The Accelerator Conundrum: Navigating Your Path to Startup Success

The Accelerator Conundrum is a multipart series that challenges the prevailing wisdom of the tech startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs should Blitzscale out of the gate. Written by Sramana Mitra, the Founder and CEO of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first global virtual accelerator, it emphatically argues that a better strategy is to Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, focus on customers, revenues and profits. 1Mby1M’s mission is to help a Million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond. Sramana’s Digital Mind AI Mentor virtually mentors entrepreneurs around the world in 57 languages. Try it out!

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: June 23 – The Changing Dynamics of India’s Startup Scene

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Anup Jain, Managing Partner at Orios
Venture Partners, discussing the Indian startup ecosystem and its trends and nuances.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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Featured Videos

579th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Evan Zimmerman, Jovono

Evan Zimmerman, Chairman of Jovono, discusses his fund’s investment philosophy, especially around pre-seed and seed.

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579th Roundtable Recording with Evan Zimmerman, Jovono

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

Roundtable Recap: June 16 – Proof Points Reign in Pre-Seed and Seed

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Evan Zimmerman, Chairman of Jovono, discuss his fund’s investment philosophy, especially around pre-seed and seed.

AdCreative.ai

As for our entrepreneur pitch, we had Gaurav Henry from Bursa, Turkey, pitching AdCreative.ai, an excellent revenue generating business that automates the production of ad creatives for digital marketing.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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578th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Janam Mehta, Campus Fund and JSW Ventures

Janam Mehta, Partner at Campus Fund and Venture Investments at JSW Ventures, discusses the progress of the Indian startup ecosystem.

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578th Roundtable Recording with Janam Mehta, Campus Fund and JSW Ventures

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

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Anupam Rastogi, General Partner of Emergent Ventures (Part 1)

Anupam Rastogi is General Partner at Emergent Ventures, a firm focused on B-to-B tech investments.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by getting you acquainted with our audience. Talk a bit about how you position your fund. Before that, give a little bit of your own background too.

Anupam Rastogi: I’ve been in the technology space for a very long time now. I studied Computer Science back in the 90s. I grew up in India and came over to the US. I started a career on the operating side, research, and then product management at larger companies and a couple of startups. These stints eventually had good outcomes.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Bill Baumel, Managing Director of Ohio Innovation Fund (Part 1)

Bill Baumel, Managing Director at Ohio Innovation Fund, is one of the pioneers of the Ohio startup ecosystem.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with some introduction to where you are with your work with Ohio Innovation Fund. What’s happening in Ohio as an ecosystem?

577th Roundtable Recording with Chandrashekar Kupperi, Peaceful Progress Fund

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

577th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast with Chandrashekar Kupperi, Peaceful Progress Fund

Chandrashekar Kupperi is General Partner at Peaceful Progress Fund, an angel fund in India. We have some very interesting discussions on consumer startups in India, especially the ones targeting lower economic strata consumers.

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Roundtable Recap: June 2 – Don’t Pitch Investors Prematurely

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Chandrashekar Kupperi, General Partner at Peaceful Progress Fund, an angel fund in India. We had some very interesting discussions on consumer startups in India, especially the ones targeting lower economic strata consumers.

T-Ora

As for the pitches, up first we had Karthikeyan R. from Singapore pitch T-Ora, a solution for fact checking fake news.

Zabble

Next we had Nik Balachandran from Walnut Creek, California, pitch Zabble, a waste management software.

Enthu.ai

Then we had Gaurav Mittal from Chandigarh, India, pitched Enthu.ai, an AI solution for contact center call analysis.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Steve Eskenazi, Angel Investor (Part 1)

Steve Eskenazi is an Angel Investor, and we had a number of interesting trend conversations.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with a little bit of your background. Tell us about what path you have traveled.

Steve Eskenazi: My career has three distinct phases. In the 1990s, I was Wall Street’s digital media analyst introducing Wall Street to companies like America Online and Electronic Arts. For the next 10 years, I was a venture capitalist for a firm called Walden VC where we invested in internet, SaaS, and digital media companies.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Andrus Oks, Founding Partner of Tera Ventures (Part 1)

Andrus Oks is Founding Partner at Tera Ventures, based in Estonia. We have a great discussion on entrepreneurship in the Baltic and Scandinavian countries in particular.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as Tera Ventures.

Andrus Oks: I’m one of the founding partners of Tera Ventures. Tera is an Estonian-based seed fund. We currently invest from our €45 million second fund. We are halfway through. We have done 15 deals. We are doing another 15. We support our portfolio companies throughout the rounds. We like to be early. We’re often the first investors.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Krishnakumar Natarajan, Co-Founder of Mela Ventures (Part 1)

Krishnakumar Natarajan, Co-founder of Mela Ventures and former CEO of Mindtree, discusses the Indian Venture ecosystem.

Sramana Mitra: I’m looking forward to catching up with you. We haven’t talked in a while, but we have followed each other’s work for a long time. Catch me up on Mela Ventures.

574th Roundtable Recording with Bill Baumel, Ohio Innovation Fund

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