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. 

1Mby1M Udemy Courses with Sramana Mitra: Bootstrapping

Over the course of two years, we have released over 70 courses on Udemy with the aim to democratize entrepreneurship education at scale globally. This series of posts aims to help you find the one you need easily and provide you with discount coupons.

Authors as Entrepreneurs: Bella Andre, Hugh Howey, Jasinda Wilder (Part 1)

In 2008 I wrote an article for Forbes, How Amazon Could Change Publishing, talking about the drastic need for disruption in the book publishing industry.

Since then a growing number of authors have turned to indie publishing platforms such as Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) to launch their businesses. Today indie authors are becoming brands and businesses unto themselves, too. This article highlights three such authors.

Jasinda Wilder spent most of her life studying, performing, and teaching music, theater, and dance, so the transition to writing fiction was a natural one for her and her husband and writing partner. Self-publishing was a choice born of necessity for the author team, who found themselves in a financially dire situation and realized they had to turn their lives around fast. From their research, they felt Amazon had reinvented the notion of self-publishing via KDP. Jasinda’s first book, “Big Girls Do It Better,” struck a chord with readers and the couple quickly earned enough to save their house from foreclosure. Their breakout title, “Falling Into You,” quickly reached #1 on Amazon and #5 on the New York Times list and, within the first six weeks alone, they hit more than $1 million in sales. On June 19, 2013, they published the sequel, “Falling Into Us,” which skyrocketed to #22 on the Kindle Top 100 list in just one week and continues to climb.
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Featured Videos

Built to Enjoy: Aptify CEO Amith Nagarajan (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Amith Nagarajan co-founded Aptify in 1993. Aptify provides association and membership management software and solutions globally. Prior to founding Aptify, Amith worked in the R&D laboratories at Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, California. He graduated from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, with a concentration in business administration.

Sramana: Amith, let’s start with your background. Where are you from? What were your circumstances growing up? What are the roots of your entrepreneurial journey?

Amith Nagarajan: I am from California. My parents are from India and Europe, so I am a first-generation American who grew up in Silicon Valley. I grew up with a very ordinary middle-class life. I had great opportunities from an education perspective, and I grew up learning a lot about technology. My father was an engineer based in Silicon Valley, so you can imagine I had some insight into that ecosystem. >>>

Building a Fat Startup: From Israel to Silicon Valley, Qwilt CEO Alon Maor’s Journey (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Alon Maor is the CEO and co-founder of Qwilt, a company that builds products to allow network carriers to create a universal video fabric without interruption or changes to content provider or network infrastructures. Prior to Qwilt, Alon oversaw the development and operations of the Service Control Engine (SCE) product line at Cisco. Alon was a part of P-Cube and joined Cisco through their acquisition of P-Cube. He has also held engineering positions at Seabridge (Nokia Siemens Newtworks). He holds a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from the Leon Recanati School in Tel Aviv University.

Sramana: Alon, let’s start with your background. What is the background to your entrepreneurial story?

Alon Maor: I was born in Israel. My father was a tourist guide and my mother had her PhD in nuclear chemistry. I think that the evolution started in the Army. By the time I joined the Army I realized that I liked people. I liked the combination of dealing with life or death and I was just 19 years old. When I left special operations I realized that there was a lot I wanted to do in life and it really made me appreciate life. That is something that drives me regardless of the context reality at any given point and time. >>>

Launching and Scaling a Security Startup During an Out-of-Favor Time: HyTrust President Eric Chiu (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Eric Chiu is the co-founder and president of HyTrust, a virtualization security company. He has more than 13 years of experience in high-tech management and finance. Most recently he was the VP of sales and business development for Cemaphore Systems. Prior to Cemaphore, he led business development activities at MailFrontier (acquired by SonicWALL) and mySimon (acquired by CNET Networks). In addition to his start-up management experience, he was a venture capitalist for Brentwood Venture Capital (now Redpoint Ventures) and Pinnacle Ventures, a venture fund he co-founded. Prior to Brentwood Venture Capital, Eric served in the M&A Group for Robertson, Stephens and Company. He holds a BS in materials science and engineering from UC Berkeley.

Sramana: Eric, let’s start off with your personal story. Where are you from, and what kind of background leads up to the HyTrust story?

Eric Chiu: I am a traditional engineer who went to Berkeley for my undergraduate degree. I grew up in the Bay Area, and when I graduated from college, I went into investment banking. It was unusual for me because I had planned on going into academia. I found that my personality was not geared towards research and academia and decided to go into investment banking. That was one of the biggest changes that led me on the path I am on today. I consider that experience to be my MBA. >>>

CEO Transition, Founder Liquidity, and More: Bill Daniel, CEO AllWebLeads (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Bill Daniel is a serial entrepreneur and the Chief Executive Officer of All Web Leads, an online provider of high quality insurance leads. Prior to joining the company in 2008, Bill was most recently the President and CEO of Surgient, a leading data-center virtualization management software company. Prior to Surgient, Bill held Senior Vice President roles at Vignette, a publicly-traded developer of content management software. Prior to Vignette, Bill founded a number of successful software companies including Wallop (acquired by IBM in 1998), Datis Corporation, and Mozart Systems. He previously held sales positions at Oracle and other Silicon Valley technology companies. Bill holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

Sramana: Bill, let’s start with your background. What is the story that leads up to AllWebLeads?

