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.

What Makes a Startup Fundable

Over 99% of entrepreneurs who seek Venture Capital funding get rejected. Many because they are not fundable. I run One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), a global virtual accelerator for startups. 2025 is our fifteenth year supporting entrepreneurs.

Thousands upon thousands of entrepreneurs have approached us for help with their funding at a stage where their chances of getting funding is ZERO. We can’t help them, regardless of how powerful our investor connections are.

Women Entrepreneurs Win by Bootstrapping First

Is there bias against women entrepreneurs in the tech industry? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t believe it would hinder you if you stick to the Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later strategy.

The media promotes funding as the holy grail.

The VCs want you to believe that Entrepreneurship = Funding.

No. It isn’t.

Entrepreneurship = Customers + Revenues + Profits.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Couple Bootstrapped to $10 Million

Love and startups go hand in hand for AdCellerant Co-founders Brock Berry and Shelby Carlson, who are helping media companies generate seven-figure revenue streams. Here is our conversation from 2017.

Sramana Mitra: Whoever wants to start, let’s start at the very beginning of your personal journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Brock Berry: Thanks for having us. I’m the Founder and CEO of AdCellerant. I’m from Indiana where I grew up and spent the first 23 years of my life before I was compelled to move to Colorado where the weather is a little friendlier and there were a few more work opportunities.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped Decisively to Over $5M

RainmakerForce CRO Mack Sundaram had built a successful business optimized for autonomy and profitability when we spoke in 2018, and the company was acquired in 2023. Excellent navigation!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s go to the very beginning of your journey. Tell us where you’re from. Where did you grow up? Where were you born and raised?

Mack Sundaram: I was born in South India in a village near Chennai. I spent some time of my childhood in Chennai and Pondicherry. I later went to school in New Delhi. Since then, I moved over to the United States where I had an opportunity to pursue a doctoral degree in Economics. That’s where the transition happened.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped Tuft & Needle to Over $100M

Online mattress is one of the hottest e-commerce categories, and here is yet another one delivering venture-scale growth without venture capital. Tuft & Needle Co-founder JT Marino shared his story with me in 2017.

If you’re inspired by Tuft & Needle’s bootstrapped success, explore how a virtual accelerator for solo founders or an equity-free startup accelerator can help you grow on your own terms.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

JT Marino: I was born in Phoenix, but I grew up in Pennsylvania. I went to Penn State. That’s where I met my co-founder, Daehee Park. From there, my career took me to Silicon Valley working for several startups. That’s where my co-founder and I stuck together. We were at a company at Palo Alto and we decided that we wanted to build something of our own. Based on our previous experience with startups, we wanted to do it a different way.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped to $30 Million from Florida

SproutLoud CEO Jared Shusterman shared his wonderful bootstrapping story with me in 2017.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Jared Shusterman: I was born in Miami, Florida. I’m one of the few South Florida natives. I grew up in a middle class family that had a very heavy focus on education. After I graduated high school, I went to the University of Virginia. I got a Bachelors degree with a concentration in Finance and Marketing. Shortly after that, I moved out to San Francisco and worked for an investment bank in the online media practice. That’s the quick summary of my initial upbringing.

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Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped an E-commerce Venture to $50M

When we spoke in 2018, SmartBuyGlasses Co-CEO David Menning had bootstrapped a global e-commerce venture from Hong Kong to $50M. Splendid execution!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

David Menning: I grew up in Sydney. I’ve been educated in Australia. In my later years, I studied at universities overseas both in Canada and Japan for a little while. It was this time when I was abroad spending time in different countries that I was exposed to different business models, cultures, and people.

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