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.

June 25 – 731st 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable for Entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs are invited to the 731st FREE online 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable on Thursday, June 25, 2026, at 8 a.m. PDT / 11 a.m. EDT / 5 p.m. CEST / 8:30 p.m. India IST.

If you are a serious entrepreneur, register to Pitch and sell your business idea. You’ll receive straightforward feedback from Sramana Mitra, advice on next steps, and answers to any of your questions. Others can register to Attend to watch and learn.

You can learn more here and REGISTER TO PITCH OR ATTEND HERE. Please share with any entrepreneurs in your circle who may be Interested.

Featured Videos

730th 1Mby1M Mentoring Roundtable Recording

In case you missed it, you can listen to the roundtable recording here:

Roundtable Recap: June 11 – Sustainability First, Blitzscaling Second

If you are looking for an accelerator to work with that protects you from either going out of business rapidly, or becoming a zombie, please read my new paper, How to Evaluate a Technology Startup Accelerator.

Please remember, most equity charging accelerators operate with the Blitzscaling out of the gate philosophy pioneered by Y Combinator. This works in Silicon Valley where capital is abundantly available, and the appetite for risk is high. It doesn’t work in most other geographies.
As such, most equity-charging, Blitzscaling parroting accelerators manufacture dead and zombie startups 90% of the time. In some geographies, the failure percentage shoots up to 99%.
While evaluating an accelerator, keep this statistic in mind.

Video FAQs

Top Equity-Free Accelerators in Finland

This article summarizes the top equity-free accelerators in Finland for bootstrapped and solo founders, and compares them to 1Mby1M.

By Guest Author Rishi Rajesh | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Over the past few years, Helsinki, Finland has become a premier hub for providing startups with access to top non-equity accelerators that offer real support with no cost of ownership. In today’s global landscape where an exchange of 5-10% equity is standardized for typical three-month programs that nudge you towards Demo Day, Finland has a surprisingly unique amount of programs that offer the same mentorship with an additional bonus: Letting Finnish founders keep 100% of what they are trying to scale.

Top Virtual Accelerators in Tunisia

This article summarizes the top virtual accelerators in Tunisia and compares them to 1Mby1M across key dimensions.

By Guest Author Cecelia Kirchner | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Traditional startup accelerators have long played a critical role in building  entrepreneurial enterprises into successful ventures. Such programs depend on systemization of the ‘blitzscaling’ strategy, wherein an enterprise is grown at a hyper- active scale in order to stand before venture capitalists on ‘Demo Day.’ Yet these rigidly-set programs are not constructed to adapt to the entrepreneur and nurture long-term success.

Top Non-Equity Accelerators in Florida

This article summarizes the top non-equity accelerators in Florida for bootstrapped and solo founders, comparing them to 1Mby1M across key dimensions like equity, delivery model, stage focus, and mentoring depth.

By Guest Author Kanav Sah | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

In The Accelerator Conundrum series, Sramana Mitra identifies a structural flaw baked into the dominant accelerator model: founders are asked to give up 7-10% equity at the earliest and most uncertain stage of their venture, in exchange for short-term cohort programming that rarely translates into long-term sustainability. The better path is Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, and it starts with equity preservation.

Top Virtual Accelerators in Seattle

This article summarizes the top virtual accelerators in Seattle and compares them to 1Mby1M.

By Guest Author Jenish Budhathoki | Reviewed by Sramana Mitra

Seattle is one of the most dynamic startup cities in the United States. Home to Amazon, Microsoft, and a thriving community of deep tech, AI, and enterprise software startups, Seattle has built an ecosystem that rivals Silicon Valley in technical talent and innovation density. The city hosts over 28 accelerators and incubators accepting applications in 2026, spanning industries from biotech and maritime tech to cloud computing and AI. Yet for all its dynamism, Seattle’s accelerator landscape has a fundamental problem — one that mirrors a challenge facing founders across the entire country.

Cisco Lays Off to Fund AI Boom

Last month, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) announced its third quarter results that delivered record revenues. The company is benefiting from AI-related orders. Besides announcing a record quarter, it also announced significant layoffs.