1Mby1M Udemy Courses with Sramana Mitra: Financing

Raising money to build a startup is a huge challenge. To be able to raise any money at all, you must first understand how investors think. We have developed the following courses catering to entrepreneurs in different stages of their entrepreneurial journey.

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Jonathan Lewy of Investo (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Jonathan Lewy was recorded in November 2017. 

Jonathan Lewy, Managing Partner at Investo, discusses pre-seed investment strategies and the Series A gap.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about your seed investing activities. Let’s get to know each other.

Jonathan Lewy: I’m a Managing Partner of Investo. Investo is an early-stage fund that invests mainly in the US and in Latin America. We have made 56 investments. 30% of which in Latin America. We’ve tried investing in other parts of the world but our focus is more US and Latin America. >>>

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8 Investors Discuss Seed Financing for B2B and B2C Startups in Podcasts

Different investors define seed for B2B and B2C in terms of metrics in different ways. A lot of funds are categorically stating that they want to see a certain amount of monthly recurring revenue already achieved before they’re willing to invest. That amount could be $40,000 or it could be $80,000, but there are specific metrics that they put forth as guidance for their funds. And these metrics can be different for B2B and B2C startups as well. During my recent 30-minute podcast interviews listed below, I’ve asked investors if they prefer to invest in B2B or B2C startups, and to share the benchmarks and metrics they use.

Dennis Joyce, Investor and Member of Alliance of Angels, talks about the largest Angel group in the Pacific Northwest.

Ben Mathias, Managing Partner at Vertex Ventures, India, discusses the trends and dynamics of the Indian startup eco-system, including exits. India needs exits at this point, even if they’re relatively small exits.

Patricia Nakache, General Partner at Trinity Ventures, discusses the firm’s investment thesis and some issues encountered by women in technology.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Gus Tai of Trinity Ventures (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Gus Tai was recorded in September 2014. 

Gus Tai, General Partner at Trinity Ventures, discusses their investment thesis around e-commerce over the years – from BlueNile in 1999, to Zulily, Dot, and Bo, and Callisto Media more recently, and what he anticipates for the future.

Sramana Mitra: An outrageous e-commerce business that Gus and the firm invested in is a company called Blue Nile way back in 1999.

Gus Tai: Yes, we made the initial investment in 1999. >>>

1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Julien Nguyen of IT Farm (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Julien Nguyen was recorded in October 2017. 

Julien Nguyen is General Partner at IT Farm, a seed-stage fund focused on Digital Health. We explore trends in the industry, as well as what IT Farm’s sixth fund likes to invest in.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about IT Farm. What is the focus of the firm? How big is your fund? What sized investments do you make?

Julien Nguyen: IT Farm is a seed level VC firm. We started in Tokyo and we have an office in Palo Alto. Most, if not all, of our >>>

393rd Roundtable Recording On April 5, 2018: With Tim Guleri, Sierra Ventures

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here:

Roundtable Recap: April 5 – Please Do NOT Go Into Ultra-crowded Market Segments

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Tim Guleri, Managing Director at Sierra Ventures. Tim discussed at length his firm’s investment thesis, unique relationships with CIOs, and some of the industry trends he sees.

Seven Technologies
As for the entrepreneur pitches, Rajesh Prabhu from Bangalore, India, pitched Seven Technologies, a bootstrapped services company that wants to get into developing a CRM product. Neither Tim nor I saw the merit of the strategy, considering that CRM is an incredibly crowded space.

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392nd 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Patricia Nakache, Trinity Ventures

Patricia Nakache, General Partner at Trinity Ventures, discusses the firm’s investment thesis and some issues encountered by women in technology.

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204th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Nilanjana Bhowmik, Converge

Nilanjana Bhowmik, Co-Founder and General Partner at Converge, a new fund started after serving as the long time General Partner at Longworth Capital. Their focus is B-to-B tech on the East Coast.

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205th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Clint Chao, Moment Ventures

Clint Chao, Co-founder and General Partner at Moment Ventures, discusses the vertical niche opportunities in the tech industry.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Mark Achler of MATH Venture Partners (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Mark Achler was recorded in October 2017. 

Mark Achler, Managing Director, MATH Venture Partners, discusses their investment strategy and the industry trends.

Sramana Mitra: Tell us about MATH Ventures. What is the focus of your firm? How big is the fund? What sized investments do you make?

Mark Achler: We’re based in Chicago. We’re a $28 million fund. We’re just launching our second fund as well which will be twice the size. In our first fund, we made investments of $500,000 to a million dollars. Typically, we’re early stage investors. We do some Series A and seed investing. >>>

206th 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Jeremy Schneider and Jonathan Pines, Webb Investment Network

Jeremy Schneider and Jonathan Pines, both Directors at the Webb Investment Network, discuss their firm’s investment thesis.

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1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Ho Nam of Altos Ventures (Part 1)

Responding to a popular request, we are now sharing transcripts of our investor podcast interviews in this new series. The following interview with Ho Nam was recorded in April 2016. 

Ho Nam, Managing Director at Altos Ventures, makes a clear distinction between capital efficient company building and the “grow at costs in all sorts of unsustainable ways” philosophy. These are two distinctly different ways of building businesses.

Sramana Mitra: Why don’t we start by you introducing Altos Ventures and your core philosophy about investing? Obviously, it’s somewhat different from other VCs out there. I would like our audience to learn how you look at the venture landscape and how you and your colleagues at Altos have come up with a differentiated positioning for the firm. >>>

391st 1Mby1M Entrepreneurship Podcast With Ben Mathias, Vertex Ventures

Ben Mathias, Managing Partner at Vertex Ventures, India, discusses the trends and dynamics of the Indian startup eco-system, including exits. India needs exits at this point, even if they’re relatively small exits.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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392nd Roundtable Recording On March 29, 2018: With Patricia Nakache, Trinity Ventures

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here:

Roundtable Recap: March 29 – Hairy Issues for Women in Technology

During this week’s roundtable, we had as our guest Patricia Nakache, General Partner at Trinity Ventures, discuss the firm’s investment thesis. The discussion included issues about women in technology.

Lucid Vascular
As for the entrepreneur pitch, Prashant Chopra from Foster City, CA, pitched Lucid Vascular, a medical imaging technology using Augmented Reality that I found fascinating.

You can listen to the recording of this roundtable here:

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