Bootstrapping Course: Welcome

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Featured Videos

The Startup Velocity Question: What Hinders Acceleration in VC Funded Companies?

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. 

The Accelerator Conundrum: Navigating Your Path to Startup Success

The Accelerator Conundrum is a multipart series that challenges the prevailing wisdom of the tech startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs should Blitzscale out of the gate. Written by Sramana Mitra, the Founder and CEO of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first global virtual accelerator, it emphatically argues that a better strategy is to Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, focus on customers, revenues and profits. 1Mby1M’s mission is to help a Million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond. Sramana’s Digital Mind AI Mentor virtually mentors entrepreneurs around the world in 57 languages. Try it out!

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.

Cloud Stocks: AMD Chips Away at NVIDIA

NVIDIA remains the GPU market leader with a 92% market share in the third quarter of 2025. But AMD (NYSE:AMD) has been chipping away at its share in the market. According to a recent report, for Q3 of 2025, AMD’s market share increased 0.8% from a quarter ago while Nvidia’s market share decreased 1.2% in the period. Small gains, but AMD continues to win contracts from other tech leaders who want to reduce their reliance on NVIDIA.

Featured Videos

Oregon Accelerator Conundrum – 1Mby1M Perspective

Oregon’s startup ecosystem is geographically dispersed yet vibrant, with Portland, Eugene, and Bend each offering distinct advantages and challenges for IT, SaaS, and IT-enabled service startups. Across the state, bootstrapped and solo founders face the Accelerator Conundrum: traditional accelerators and funding programs often require traction, revenue, or sector specificity, pressuring startups to blitzscale before operationally ready.

Washington State Accelerator Conundrum – 1Mby1M Perspective

Washington State hosts a dynamic and well-resourced startup ecosystem, anchored by Seattle, Bellevue, and Redmond, with emerging hubs across Spokane, Tacoma, and Olympia. These regions collectively support IT, SaaS, and IT-enabled service startups, yet the state illustrates the Accelerator Conundrum vividly: while funding and infrastructure are abundant, many accelerators impose growth pressures, equity requirements, or revenue thresholds that limit early-stage, bootstrapped ventures. The demand for premature blitzscaling is a disease.

Video FAQs

California Accelerator Conundrum: Synthesis

California is often viewed as the epicenter of the global startup ecosystem, spanning the Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, and emerging hubs like Santa Barbara, Sacramento, and the Central Valley. Each region has its own strengths, challenges, and accelerator landscapes, yet across the state, solo founders face a recurring dilemma: the Accelerator Conundrum. Traditional programs prioritize hypergrowth, venture funding, and high valuations, often pressuring founders to scale before their businesses are operationally ready. The result is a landscape where profitable ventures are considered failures if they do not achieve unicorn status, creating founder stress, disillusionment, and unsustainable operational models.

California Accelerator Conundrum: Emerging Hubs

Beyond the familiar giants of Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, and San Diego, California hosts a number of emerging startup hubs that are gaining momentum in IT, SaaS, and IT-enabled services. Cities like Santa Barbara, Sacramento, and regions across the Central Valley are increasingly attractive to founders seeking lower costs, less competition, and access to local talent, yet these areas face distinct challenges when compared to traditional accelerator ecosystems.

California Accelerator Conundrum: San Diego

San Diego is a unique California startup ecosystem, characterized by a blend of IT, SaaS, healthcare IT, logistics solutions, and enterprise software. While smaller in scale than the Bay Area or Los Angeles, San Diego boasts a tight-knit, innovation-driven community anchored by universities, research institutions, and entrepreneurial networks. Cities like Downtown San Diego, La Jolla, Carlsbad, and Escondido are key hubs, each contributing distinct strengths to the IT and SaaS landscape.

California Accelerator Conundrum: San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area, spanning Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Redwood City, and San Francisco, remains the epicenter of global technology innovation. It is home to world-class talent, deep venture capital networks, and iconic startups that have reshaped industries. Yet for solo founders and early-stage entrepreneurs, this ecosystem presents a persistent challenge: the California accelerator conundrum.

California Accelerator Conundrum: Los Angeles & Orange County

Los Angeles and Orange County represent a unique and diverse startup ecosystem that blends creativity, technology, and enterprise IT solutions. Cities like Santa Monica, Venice, Culver City, Irvine, and Costa Mesa have become magnets for startups bridging media, IT-enabled services, SaaS, and FinTech. Often referred to as Silicon Beach, this ecosystem attracts solo founders building innovative B2B SaaS, IT-enabled services, FinTech, and creative technology products that sit at the intersection of media, software, and enterprise solutions.