Bill Daniel: I was born in an little town called Anderson, South Carolina. I married my wife, who I met in the 7th grade, and her maiden name also happened to be Anderson. I went to school at Dartmouth College. I joined Polaroid after college when they were the epitome of a high tech college. It was run by Dr. Edwin Land who invented the instant photography chemistry and mechanics. For someone like me who had an engineering background it was very intriguing. Within a few years I made my way out to Silicon Valley. >>>

Acquiring Deadpool Technology to Leapfrog a Services Company into Products: Canara CEO Steve Cotton (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Steve Cotton is the founder and executive chairman of Canara, a company that provides turnkey backup power solutions and predictive monitoring solutions for mission critical operations focusing on data centers, telecommunications sites, wind/solar farms, smart grid and electric vehicles. Prior to Canara he was the director of sales at Sendmail, Inc. He has also worked in business development at Lucent Technologies and as a Product Manager at Octel Communications. He has a MIS in information technology from California State University.

Sramana: Steve, where does your story begin? What is the background that put your on the career path to where you are today at Canara?

Steve Cotton: My career started with Octel Communications. I started for them right out of college. I started off as a product manager before going into business development and sales. I spent 12 years there. It was an entrepreneurial company but had already reach 40 million dollars in revenue before I joined. We grew the company to 1 billion dollars of revenue before we were acquired by Lucent Technologies. >>>

Building a Conversion Optimization Company from London: Graham Cooke, CEO of Qubit (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Graham Cooke is the CEO and co-founder of Qubit, a conversion optimization company. Prior to founding Qubit, Graham worked for Google, where he ended up as the global leader in charge of conversion rate optimization. Today he is focused on Qubit’s mission of helping businesses get close to their customers by discovering behavioral insights in visitor data and delivering personalized content to improve the online experience.

Sramana: Graham, let’s start with some of your personal background. Where are you from and where were you born? What circumstances lead up to your entrepreneurial journey?

Graham Cooke: I was born in New Jersey and I lived in the United States until I was seven years old. My father had the opportunity to move our family to London, and we ended up living there for two years. We all loved the UK and we ended up staying. I have had the benefit of having US roots while living in both the UK and the US. I essentially grew up in England. The British people make you feel like you are an American living in England. >>>

Successfully Navigating a Slow-Growth Healthcare IT Industry for 10 Years: Stan Nowak, CEO of Silverlink (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Stan Nowak is the founder and CEO of Silverlink, a healthcare consumer outreach company. Under Stan’s leadership, Silverlink has developed a flexible communications technology, proprietary analytics capabilities and a team with deep industry expertise. Stan’s background includes more than 22 years of general and executive management in technology services. Prior to founding Silverlink, he held executive roles with StorageNetworks, GTE, and InterGen (Bechtel). Stan holds a master’s degree from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College.

Sramana: Stan, let’s start by looking into your background a bit. Where are you from, and where did your entrepreneurial passion develop?

Stan Nowak: I grew up in New England and was raised primarily in Rhode Island. I went to Harvard and spent time in the Boston area working in the energy business in my early career. I was overseas from 1993 to 1996 working in India, where I developed energy projects there as the country manager. I returned to the States in 1996, which was the birth of the commercial Internet. >>>

Built to Enjoy in Utah: Jana Francis, Founder, Steals.com (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Jana Francis is the co-founder of Steal Network, an interactive marketing company that delivers top-quality brands and products one day at a time to their online communities of women through the websites babySTEALS.com, scrapbookSTEALS.com, kidSTEALS.com, and sheSTEALS.com. Before founding Steal Network, Jana spent her career specializing in advertising and marketing for technology and internet companies in Silicon Valley, California, and for KSL, the largest media company in Utah.

Sramana: Jana, where does your story begin? Where are you from and where did you grow up?

Jana: I grew up in Utah. My father was an engineer. I was raised in a household that had computers in every room when virtually nobody else even had one in their house. We had the original Apple, and my father would teach me how to write programs to get my name to flash across the screen. I was a very early adopter of technology. >>>

Helping SaaS Companies Grow Through Revenue Sharing: Avangate CEO Carl Theobald (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Carl Theobald is the CEO of Avangate, a e-commerce and partner management solutions provider for software-as-a-service companies. Theobald has held senior executive roles at both large enterprise and venture-backed software companies, including being a VP at Oracle, founder at RubiconSoft, and SVP at Serena Software. At Oracle, Theobald helped establish the CRM division, delivering sales, marketing and e-commerce products that generated in excess of tenfold revenue growth over two years. Most recently, as SVP of products and customer service, he launched the first SaaS-based solution at Serena Software, which was taken private by Silver Lake Partners for $1.2 billion.

Sramana: Carl, let’s start with your personal background. Where does the story begin?

Carl Theobald: I had two passions in life growing up. One was writing music and the other was writing software. I started doing both at 10 years old. I quickly discovered that I would not make a lot of money pursuing music, so I entered Princeton University to pursue an engineering degree. After that I went to Stanford and joined a PhD for engineering economic systems because I thought the idea of using quantitative methods to solve real-world problems was interesting. I was working at Oracle part-time while I was at Stanford and ended up enrolling full-time into Oracle. >>>