1Mby1M Founder Sramana Mitra wants entrepreneurs to not waste their time and money.
The waste stems from a widespread misunderstanding of how investors think.
Over 99% of founders chase funding before they are fundable.
Here, Sramana teaches how to build with customer money (otherwise known as revenue) until a startup reaches that fundable stage.
Once fundable, a startup can go to investors like a king, not a beggar.
I have been running 1Mby1M since 2010. I find myself saying to entrepreneurs ad nauseam that VCs want to invest in startups that can go from zero to $100 million in revenue in 5 to 7 years.
Startups that do not have what it takes to achieve velocity should not be venture funded.
Experienced VCs, over time, have developed heuristics to gauge what constitutes a high growth venture investment thesis.
>>>Alright, let’s cut through the noise and get to the brutal truth of the startup accelerator world. Many entrepreneurs, starry-eyed and naive, leap headfirst into 3-month accelerator programs without truly understanding the long-term implications. It’s time for an incisive commentary, a necessary dissection.
>>>According to a recent report, the global Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV lithography) market is estimated to be a $23.7 billion industry this year and is forecast to grow 9.5% annually to $37.3 billion by 2030. The increasing demand from AI, 5G, and high-performance computing is driving the growth in the industry. Netherlands-based ASML (NASDAQ: ASML), the only producer of the machines, announced second quarter results that outpaced market expectations. But a slower outlook has sent the stock tumbling 7% soon after the European markets opened for trading.
>>>If you’re building an AI startup, there’s a smarter, lower-risk path to success – bootstrap first, raise capital later. Our new course, How to Bootstrap an AI Startup First and Blitzscale Later, teaches you exactly how to do that for AI startups, using the powerful case study of a deep learning AI venture bootstrapped to over $5M ARR.
This course offers a masterclass in capital-efficient startup building, revealing how to achieve product-market fit, build real revenue, and attract investor interest after proving traction. You’ll learn from the startup’s six-year journey and gain strategic insights on how to avoid common startup mistakes, master ultralight go-to-market methods, and build fundable B2B AI solutions that scale.
For the month of July, we’re offering up to 85% off this course and all others listed below.
All coupons expire on July 31, 2025, so don’t miss your chance to enroll today!
Artificial Intelligence:
How to Bootstrap an AI Startup First and Blitzscale Later: TRY1MBY1MJUL2025AIBB
AI FinTech Startup Case Studies: TRY1MBY1MJUL2025AIFT
AI HealthTech Startup Case Studies: TRY1MBY1MJUL2025AIHT
Sramana Mitra: So you positioned the company in 2022-2023 in the direction of Generative AI?
Marty Sprizen: Exactly.
Sramana Mitra: What applications did you go after?
>>>Osprey Security Founder Rohit Anabheri had effectively used the Bootstrapping Using Services technique to bootstrap an AI-Powered Enterprise Security venture to mid eight figure revenues when we spoke in 2023. In that process, he had turned down offers for venture capital.
Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself and then we’ll come to the Osprey Security journey in a moment. You are a serial entrepreneur, yes?
Rohit Anabheri: That is correct.
Sramana Mitra: Okay. But standard VC route at the time was different from the standard VC route of today because the number of, the amount of money that VCs used to invest was much smaller. The VC fund sizes were much smaller. It was actually the way venture capital should have been.
>>>B-to-C startups are notoriously high-risk. The failure rate is brutal. The temptation to chase scale with venture funding is strong—and often fatal. Most accelerators feed this temptation. They want viral growth, app downloads, and DAUs—regardless of whether there’s a business model behind it.
>>>Ecommerce is seductive. It promises scale, global reach, and fast-moving consumer engagement. But here’s the truth most founders don’t hear in traditional accelerators: Ecommerce is brutal. It’s low-margin, logistics-heavy, and customer acquisition costs can eat you alive—unless you operate with ruthless discipline.
>>>The world is severely short of AI talent to build complex solutions. It is essential that platforms offer layers of abstraction on top of which systems can be built without getting deep into the weeds. Vantiq is innovating with such a platform and offering excellent business model options including revenue sharing, outcome-based pricing, etc. Very cool company.
>>>