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. 

How to Build and Monetize a Technology Entrepreneurship Blog: Content Strategy

Content Strategy: What should you write about?

If you look at my blog, I write about technology businesses. That is what I know about. That is what I care about. That is what I am passionate about.

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How to Build and Monetize a Technology Entrepreneurship Blog: Platform Strategy

Platform Strategy: What platform should you write on?

When I started, most of us early bloggers were writing on WordPress.

I set up my own domain (sramanamitra.com) and built my site around WordPress.

Today, you have many more options.

How to Build and Monetize a Technology Entrepreneurship Blog: Mission and Positioning

Mission and Positioning: Why are you doing this?

I started blogging because I love to write, and I have a lot of opinions on all sorts of topics. I love entrepreneurship. I have always been passionate about entrepreneurship development, ecosystem building, entrepreneurship education, incubation, and acceleration. I have a love for Development Economics and have always viewed entrepreneurship as an important tool for economic development. 

How to Build and Monetize a Technology Entrepreneurship Blog: Introduction

I started blogging on Technology Entrepreneurship in April 2005. The Internet was different then. There was no Smartphone. Social Media was just starting. Facebook and LinkedIn were new concepts.

Today, in 2021, building and monetizing a Technology Entrepreneurship Blog requires a very different strategy than the one I started with.

In this multi-part series, I will lay out a fully fleshed out roadmap of how to do so with contemporary tools.

Big Idea 2021: SaaS Companies Will Create 10 Million Jobs

I am writing this based on numerous conversations I have had over the last 18 months with SaaS CEOs, ALL of whom are here on LinkedIn.

My prediction: Starting in 2021, the SaaS industry will be on a path to create 10 million jobs. 

The Platform IFs:

• IF 1000 SaaS companies open up their platforms as a service, PaaS, as Salesforce.com does, by 2025
• IF each platform lets startups sell through its marketplace, as Salesforce.com does, by 2025
• IF each platform empowers 1000 startups to build on its stack by 2025
• IF each startup reaches $1M in annual revenue by 2030
• IF each startup hires an average of 10 employees by 2030

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Thanksgiving Meditations

The year 2020 is about to enter its last month. For most of humanity, it has been the most intense year in at least half a century.

I think about my own experience. 

Walking in idyllic Menlo Park, fall foliage painting my vision in chrome yellow, vermillion orange, crimson red. 

I feel nothing but gratitude.

Millions of migrant workers walked hundreds of miles at the onset of the Indian lockdown. The government forgot about them in a mad rush to check the virus. With no work and no means of subsistence, they tried to get back to their villages, their families, from the cities where they worked as day laborers. 

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Startup Ideas for the Post Covid World: Artists and Collectors Shift Online

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumer behavior in a major way. The change, however, has only started. As we move through the virus-era over the next two years without treatment and without vaccines, much more will likely change.

As you know, I have a special interest in Art, and have observed its dynamics for many years. I have concluded that the time has come for Artists and Collectors to move online and interact in a fluid marketplace.

Let me explain.

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Covid 19 Lockdown: How Soon Should We Open Up?

We are in the midst of an anthropological event. An unprecedented situation. A moment of history that we are living. That posterity will read about.

I have received requests from my readers to synthesize my thoughts on the Covid-19 crisis. I can only synthesize my current thoughts right now, but as I learn more, they may/will morph. I think, this needs to be the current spirit of all discussions. 

With that, here is a summary of a few points:

First, timeline of economic reopening: I would like things to be mostly shutdown until the risk becomes manageable. Treatment, tests, vaccine, and hospital capacity are the core determining factors. Seventy vaccine projects are under way at drug companies and universities. Numerous drug trials as well. We need to buy time. How much? A lot, it seems. But the answer is a TBD through further careful, scientific analysis by experts, not by politicians with reelection agendas, nor by people concerned about their stock portfolios. This virus is terribly contagious.

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PaaS: Bootstrapping by Piggybacking

We’ve discussed all kinds of creative bootstrapping mechanisms in this series. My #BigIdeas2020 contribution is yet another technique that I believe would be particularly relevant and powerful going forward.

Conversations with a 20-Year Old

Olivia is 20-years old. Her father and I have been close friends for 22 years. 

Of late, we’ve spent a fair bit of time together discussing where she wants to go with her career and her life.

This set of conversations is the catalyst for this post that may be useful and broadly applicable to other young people considering similar questions.

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