
Canada’s startup ecosystem is among the most geographically distributed and intellectually diverse in the world. From the AI labs of Montreal to the SaaS corridors of Toronto, the gaming studios of Vancouver, and the emerging innovation hubs in Calgary, Ottawa, and Waterloo, Canada represents a mosaic of entrepreneurial energy shaped by its universities, immigration policies, and government funding programs.
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Turkey’s accelerator ecosystem is growing rapidly, with Istanbul serving as its hub. Startups raised $1.4 billion in 2024, making Turkey one of Europe’s fastest-rising ecosystems.
>>>Sramana Mitra: Okay. Let’s do a B2B case study.
Mohanjit Jolly: Let’s do a B2B case. About a third of our portfolio consists of US Delaware companies that are building products from India. Chennai seems to be the hub for most of our enterprise companies.
>>>Sramana Mitra: Congratulations. Wonderful. Now, I have a question based on what you said, because I remember what you told me when we last spoke about your B2C investment thesis.
Are you still thinking that the first five to ten million dollars of revenue in B2C brands in India are online only, and then they go omnichannel?
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The global startup ecosystem has embraced accelerators as essential infrastructure. They provide mentorship, network access, validation, and often funding to help founders navigate the early, fragile stages of building companies. In emerging ecosystems like Turkey, accelerators are even more vital — they serve as community hubs and gateways to international capital.
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The Accelerator Conundrum is a multipart series that challenges the prevailing wisdom of the tech startup ecosystem that entrepreneurs should Blitzscale out of the gate. Written by Sramana Mitra, the Founder and CEO of One Million by One Million (1Mby1M), the world’s first global virtual accelerator, it emphatically argues that a better strategy is to Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, focus on customers, revenues and profits. 1Mby1M’s mission is to help a Million entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond. Sramana’s Digital Mind AI Mentor virtually mentors entrepreneurs around the world in 57 languages. Try it out!
Accelerators are infrastructure. They either amplify founder leverage or they create friction — by extracting equity prematurely, by imposing a one-size-fits-all timetable, or by pushing fundraising before product-market fit.
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Is there bias against women entrepreneurs in the tech industry? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t believe it would hinder you if you stick to the Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later strategy.
The media promotes funding as the holy grail.
The VCs want you to believe that Entrepreneurship = Funding.
No. It isn’t.
Entrepreneurship = Customers + Revenues + Profits.

Love and startups go hand in hand for AdCellerant Co-founders Brock Berry and Shelby Carlson, who are helping media companies generate seven-figure revenue streams. Here is our conversation from 2017.
Sramana Mitra: Whoever wants to start, let’s start at the very beginning of your personal journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?
Brock Berry: Thanks for having us. I’m the Founder and CEO of AdCellerant. I’m from Indiana where I grew up and spent the first 23 years of my life before I was compelled to move to Colorado where the weather is a little friendlier and there were a few more work opportunities.