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.

Morphing a Consulting Business to a Cloud Computing Product Company: Bill Loumpouridis, CEO of EDL (Part 1)

Bill Loumpouridis is the CEO and founder of EDL Consulting. Prior to EDL he served as vice president of CRM at iXL, regional customer relationship management (CRM) practice leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers, founder of Strategic Technology Resources (STR), founded Strategic Technology Resources, and served as an executive manager at Lante Corporation. He studied math and computer science at the University of Illinois.

Sramana: Bill, let’s start with a review your background. What is your personal story?

Bill Loumpouridis: I am the son of Greek immigrants. My parents got here in the late 1950s and did not know the language and were unskilled. All they had was a burning desire to be successful and make it in the land of opportunity. >>>

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Bringing Together Content And Commerce In Men’s Fashion: JackThreads Founder Jason Ross (Part 1)

Jason Ross founded JackThreads in Columbus, Ohio. Ross graduated from Ohio State in 2003 with a BSBA in finance. The idea for the July 2008 launch of JackThreads.com came from Ross’s interest in street wear and men’s contemporary fashion, plus his appreciation of a good deal. Ross saw the company as a more discreet way for men to buy premium brands on sale, without sacrificing the top-tier images they worked to build. JackThreads was acquired by Thrillist.com in May 2010, but Ross continues to lead the company’s daily operations.

Sramana: Jason, let’s start by reviewing your background. Where do you come from?

Jason Ross: I am from Cleveland, Ohio. My father was in the military so we traveled a lot, but we settled in Ohio and I went to Ohio State. >>>

Accelerating Global E-Commerce: Adyen Cofounder Peter Caparso (Part 1)

Peter Caparso is a cofounder of Adyen, a global e-commerce company which provides outsourced Internet payment services. Prior to cofounding Adyen, Peter worked at various companies ranging from Fortune 500 firms to startups before becoming a key figure at Bibit. In 2004, Bibit was acquired by the Royal Bank of Scotland, where Peter then headed the global e-commerce sales and account management teams for the United States. Peter received his MBA with a concentration in finance and strategic management from Boston College and holds a BA in economics from Villanova University.

Sramana: Peter, let’s begin by reviewing your background to explore the genesis of your company.

Peter Caparso: I started right out of college working for New England Telephone. I had received my undergraduate degree from Villanova University. After working for one year, I went to Boston College at night and earned my MBA. >>>

Building India’s Amazon: Flipkart CEO Sachin Bansal (Part 1)

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

[Also check out my Entrepreneur Journeys book, Seed India – How To Navigate The Seed Capital Gap in India]

I first learned about Flipkart when I discovered that Flipkart is the only e-commerce company in India that is selling my books online. Subsequently, they became the only company in India to sell all five of my books, since I have chosen not to sell the publishing rights to Vision India 2020, Entrepreneur Journeys Volume Three: How To Test, Validate and Bring Your Idea to Market, and Entrepreneur Journeys Volume Four: Innovation, Need Of The Hour to my original publisher, Hachette India, because they offered me horrible terms.

Today, it is my pleasure to bring you our next Entrepreneur Journeys story, a conversation with Sachin Bansal, one of the pioneers in e-commerce. Sachin and his partner Binny are working on building India’s Amazon.

Sramana: Sachin, let’s begin by exploring the genesis of your story. What is your background?

Sachin Bansal: I am originally from Chandigarh, which is the capital of Punjab. My business partner, Binny, is also from Chandigarh. We are not related in any way, it just happens to be a coincidence that we are now working on Flipkart together. We both grew up in Chandigarh and went to the same schools yet did not know each other well. >>>

9.4M Dollars In Concept Financing To 100M In Bookings: Palo Alto Networks Founder Nir Zuk (Part 1)

Nir Zuk is a serial entrepreneur and the founder and CTO of Palo Alto Networks. Prior to Palo Alto Networks, he was the CTO at NetScreen Technologies, which was acquired by Juniper Networks in 2004. Prior to NetScreen, Nir was co-founder and CTO at OneSecure. Nir also served as a principal engineer at Check Point Software Technologies, where he was a lead developer of inspection technology.

