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.

Critical Innovation In Healthcare Claims Processing: athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush (Part 1)

SM: Jonathan, let’s start with your background and your personal story.

JB: I grew up in New York City. Medicine was the only career that nobody had done yet in my family, so I figured that would be a good career for me. I could be the best in my family in my profession and I would not have to be all that bright to do so! >>>

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Billions In The Bubble: Siara CEO Vivek Ragavan (Part 1)

Vivek Ragavan is the president and CEO of Siara. He has over 20 years of high-tech experience primarily in telecommunications. Prior to Siara he was president of the Residential Broadband Group of ADC Telecommunications, where he was responsible for $300 million telecommunication equipment businesses. He also led development of General Instrument’s leading digital video transport system, which powered the growth of cable TV’s video and data penetration.

SM: Where do you come from? What environment bred your persona and the seeds of your career?

VR: I have always been interested in technology from the time I was young. I grew up in Bombay, India. When I was ten I decided I wanted to get involved with telecommunications. >>>

I Want To Change TV: Mitch Berman, CEO of ZillionTV (Part 1)

Mitch Berman has 27 years’ experience in the television entertainment industry including pioneering work in pay TV and interactive TV services. His resume includes stints at HBO, E! Entertainment Television, Sky Network in New Zealand and OpenTV. His latest venture is the founding of ZillionTV.

SM: Let’s set the stage for the beginning of your personal story. What is the story of Mitch?

MB: I like to quote Oscar Wilde, one of my favorite authors, who wrote a lot of stories in the 19th century. He once wrote “experience is the name we give to our mistakes”. >>>

Streamlining Healthcare: AdvancedMD CEO Eric Morgan (Part 1)

Eric Morgan is the CEO of AdvanedMD, a top medical billing software service. He has over 25 years’ experience in technology and medical application companies. He has served as a VP at Lawson Software and as the CEO of StatCom.

SM: What I would like to do first is understand both your background and the background of the company.

EM: I have been in the technology industry for over 25 years and have worked with a variety of vertical segments including retail, wholesale distribution and manufacturing. In the mid 1990s I started my career in healthcare IT. >>>

Towards Smart Grids: eMeter CEO Cree Edwards (Part 1)

Cree co-founded eMeter Corporation in 1999 and serves as its CEO. In 1984 he co-founded CellNet Data Systems, which provided advanced electricity metering data and communications to utilities via wireless networks. Cree has revolutionized the utility industry, bringing much-needed efficiency and vision.

SM: Take me back to where your story begins. What is the genesis of your entrepreneurial journey?

CE: I was born a mile from here at the old Stanford Hospital, which I believe is still operational. My parents moved here from Long Beach. >>>

Towards Paperless Contracts: EchoSign CEO Jason Lemkin (Part 1)

Jason Lemkin is CEO and co-founder of EchoSign, an electronic signature automation service. He was previously an entrepreneur-in-residence at Storm Ventures and co-founder of NanoGram Devices, Prior to his work in technology he was a corporate counsel at Venture Law Group. He earned a BA from Harvard and a JD from Berkeley. You can find his full bio here.

SM: Jason, take us back to where your story begins. Where did you grow up?

JL: Like a lot of entrepreneurs my age, I grew up during the first PC revolution with the Apple II. I was born in Boston but grew up in Los Angeles. >>>

PBX as SaaS: RingCentral CEO Vlad Shmunis (Part 1)

Vlad is the CEO and founder of RingCentral, which provides VoIP, hosted PBX, voicemail, fax and Internet call waiting services through platforms such as RingCentral.com, Pagoo.com and Buzme.com. Prior to RingCentral he was the founder and CEO of Ring Zero, a provider of desktop voice and fax communication software for the OEM market. He graduated magna cum laude from San Francisco State with degrees in computer science.

SM: Vlad, where do you come from?

VS: I was born in Odessa, which used to be part of Russia and is now part of Ukraine. I came to the Bay Area to finish high school. >>>

Transforming Healthcare: Epocrates CEO Kirk Loevner (Part 1)

Kirk Loevner began his career with VisiCorp in the early 1980s before moving to Apple, where he worked for the next ten years. Afterwards he worked at Silicon Graphics, as the CEO of Internet Shopping Network, and then founded PublishOne in November 1998. He then was the CEO and chairman of Pinnacor (ScreamingMedia) from December 2001 to January 2004.

SM: Kirk, take us back to where your story begins. Where are you from? Where did you grow up?

KL: I was born outside of Philadelphia in 1957. I ended up going to college in Boston, to Tufts, for a degree in computer science. >>>

Commercial OpenSource: SpringSource CEO Rod Johnson (Part 1)

Rod Johnson is an accomplished author (‘Expert One-on-One J2EE Design and Development’ and ‘J2EE without EJB’), a world authority on Java and J2EE, and an entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of SpringSource, which builds Java infrastructure software. Rod holds a BA with Honors in Computer Science, Mathematics and Musicology as well as a PhD from the University of Sydney.

SM: I detect an accent. Where is that from?

RJ: I come from Sydney, Australia. My accent has been confused because I also lived in London for seven years. I have lived in the Bay Area for a bit over a year now. >>>

The Audacity of Tom Costello (Part 1)

Tom Costello has a PhD in computer science from Stanford University. His emphasis is artificial intelligence (AI), and aside from teaching he has worked as a researcher at Stanford for DARPA and the U.S. Air Force. He was one of the founders of Xift, and he later worked at IBM. Today his research in the area of search architecture and relevance methods is truly groundbreaking and is at the heart of Cuil, the search engine he cofounded with his wife, Anna, a former Google employee.

SM: Tom, take us back to where your journey starts.

TC: I am from Ireland. I went to college at Trinity College, Dublin. I was in Ireland in 1990, when it was in the midst of a deep recession. >>>