Sramana Mitra: I would like to hear a bit about some case studies of companies you have invested in following this investment thesis you just described. And what have you learned? Why are they choosing you, and what value are you adding? How are you playing this investment thesis out?
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Over 99% of entrepreneurs who seek Venture Capital funding get rejected. Many because they are not fundable. I run One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), a global virtual accelerator for startups. 2025 is our fifteenth year supporting entrepreneurs.
Thousands upon thousands of entrepreneurs have approached us for help with their funding at a stage where their chances of getting funding is ZERO. We can’t help them, regardless of how powerful our investor connections are.
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Vancouver sits at Canada’s Pacific edge, a city defined by its stunning geography, international connections, and innovative spirit. Unlike Toronto’s finance-driven entrepreneurship or Montreal’s AI research dominance, Vancouver’s ecosystem thrives at the intersection of sustainability, gaming, digital media, and global trade. Yet, like all startup hubs, it wrestles with a familiar tension: abundant support and capital, but often insufficient focus on revenue-first discipline.
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Daniel Ibri is Co-founder and Managing Partner at Mindset Ventures. This is an excellent discussion about the changing dynamics of AI and venture capital.
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Montreal has emerged as one of the world’s premier AI hubs, rivaling Toronto, London, and San Francisco in academic depth and innovation energy. With its deep research ecosystem, strong cultural identity, and global perspective, the city stands as a key pillar of Canada’s startup landscape. Yet, as with so many ecosystems I have studied globally, Montreal’s founders face a similar dilemma: too much emphasis on raising venture capital too soon — and not enough focus on bootstrapping to customer success first.
>>>Sramana Mitra: What are you seeing in India? The first wave of Indian e-commerce or consumer brands served the higher end. Now the middle class is much more tuned into e-commerce. Everyone uses 10-minute services like Blinkit. What trends are you seeing in going down-market in e-commerce?
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Toronto is the beating heart of Canada’s startup ecosystem. It’s where finance, technology, and academia intersect most densely — a city that has matured into one of North America’s most vibrant innovation hubs. With a strong base in FinTech, SaaS, and AI, Toronto has given rise to several of Canada’s most globally recognized tech companies. Yet, despite its achievements, Toronto also embodies the structural contradictions of the modern startup landscape — an overemphasis on fundraising at the expense of sustainable business building.
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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 – one of my paintings – 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 – Curtains in the Wind II
Curtains in the Wind II | Sramana Mitra, 2019 | Watercolor, Ink, Pastel | 18 x 24, On Paper