SM: Let’s start by reviewing your background. Where are you from?

Nir Zuk: I was born and raised in Rehovot, Israel. The Weizmann Institute of Science is there; it is one of the top research institutions in the world. As a result, Rehovot is a very scientific town. I was exposed to science throughout my life. >>>

Bootstrapping To $19 Million: Office Ally CEO Brian O’Neill (Part 1)

Brian O’Neill founded Office Ally in 2000 after observing poor business practices in the healthcare industry. Office Ally (covered in Deal Radar early this year) is a health information network connecting patients, providers, and payers. It offers a free practice management system, a free clearinghouse, a low-cost electronic health record ($29.95/month/provider) as well as a patient portal that enables e-visits and the creation of  personal health records (PHRs) and e-prescribing. The company earns revenue by charging insurance companies for the streamlined claims process its technologies enable.

SM: Brian, let’s begin by examining the roots of your entrepreneurial journey. Where does your story begin?

BO: I grew up in Ohio and I earned a degree in computer science before moving to California when I was twenty. >>>

Can You Do It All? BlackLine CEO Therese Tucker (Part 1)

Therese Tucker is the CEO and founder of BlackLine Systems, an account reconciliation and financial close software provider. Prior to that she served as CTO at SunGard Treasury Systems. Therese was comfortably retired from SunGard – and had two school-age children at home – when she decided to merge her two talents, technology and finance, into a successful business endeavor of her own in 2001. With just sixty employees BlackLine boasts a client roster that includes AT&T, Boeing, Costco, eBay, Northrop Grumman, and United Airlines.

SM: Therese, let’s start at the beginning of your story. What is your background?

TT: I grew up on a farm in Illinois. I am the youngest of four girls. My parents did not have much money. My father was a factory worker and farmer. >>>

A Real-Time, Multimedia Social Network You Might Not Know: Paltalk CEO Jason Katz (Part 1)

Jason Katz is the founder and CEO of Paltalk.com. Jason oversees the strategic direction of Paltalk and also manages the company’s system architecture. Jason is an authority on instant messaging as well as web based voice and video. Jason previously co-founded MJ Capital, a money management firm. Earlier in his career, he was a corporate lawyer at the New York City office of Fulbright & Jaworski.

SM: Jason, tell us about your background. Where are you from?

JK: I grew up in New York City in modest circumstances. Growing up in the city was not a great way for me to grow up because I like outdoors and sports. It was hard finding places to play sports sometimes. >>>

Personalized Alerts In The Enterprise: xMatters CEO Troy McAlpin (Part 1)

SM: Troy, let’s begin by looking into your past. Where does your story begin?

TM: I am from the Bay Area. I was raised by a disabled single mother, and I was the oldest in the family. I had a younger sister and learned responsibility very early. >>>

Child Entrepreneur Caleb Sima: Cofounder Of SPI Dynamics (Part 1)

Prior to taking the helm of Armorize, Caleb Sima was co-founder and CTO to SPI Dynamics, the world’s leading and de facto standard for Web application security scanning. After being acquired by HP, Caleb was made HP’s Chief Technologist – Application Security Center, where he helped HP build a SaaS version of HP’s application security offerings. He also directed the lifecycle of HP’s Web application security solutions where he led a team of accomplished security experts that have received worldwide recognition for identifying new security threats and devising advanced countermeasures. Caleb has been engaged in the Internet security arena since 1996, a time when the concept of Internet security was just emerging. After being a security engineer for S1, he joined Internet Security Systems’ (later IBM) elite X-Force research and development team, where he founded the first pen testing team and bootstrapped the company’s enterprise security assessment business.

SM: Caleb, let’s begin by reviewing your background. Where are you from? Where does your story begin?

CS: I was born in Hawaii and moved to Atlanta when I was seven. I grew up in Atlanta and did not leave there until last year, when I moved to San Francisco. When I was a kid I got into a lot of trouble. I was very rebellious, and I was constantly grounded. I was not allowed to watch TV or play with my friends. Most of the time I was stuck in my room and was only allowed to read books. >>>