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.

Web 3.0 & Group Travel: Groople CEO Mike Stacy (Part 1)

We have talked a lot about Web 3.0 and Context. Today, we begin an interview series with Mike Stacy, CEO of an Online Travel company called Groople, which has zeroed in on the context of Group Travel. It’s a very interesting niche, and we will explore Mike’s story of building Groople.

SM: Please describe your personal background : Family, upbringing, early career, etc. leading up to Groople. MS:
I was raised in Saginaw, a small town in Michigan. I learned a lot about what makes a business viable from my father, who was a banker in town. It was his job to make the final call on whether or not the bank would offer a business loan to a company or individual. Does the company have a solid plan? Is it a good business opportunity? Are they strong leaders? Even as I made my way up the corporate ladder, so to speak, I always thought about the traits of a business and a leader that equaled success and put them into play whether I was leading a small team or a large division. >>>

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Venture Capital for MicroFinance: Chris Brookfield (Part 1)

Chris Brookfield is the Investment Director at Unitus Investment Management Company. He has been a venture capital and private equity investor his entire professional career. In 2004 he co-founded Open Water Investors. Chris has also been an Associate at Redleaf Venture Management, a Silicon Valley seed stage venture investor, and is familiar with pure play technology venture capital.

Unitus is an interesting study in successful microfinance institution financing being conducted in a for-profit environment. I recently had the opportunity to discuss Unitus and microfinance with Chris.

Microfinance has gained momentum in the last 12 months, with a number of successive milestones. >>>

Cracking the Online Video Monetization Nut: Adap.tv CEO Amir Ashkenazi (Part 1)

Amir Ashkenazi is the founder of Adap.tv, as well as the former founder and CTO of Shopping.com. Adap.tv is in the midst of the Online Video Advertising fray, on which I have recently written quite a bit. In fact, Danny Cohen suggested this conversation after reading one of those pieces about one of Adap.tv’s competitors, Scanscout. Online Video is very hot right now, but monetization is not quite happening very well yet. That is why, companies such as Adap.tv and Scanscout are important. In this discussion, we will discuss Amir, and also the segment that he is currently entrepreneuring in.

SM: Amir, I would like to start by going back to your roots. Where do you come from, where were you born, what type of family did you grow up in? AA: I was born in Israel 36 and a half years ago. I grew up nobly and aptly. I moved to the US in 1999.

SM: Did you move here as a student? AA: I started Shopping.com in 1997 while I was still in Israel. Before that I was Director of Research at a company called CommTouch. >>>

Portaga’s TripSync: Simplifying Business Travel (Part 1)

Continuing on our coverage of the Online Travel industry, I bring you Portaga, a small private company that is working on simplifying the challenges of booking and changing travel plans from within your calendar, desktop or mobile. Here, we speak with Portaga’s CEO Robert Kost.

SM: Please describe your business value proposition and your product.
RK: TripSync is the free, Web 2.0 travel tool that allows business travelers to book, change and manage travel directly from their calendar with a few simple clicks. TripSync simplifies, organizes and synchronizes business travel for one or multiple travelers by creating live data itineraries right in Outlook. TripSync makes creating or changing travel plans as easy as scheduling a meeting. Designed with an inherent understanding of how small and medium sized companies work, TripSync was developed by veteran business travelers at Portaga, Inc., a web services company based in White Plains, NY.
>>>

Rolling up an Online Ad Agency Powerhouse: AKQA CEO Tom Bedecarre (Part 1)

Tom Bedecarre is the CEO of AKQA, an award winning, privately held ad agency with roots in San Francisco. Tom provided a fascinating interview, and a really good discussion about the emergence of new media and how it shifts the power balance in the advertising marketplace. As is customary, we begin the interview by learning something about his background.

SM: I would like to begin with a bit of your background. Where did you grow up, what was your early career like? TB: I am a Bay Area native. My great grandfather came to San Francisco, so my family has been in the area a long time. >>>

Salesforce.com’s Incubator: René Bonvanie (Part 1)

René Bonvanie is Senior Vice President and General Manager, AppExchange and Developer Marketing at Salesforce.com. Rene has responsibility for the marketing and strategic direction of the AppExchange on-demand platform and developer marketing through the ApppExchange Developer Network. AppExchange is a novel new business strategy which allows SalesForce to develop symbiotic relationships with established and emerging companies while simultaneously gaining access into new markets. In this interview, we specifically drill down into Salesforce.com’s recently launched AppExchange Incubator program.

SM: Rene, I would like to start our conversation by talking about your background and history. RB: I am the General Manager and Senior Vice President of AppExchange, the developer relations at SalesForce.com, and I have been in the hi-tech industry for the last 24 years.

SM: Where are you from originally? RB: I am a Dutch citizen. I am from Holland. I worked half of my professional career in Europe. I was involved in two companies there, Ingress and Oracle. I spent about 8 years with Ingres, and about 11 years with Oracle. I moved to the Bay area about 11 years ago and I spent a number of years with Oracle. I then went on to be the Chief Marketing Officer at Veritas and Business Objects, and I spent a little bit of time with SAP before joining SalesForce.com in January 2007. >>>

Retrevo’s Vertical Search: Before and After

According to Vipin Jain, CEO, Retrevo “is a web service that helps consumers with shopping and support of tech products. Retrevo is your trusted advisor throughout the lifecycle ownership of tech products, from education, research, deals, price comparison, getting the best out of the products you bought, accessorizing, using, fixing issues to servicing your products. Retrevo is the only company that helps consumers before and after“. [You can read Vipin’s interview here to get the business story of this company.]

The Before is obvious, and similar to what we have seen in Wize and TheFind. You look for a product, research features, shop for the best prices, and make a final buying decision. It is the After that I find interesting in the case of Retrevo, which is also their key differentiator. >>>

Retrevo’s Vipin Jain on Vertical Search (3)

SM: Who financed the company at the very beginning?
VJ: Ammar Hanafi @ Alloy Ventures seed funded in Feb 2006.

SM: Did you raise Angel money? How much? From whom?
VJ: Three founders bootstrapped the company with $150K cash.

SM: Did you raise Venture money? How much? From whom?
VJ: Total $3.9M venture money raised from Norwest Venture Partners and Alloy Ventures. >>>

Retrevo’s Vipin Jain on Vertical Search (2)

SM: How big is the market for what you have to offer? (TAM analysis is essentially what I am looking for here … )
VJ: $1B-$1.5B. Assume a conservative $25B online spending out of a total of $150B CE spending in the US. Assume 4%-5% of the total online spend in referral. TAM is much larger if you consider the bridge between online research (75% of consumers research their products online) and offline purchases (and how to build that bridge). >>>

Retrevo’s Vipin Jain on Vertical Search (1)

A Vertical Search engine called Retrevo has come up a few times in our coverage of the Gadget Geeks segment. Here, I interview the CEO, Vipin Jain.

SM: Please describe your business value proposition and your product.
VJ: Retrevo is a web service that helps consumers with shopping and support of tech products. Retrevo is your trusted advisor throughout the lifecycle ownership of tech products, from education, research, deals, price comparison, getting the best out of the products you bought, accessorizing, using, fixing issues to servicing your products. Retrevo is the only company that helps consumers “before and after”. >>>