven companies so far in India, and in the US we had invested through an investment vehicle called Zodiac Ventures LLC. >>>

Calling All Angel Investors

We are doing a retrospective on my blog on Seed Capital from Angel Investors as part of the 1M/1M project. As we speak with a variety of angels in different regions, what strikes me is the number of startups out there looking for seed capital. >>>

Angel Investing: A Growing Phenomenon Around the World

By guest author Karen E. Wilson

A new book from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) looks at seed and early stage financing for start-up companies and notes the impact of the recent economic crisis. With banks reluctant to provide loans to startups and venture capital firms preferring to invest in later stage companies, a growing class of experienced entrepreneurs and business people are stepping in to fill this funding gap. These “angel investors” not only provide funding but also leverage their expertise to provide mentoring to the entrepreneurial teams in which they invest, according to a new OECD report. >>>

Seed Capital: Kosch Capital Management Managing Partner Scott Kosch

Sramana Mitra: Hi, Scott. Tell us briefly about your background.

Scott Kosch: I studied economics and psychology at Claremont McKenna College, prior to trying out management consulting, and then business school at Wharton, but all along I was interested in entrepreneurial pursuits.  I’ve worn many hats: company founder, advisor, and investor. My passion has remained with the early stages of new businesses and the process of invention.  >>>

How To Achieve Great Media Coverage For Your Incubator

By guest author Irina Patterson

Who doesn’t appreciate great PR? It leads to brand recognition and more business.

Let me use a case study to explain how simple it is with 1M/1M. One of our partners, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT, KGP), held a custom roundtable with us in January 2012. >>>

Strong Entrepreneurs vs. Weak Entrepreneurs

By guest author Irina Patterson

Which kind of entrepreneur do you want to be?

Great entrepreneurs always find the time to study even when they are very busy. They find the time to fill the gaps in their knowledge of how to build a business.

Weak entrepreneurs keep doing the same thing over and over again. They repeat the same mistakes that thousands of others have made before them and in doing so put themselves out of business. >>>

How to Explain One Million by One Million (1M/1M)

By guest author Irina Patterson

One of our partners asked me for an overview of 1M/1M in a letter form. He wanted an easy way to explain 1M/1M to a government agency that he is part of. >>>

Entrepreneur: How Long Should You Work For FREE?

By guest author Irina Patterson

Have you seen this? Entrepreneurs labor for years on their ideas and can’t sell their products because they have no customers.

They essentially work for free, drawing on their savings or their family and friends’ support. >>>

Entrepreneur: Is Your Business Fundable?

By guest author Irina Patterson

Have you seen this? Entrepreneurs seek funding year after year, only to never get funded. Have you wondered why? It’s simple: Most likely, it is because their business is not fundable.

What does this mean? Some businesses will just never be venture fundable, no matter what their entrepreneurs do. The only way to build them is by alternative financing. >>>

How One Entrepreneur Can Create a Big Shift for Your Incubator

By guest author Irina Patterson

One incubator manager came up with a brilliant idea.

He said, “Irina, I’ll select one entrepreneur – the most suitable for 1M/1M from my incubator, and I will let you talk to him. If he signs up, we’ll have our 1M/1M pilot entrepreneur. He will share his 1M/1M experience with the rest of our entrepreneurs and off we’ll go.”

“Brilliant,” I said. “My cell is 786-301-2456 and my Skype is irina_patterson. I am standing by, ready to talk … most important, I am ready to listen.” >>>