How Real Unicorn Startups Are Actually Built

There are two completely different ways to build a Unicorn: Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later (the 1Mby1M way), or Speculatively Blitzscale. Your probability of success with the first method is much higher. Let’s look at an example.

Turning Services into Startup Traction

Bootstrapping a startup to early revenues by providing services is a tried and true methodology that we practice and espouse in 1Mby1M. Why is this set of skills so important? Raising funding for startups in Silicon Valley is a low-probability game. Fewer than 1% who try actually succeed.

Startup Success Comes from Customers Not Speculators

I want to share with you an insight from running the 1Mby1M program since 2008. Over 700 free mentoring roundtables with over 300k entrepreneurs. Thousands of case studies of successful entrepreneurs – the who’s who of tech startups – through interview based methodology development. It is a complex exercise to give people a message that

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September 25 – 703rd 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 703rd FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, September 25, 2025, at 8 a.m. PDT / 11 a.m. EDT / 5 p.m. CEST / 8:30 p.m. India IST. If you are a serious entrepreneur, register to Pitch and sell your business idea. You’ll receive straightforward feedback, advice on next steps,

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702nd 1Mby1M Roundtable Recording

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

Roundtable Recap: September 11 – The 1Mby1M AI Mentor Does Some Things Better than Me

During this week’s roundtable, we had four excellent discussions on entrepreneur pitches. EV Ecosystem First up we had Yves Nzuzi-Khuabi from Lake Macquarie, Australia, pitch EV Ecosystem, a 2-sided marketplace for electric vehicle accessories and services. Surge Then we had Ishu Darshan from Gurugram, India, pitch Surge, a team collaboration product. Marketta Then Sean Morris

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How Entrepreneurs Learn Through Honest Feedback

I want to share with you some things we have learned in running the 1Mby1M program since 2008. Over 700 free mentoring roundtables. Over 300k entrepreneurs have participated. It is extremely difficult to give negative feedback to entrepreneurs without triggering a defensive reaction. I was not good at this when we started.

The Ultimate 1Mby1M Decision Guide: Flexibility, Access & Program Logistics

1. Can I join 1Mby1M while keeping my day job, or do I need to commit full-time immediately?