1M/1M: VCs, Angels, Incubators, Accelerators – What Are You Doing With Your Rejects?

When I first talked about the 1M/1M program, I had observed the need to contain the immense infant entrepreneur mortality prevalent in the startup ecosystem. Over the past year, we have been talking to various investors – VCs and angels, and incubators and accelerators –  asking them the question: What are you doing with your rejects?

To give you some further context, we recently spoke with a VC in Boise, Idaho, who gets 500 deals a year. His firm invests in four. That means that less than 1% of the entrepreneurs who apply succeed in getting financed. If you look at the numbers of super angels in Silicon Valley, they are even more scary. Mike Maples told us that he gets 7,000 deals a year and invests in 12 to 15. That’s a 0.21% hit rate. The flip side: a 99.79% rejection rate.

Friends in the investment ecosystem, this is the most obvious opportunity for us to address through 1M/1M and make a dent in infant entrepreneur mortality.

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Roundtable Recap: February 17 – Indian Company Plugs Gap In Google’s Enterprise Solution

For this week’s One Million by One Million roundtable, we started off by announcing a new deal through which the 1M/1M–Persistent Systems partnership has decided to back Indian company OrangeScape.

So the first company I want to discuss today is OrangeScape, before I move on to today’s presenters. OrangeScape positions itself as an Application Platform As A Service (APaaS) provider, and has marquee customers in India, including Unilever, Citibank, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Sterlite. They will now be leveraging the 1M/1M–Persistent channel to go to market in the United States.
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OrangeScape First Indian Company Backed By The 1M/1M–Persistent Systems Partnership

Menlo Park, CA, Pune, India and Chennai, India – February 18, 2011: The One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative and Persistent Systems have announced that OrangeScape is the first company in India to benefit from their new partnership to bring technologies from start-up companies to market. The 1M/1M initiative set up in Silicon Valley by Sramana Mitra has a goal to help a million entrepreneurs reach $1 million in annual revenue and beyond.

Headquartered in Pune, India, Persistent Systems is a leader in outsourced product development. Persistent works with more than 250 customers and serves as a reseller and channel for products from select 1M/1M entrepreneurs. In addition, Persistent Systems also provides outsourced product development services to some of these companies.
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Business Incubator Series: An Interview With Chris Heivly, Executive Director, LaunchBox Digital (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

I am talking to Chris Heivly, executive director of LaunchBox Digital, an accelerator program for  entrepreneurs based in Durham, North Carolina. The program structure and workings are similar to Y Combinator and TechStars. >>>

An Interview With Debera Johnson, Founder And Executive Director, Pratt Design Incubator For Sustainable Innovation (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What other business development tools do you use?

Debera: There are lots of tools for developing business plans. We use those. That’s fairly structured. Then, around [such tools] is the fairly chaotic experience of the other people in the incubator as well as all the mentors we have. >>>

An Interview With Debera Johnson, Founder And Executive Director, Pratt Design Incubator For Sustainable Innovation (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: How many companies were funded by angels during their incubation period?

Debera: At this point, Sam Cochran, [the CEO of SMIT, which runs] the Solar Ivy company got about $250,000 in angel funding. The other companies are less needy, less technology based. They’re not actually looking for angel money.

They’re looking to keep their businesses. We encourage them to hang on to as much as possible. They may go into a friends and family round. We don’t necessarily encourage them to try to get financing. >>>

An Interview With Debera Johnson, Founder And Executive Director, Pratt Design Incubator For Sustainable Innovation (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: How many companies have you incubated since inception?

Debera: Up until now, we’ve been involved with 20. We just brought in four new companies. The fourth will be coming in March. Of those, 16 are still in business. >>>

1M/1M Strategy Roundtable For Entrepreneurs On Thursday, February 17

Entrepreneurs interested in discussing all aspects of a start-up venture are welcome to attend the next free online strategy roundtable on Thursday, February 17, 2011, starting at: 11 a.m. EST/8 a.m. PST/9:30 p.m. IST. You can find more details and register here.