Startup Ecosystem in Kolkata: Lack of Good Mentoring

Join us on Thursday, July 20, at 8:30 p.m. IST / 8 a.m. PDT for a special roundtable program: Brainstorming on Eastern India Startup Development. Come share your perspective, sign up to Speak and we will accommodate as many as possible with a few minutes to talk, register here. In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here.

These days, everyone is a startup mentor. There doesn’t seem to be a shortage of self-proclaimed mentors anywhere in the world.

The question, however, is what is good mentoring?

If you are an entrepreneur, what kind of a mentor should you be looking for?

Startup Ecosystem in Kolkata: Lack of Funding

Join us on Thursday, July 20, at 8:30 p.m. IST / 8 a.m. PDT for a special roundtable program: Brainstorming on Eastern India Startup Development. Come share your perspective, sign up to Speak and we will accommodate as many as possible with a few minutes to talk, register here. In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here.

There is no risk capital available in Kolkata.

This is a refrain that I have heard before many times: there is no risk capital. There is no venture capital. There is no Angel capital. There is no seed capital.

The truth is, in the Valley, most funding goes to validated businesses that are bootstrapped by founders. Or to repeat entrepreneurs with a significant track record of success.

Startup Ecosystem in Kolkata: Bootstrapping vs Blitzscaling

Join us on Thursday, July 20, at 8:30 p.m. IST / 8 a.m. PDT for a special roundtable program: Brainstorming on Eastern India Startup Development. Come share your perspective, sign up to Speak and we will accommodate as many as possible with a few minutes to talk, register here. In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here.

The startup ecosystem around the world is driven by the notion that Venture Capital funding is essential to building companies.

This isn’t true.

Startup Ecosystem in Kolkata: A Strategy Discussion

Join us on Thursday, July 20, at 8:30 p.m. IST / 8 a.m. PDT for a special roundtable program: Brainstorming on Eastern India Startup Development. Come share your perspective, sign up to Speak and we will accommodate as many as possible with a few minutes to talk, register here. In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording of this roundtable here.

This weekend, I had hundreds of interactions on LinkedIn around the subject:

Why did Kolkata miss the startup momentum that has gained ground in the other 6 major metros? What can be done to catch up and leapfrog?

November 4 – Workshop on How to Build Communities of Entrepreneurs EVERYWHERE

When we first announced the 1Mby1M mission of helping a million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue, we received a tremendous amount of interest from Sramana’s global community of readers. That was January 2010. 

We created the 1Mby1M Ambassadors program to understand and support the needs of startup ecosystems around the world.

In November 2010, we launched the 1Mby1M Global Virtual Accelerator program. Some of the ambassadors became members of the 1Mby1M team. But we didn’t build the ambassador program itself further for a while.

This fall, due to the positive response to Sramana’s recent blog series, How to Build and Monetize a Technology Entrepreneurship Blog, we have restored the 1Mby1M Ambassadors program with a structured set of goals and resources. >>>

10 Tips for Technology Business Coaches and Startup Mentors

I just did a search on LinkedIn for “Business Coach” and found over 175,000 results.

A similar search for “Startup Mentor” yields close to 125,000 results.

Well, if I could have a word with all the mentors and coaches that are out there, this is what I would say.

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An Open Letter to ALL Accelerators

Friends,

Recently, the NetApp Accelerator granted scholarships to the 1Mby1M Program as an augmentation to their offering. You can find out more about this partnership here. It offers an opportunity for startups to readily access ALL of 1Mby1M’s extensive knowledge base, mentoring support and network in Silicon Valley and elsewhere.

I would like to take this opportunity to invite ANY technology startup incubator and/or accelerator anywhere in the world to do the same. Please review the 1Mby1M Incubator-in-a-Box for Accelerators and if you’re interested, please get in touch with us.

Think of us as a chip that you can install onto your own program, and enhance its power.

We look forward to working with you!

Yours, Sramana

Why the Indian Market Continues to Disappoint

Indian B-to-C startups started off with huge promise and were constantly compared with China’s Alibaba. But the reality has been consistently sobering. The Economist offers some excellent analysis on the phenomenon in two articles: India’s missing middle class and India has a hole where its middle class should be.

Some notable points:

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