How to Teach Technology Entrepreneurship Using the 1Mby1M Methodology and Case Studies: Philosophy and Vision

Entrepreneurship is not a career. It is a way of life.

For me, this journey began as a graduate student at MIT in 1994. The world watched Netscape go public that spring, and the Internet swept over us like a virus. As I wrote my Masters thesis, I also wrote my first business plan. We were, as a generation, shaping the Internet during those early years, and, my degree in hand, I was ready to jump into the unknown – from then on really, I have been jumping into unknowns at every turn.

Fortunately I’ve had great mentors – people who took an interest in my destiny, stopped along the way, and taught me a thing or two. In turn, I have tried to stop along the way to pass on certain nuggets of my own learning. In the summer of 2006, as the technology industry resurfaced from the nuclear winter that followed the dotcom meltdown, I was invited to speak at a startup workshop.

My session was supposed to focus on Positioning. At a Silicon Valley law firm, some sixty entrepreneurs packed a conference room to listen to me. I asked each to pitch his business idea in one minute, following which I gave feedback for another minute or two. My 90-minute rapid-fire session, alas, was not enough to accommodate all the pitches. In the lobby, even as we spilled onto the front steps, I tried to respond to some more, but it was hardly satisfactory.

In fact, it has always frustrated me to realize that I did not have enough time in my day to stop for each entrepreneur who asked for guidance. Friends – seasoned entrepreneurs – have expressed the same frustration.

In 2006, I started capturing case studies of technology entrepreneurs and their journeys, systematically. My thought then was that I have access to successful entrepreneurs. They’re willing to share their journeys with me. Most first-time entrepreneurs around the world do not have such access. How can they learn from the masters?

Over time, thousands of entrepreneurs have shared their journeys with me. This tribal knowledge has now been encapsulated in the 1Mby1M methodology and curriculum as case studies. Hundreds of entrepreneurs who have built billion dollar Unicorns, hundreds who have built venture funded startups, and hundreds of entrepreneurs who have successfully bootstrapped their businesses are part of this comprehensive case study repository.

You can easily simulate the experience of having lunch with Fred Luddy who built ServiceNow to a Unicorn or with Sridhar Vembu who bootstrapped his Unicorn, Zoho.

Today, especially with the post-Covid shift to online learning en masse, we have the opportunity to equip teachers all over the world with these world class case studies. Whether you are a professor in Madagascar or Macedonia, you can teach technology entrepreneurship with the same calibre of case studies and guest speakers as Stanford or MIT. 

A good chunk of the 1Mby1M curriculum is now available on Udemy at a very affordable price point. We recommend that you group these courses into four parts or semesters.

Bootstrapping

How Investors Think

Domain Specialization

Startup Ideation

In 1Mby1M, you will find a different take on incubation and acceleration than the fund-raising driven focus of YCombinator, Techstars, or the vast majority of MBA programs out there. Our mission is to help democratize entrepreneurship education, incubation and acceleration by nurturing a million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1M and beyond in annual revenue, thereby creating a trillion dollars in global GDP and 10 million jobs.

We believe Entrepreneurship = Customers + Revenues + Profits. 

Financing is Optional.

Exit is Optional.

Our mantra is Do NOT go to VCs as beggars. Go as Kings. Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later.

Over 99% of the entrepreneurs who seek financing are rejected. Our methodology applies not only to the 1% venture-fundable entrepreneurs, but also the other 99%.

Photo Credit: Simon from Pixabay

Related Udemy Courses

How to Teach Technology Entrepreneurship with Sramana Mitra

How to Grow Communities of Entrepreneurs with Sramana Mitra

How to Build a Tech Entrepreneurship Blog with Sramana Mitra

This segment is a part in the series : How to Teach Technology Entrepreneurship Using the 1Mby1M Methodology and Case Studies