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. 

Best of Bootstrapping: How Algo.ai CEO Amjad Hussain Bootstrapped using Services from Michigan

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

I am always thrilled to see great entrepreneurship in various parts of the world that are off-center. Well, Algo.ai CEO Amjad Hussain’s journey is a great one from Detroit.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

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Featured Videos

Colors: Rice Terraces, Reflections

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about Art and Culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of Art – a painting, a poem, a piece of music, so forth – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today –Rice Terraces, Reflections

Rice Terraces, Reflections | Sramana Mitra, 2017 | Water color, Ink and Pastel | 18 x 24, On Paper

Related Reading: Six Books That Have Offered Me Significant Insights

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping with a Paycheck

As I started analyzing various paths to success via bootstrapping, one became absolutely obvious: holding onto a job and doing a startup part time. We gave this a name: Bootstrapping with a Paycheck, and published a book on the subject:

Entrepreneur Journeys Bootstrapping With A Paycheck (Available for order from Amazon Kindle)

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Best of Bootstrapping: How Under30Experiences Bootstrapped to $5 Million

Under30Experiences CEO Matt Wilson has built a fan business using content marketing to sell travel experiences to a millennial demographic. Very cool!

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where did you grow up and in what kind of background?

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Colors: Winter Storm on Rice Terraces

Winter Storm on Rice Terraces | Sramana Mitra, 2017

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about Art and Culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of Art – a painting, a poem, a piece of music, so forth – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Winter Storm on Rice Terraces

Winter Storm on Rice Terraces | Sramana Mitra, 2017 | Water color, Ink and Pastel | 18 x 24, On Paper

Related Reading: An Antidote to Social Media Addiction

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping from Arizona to $10 Million

We recently put the spotlight on Entrepreneurship in Arizona. Here, Pagely CEO Joshua Strebel shares another terrific story of bootstrapping success from Arizona.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background?

Joshua Strebel: I was born in a little town in Idaho called Soda Springs. I’m the youngest of nine children. I grew up primarily in Las Vegas, Nevada and was splitting time within Salt Lake City, Utah. My parents were divorced when I was younger, so I went back and forth between households. I finished high school in Salt Lake City and ended up in Arizona where I went to college at Northern Arizona University.

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PaaS: Calling ALL PaaS Leaders

You may have read some of my writings on Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), for example, on our blog, LinkedIn, or SeekingAlpha:

Cloud Stocks: SaaS Companies NEED PaaS Strategy
SaaS Companies: You Have An Unprecedented Opportunity

At 1Mby1M, we’re putting significant emphasis on PaaS for our community of SaaS entrepreneurs, with the observation that both customer acquisition and exits would come more naturally if they work within certain eco-systems to which they have strategic relevance.

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Colors: Snow Country, Blue Storm

Snow Country, Blue Storm | Sramana Mitra, 2017

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about Art and Culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of Art – a painting, a poem, a piece of music, so forth – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Snow Country, Blue Storm

Snow Country, Blue Storm| Sramana Mitra, 2017 | Water color and Pastel | 18 x 24, On Paper

Related Reading: Let’s Go Beyond Superficial Virtual Interactions

Colors: Nestled Valley, Snow

Nestled Valley, Snow | Sramana Mitra, 2017

I’m publishing this series on LinkedIn called Colors to explore a topic that I care deeply about: the Renaissance Mind. I am just as passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and business, as I am about Art and Culture. In this series, I will typically publish a piece of Art – a painting, a poem, a piece of music, so forth – and I request you to spend a minute or two deeply meditating on it. I urge you to watch your feelings, thoughts, reactions to the piece, and write what comes to you, what thoughts it triggers, in the dialog area. Let us see what stimulation this interaction yields. For today – Nestled Valley, Snow

Nestled Valley, Snow | Sramana Mitra, 2017 | Water color and Pastel | 18 x 24, On Paper

Related Reading: If I Were 22: I Was Fired from My Own Company

Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapping to Unicorns

While it doesn’t happen that often, Bootstrapped Unicorns do exist.

My 2014 Entrepreneur Journeys book, Billion Dollar Unicorns has a whole section on this topic. You can read an excerpt on my blog titled Bootstrapped Unicorns. In this piece, I discuss three companies, Zoho, eClinicalWorks, and Veeam, that have bootstrapped to about a billion dollars in revenues.

Revenues NOT valuation.

That puts their valuations in the five to ten billion range or beyond. So they are Unicorns (billion dollar valuation) many times over.

You can also read an interview with Sridhar Vembu of Zoho here that describes the early journey of the company: Happily Bootstrapping: Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu.

I interviewed him again some years later on Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho.

You can read an interview with Girish Navani of eClinicalWorks on his early journey here: Built To Enjoy: eClinicalWorks CEO Girish Navani

I also interviewed him again some years later on Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: Girish Navani, CEO of eClinicalWorks

Girish was also at one of our roundtables where he described his journey. You can listen to the recording here:

You can read about Ratmir Timashev’s journey here: Unicorn in the Making: Veeam CEO Ratmir Timashev. Veeam DID become a Unicorn and has raised Private Equity funding.

Ratmir was also at one of our roundtables where he describing his journey. You can listen to the recording here:

Related Case Studies:

Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, Build an EdTech Unicorn from Canada: John Baker, CEO of D2L

Bootstrapping a Billion Dollar Unicorn in Online Real Estate: Auction.com CEO Jeff Frieden

Bootstrapping a Billion Dollar Unicorn with Services from Utah: Dave Elkington, CEO of InsideSales.com

Best of Bootstrapping: Alteryx Bootstrapped with Services to a Public Unicorn

AI Unicorn ZipRecruiter First Bootstrapped, then Raised Money

Billion Dollar Unicorns: Celonis Bootstrapped First, Raised Money Later

Bootstrapped Unicorn: Qualtrics Founders Walk Away with $7 Billion

Billion Dollar Unicorns: CarGurus Bootstraps its Way to an IPO

Billion Dollar Unicorns: Adyen Bootstraps to Multi-Billion Valuations

Billion Dollar Unicorns: eClinicalWorks Bootstraps With A Paycheck