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.

The Education Problem: Raj Reddy (Part 1)

Recently I talked with Raj Reddy (wiki bio here) about his thoughts in applying technology to education. To begin this series we review the theoretical foundation for his current work.

SM: Raj, I am really looking forward to having a discussion on what I would call strategy and policy in terms of broader use of technology to solve some of the open problems of humanity today, and you are one of the people who has thought endlessly about this over an incredible career. So, tell us, what are some of the nuggets of your thinking, particularly on education.

RR: There are many aspects of education that we need to think about, a lot that has been studied … millions of reports. One thing, about 20 years ago, that struck me dramatically, is an experiment that one of my senior colleagues, Herbert Simon did. He is not only a Nobel Prize winner (in economics), but he is one of the founders of artificial intelligence. He did an interesting experiment. >>>

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Turn Around Series: Jerry Rawls, Finisar (Part 1)

I recently had the opportunity to talk with Jerry Rawls, the CEO and co-founder of Finisar, about his experiences during the past two decades. While technology companies are accustomed to volatile market places and constant change, Jerry guided Finisar through arguably the most volatile market environment in history.

In this interview he takes us through the strong days of the late 90’s with a peak market cap of nearly $5 billion, through the dotcom bubble burst where typical companies in the same market segment saw sales drop by 98% in under a year, to today where Finisar has been established as a strong global company and a leader in optical components. >>>

Serial Entrepreneur: HP Michelet (Part 1)

Next in our serial entrepreneur series is a fascinating interview with Norwegian entrepreneur, HP Michelet, who is Executive Chairman of Energy Recovery Inc, known more commonly as ERI. As you would expect, HP is a serial entrepreneur, involved with 8 different businesses from software to cleantech to – hold your breath – a cod farm, however in this interview we focus on his efforts and experiences with ERI. This interview provides insight into the process of starting a company from the viewpoint of a venture capitalist, who later on became hands-on under situational demands. In part 1 HP provides an overview of ERI. >>>

Serial Entrepreneur: Philippe Courtot (Part 1)

In this next iteration of the Serial Entrepreneur series, I had a rather long interview with Philippe Courtot. He is an exceptionally driven and talented individual, and also brings a tremendous amount of successful experience to this series. In what will likely be one of the longest interviews in this series, Philippe really gives us incredible insight into being a successful individual and entrepreneur. We start in this first section by talking about his childhood, to see where the roots of entrepreneurship come from. >>>

Serial Entrepreneur: Manoj Saxena (Part 1)

Our Serial Entreprenuer series continues with a fascinating interview with Manoj Saxena. In this first segment we explore his background up to the point of his first venture.

SM: Where did you grow up?
MS: I grew up in India. A city called Hyderabad most of my life and then we were down in Bombay.

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Serial Entrepreneur: Peng Ong (Part 1)

Here is an interview with Peng Ong, the first in a new Serial Entrepreneurial series. This series will highlight those entrepreneurs who have repeatedly been able to come up with innovative ideas for new ventures, been successful in their endeavors, and also failed, but most importantly, have taken in their stride a certain way of life that includes risk and experimentation. We focus, here, on not only the businesses which they have created but the processes they followed.

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