Free vs. Paid Help For Entrepreneurs

By guest author Irina Patterson

Let’s talk about the $1,000 annual membership fee for the 1M/1M Program. If you are thinking about joining the 1M/1M, I am sure you are pondering that fee question … so, let’s talk about it.

The 1M/1M Program is a business. It’s built on the same principles that we teach entrepreneurs at 1M/1M, which are: to offer a solution to a true problem and to make sure that your product or service adds real value so that our customers are willing to pay for it. >>>

How To Get FREE Feedback On Your Business Strategy

By guest author Irina Patterson

Working on a business? Have you pitched it at the 1M/1M Free Strategy Roundtable yet?

It’s a great way to get some early feedback on your business from a Silicon Valley veteran like Sramana Mitra. This kind of expert feedback is not easy to obtain even if you can afford to fly to California. >>>

How To Turn Fool’s Gold Into The Real Thing

I recently read a book called Fool’s Gold? The Truth Behind Angel Investing in America by Scott Shaine. Scott is an angel investor himself and is a professor of entrepreneurship at Case Western Reserve University. >>>

How To Access Silicon Valley’s Tribal Knowledge

By guest author Irina Patterson

Let’s be pragmatic. Sramana labored over six years to assemble over 500+ case studies of successful entrepreneurs. She collected nuggets of entrepreneurial wisdom. A lot of it came from Silicon Valley where she’s based — Silicon Valley’s tribal knowledge — as she calls it.

She synthesized this tribal knowledge into the 1M/1M Curriculum, so that you could zip through it in 50 hours straight, or take it in slowly, at your own pace, no matter where in the world you are based.

Entrepreneurs who are currently in the program tell me that they recouped the $1,000 program fee as soon as they went through the 1M/1M Curriculum and that’s after they’ve been in the program only for a few days.

The Curriculum alone helped them to avoid many costly mistakes, they said.

I can only imagine what they will gain in a year of practicing 1M/1M methodology, taking advantage of 1M/1M PR channels and using 1M/1M introductions to key customers and financing sources.

So, be pragmatic, don’t work alone, leverage resources of others.

Note: If you are considering becoming a 1M/1M premium member and would like to join our mailing list to receive ongoing information, please sign up here:

How To Become An Agent Of Change In Your Region

By guest author Irina Patterson

MAD Incubator is a government supported business incubator in Malaysia. MAD is one of 1M/1M strategic partners in Asia. Andrew Wong, managing director of MAD, reached out to 1M/1M, after he read Sramana’s Entrepreneur Journeys book series.

After grasping what 1M/1M could do for his region, Andrew rallied his local ecosystem from government officials to VCs, and together they are working on sponsoring a group of entrepreneurs to go through the 1M/1M program starting this fall. >>>

How to Become a Fundable Entrepreneur

By guest author Irina Patterson

As we talked to VCs and angels, we discovered that less than 1% of the entrepreneurs who apply for their funding get funded.

Think about it, less than 1%.

One of the Silicon Valley’s super angels, 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.

With those odds clearly stacked against you, what are you doing to become fundable? >>>

Is Your Region Full Of Savvy Entrepreneurs?

By guest author Irina Patterson

Unless you’re based in Silicon Valley, I don’t think so. Many economic development organizations and incubators spend considerable time and money to attract savvy entrepreneurs to their regions.

Sometimes, they manage to get entrepreneurs from another state or even another country to move to one of their regional incubators. But all the while, their local entrepreneurial potential remains an untapped resource.

Who are those unrealized entrepreneurs that exist in great numbers in every region? Well, they come in different flavors.

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How Not To Sell Equity Too Cheap, Too Soon

By guest author Irina Patterson

At our 1M/1M roundtables, we often hear horror stories of entrepreneurs who have sold 25% of their company to investors in exchange for $15,000.

I always find Sramana jumping off her chair when she works with those entrepreneurs.

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