At 100th Roundtable Entrepreneurs Share An Insider’s View Of 1M/1M Program

Sept. 27, 2011 - PRLog -- What began in 2008 as an interactive forum to encourage entrepreneurship in the wake of the financial crisis continues to gain momentum. The One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative will be celebrating the 100th free online roundtable for entrepreneurs on Thursday, October 6, 2011. Of the more than 7,000 entrepreneurs who have registered for these free roundtables, well over 400 have pitched their businesses and received coaching from Sramana Mitra. She reflects on the journey here: http://www.sramanamitra.com/2011/09/19/save-the-date-100th-1m1m-roundtable-on-oct-6th-8am-pt/

During the 100th roundtable, several entrepreneurs who work with 1M/1M from all over the world will be sharing their entrepreneur journeys -- their experiences and goals -- as inspiration for other startup entrepreneurs. These 1M/1M entrepreneurs, who usually meet during the members-only private roundtables, are at various stages of building their businesses. Each will provide an insider’s view of the 1M/1M program.

This interactive roundtable will be moderated by Sramana Mitra, founder of the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative, an educational, business development and incubation program that aims to help one million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond.

"We are very proud of the progress our 1M/1M entrepreneurs are making. At this stage, we have validated our model of a distributed, democratic and 100% virtual entrepreneurship education and incubation program," said Mitra. "We are able to positively impact the journeys of entrepreneurs around the world. It gives me confidence that we can achieve our goal of restructuring capitalism, and establish capitalism 2.0 through the 1M/1M global initiative."

On a typical Thursday, all attendees are invited to pitch their businesses at these free online roundtables: http://1m1m.sramanamitra.com/free-public-roundtables/ Entrepreneurs receive straight-shooting feedback from Sramana Mitra, advice on what their next steps should be and the experience of pitching their businesses in a public forum. Mitra is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant who writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy, and she is the author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series.

Some of the entrepreneurs participating in the 100th roundtable have summarized their experiences with 1M/1M below:

"With Sramana, we sprinted from vague product concept to a customer-driven business with real, reference customers in just six months. Any startup that wants to fast-track to being 'Silicon Valley VC ready' should participate in this program."
–Taariq Lewis, Founder & CEO at Stanzr (San Francisco Bay Area, California, U.S.)

“1M/1M is a very helpful program, and Sramana is very well connected in the industry. When we were looking to talk to investors, Sramana introduced us to multiple investors and acted as an advisor helping us to navigate complex term sheet clauses like tranche financing and liquidation preferences. 1M/1M also helped us to win the $40,000 Microsoft BizSpark Startup Challenge Grant by helping us to refine our pitch, market sizing analysis, and other details. I would enthusiastically recommend Sramana's 1M/1M program for first time entrepreneurs and technical founders who need help with understanding other aspects of running a business.”
– Girish Mathrubootham, Founder & CEO at FreshDesk (Chennai, India)

“The value of your program is amazing. For perspective, I also joined a $12,000/month CEO-roundtable group, with professional speakers and full day, once-per-month meetings. At 1/12th the cost, 1M/1M provides far more value. I was looking for what you teach back in January 2007 and couldn’t find it anywhere. We had just launched our first tech venture and would have saved countless thousands in trial and error education if 1M/1M was available.”
–Dan Stewart, CEO at Happy Grasshopper (Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.)

“OrangeScape has benefited greatly by being part of Sramana Mitra's 1M/1M program. As a company, we were able to lean back on Sramana's vast experience in enterprise GTM processes. She has been driving specific aspects for our GTM just like another member of the OrangeScape team. Also, her interface between OrangeScape and Persistent Systems relationship has greatly helped us in progressing the partnership in a positive direction at all times. Overall, it has been a phenomenal positive for OrangeScape.”  
– Suresh Sambandam, Founder & CEO at OrangeScape (Chennai, India)

“The 1M/1M program has been a phenomenal help to us. Within days of joining, Sramana introduced us to key folks in the industry and helped open new doors for us. Her advice is real, focused, and actionable. I would highly encourage entrepreneurs, especially first-time entrepreneurs, to leverage the program.”
– Vikrant Mathur, Co-Founder at iFood.tv (San Francisco Bay Area, California, U.S.)

“Maine is a great place for entrepreneurs because of the lifestyle it offers, but it's not yet a hub for technology startups. 1M/1M is helping fill that gap by exposing me to the experience and knowledge of entrepreneurs around the country and the world.”
– Michael Goldman, Founder of Wealth Gathering (Portland, Maine, U.S.)

“1M/1M is great to accelerate the penetration in a rich but challenging market like the United States. It takes time to build a sales and product proposition tailored to a new market and usually requires money and time, especially if the company has an innovative proposition. Within the 1M/1M network and with the great support and coordination of Sramana Mitra, CrowdEngineering has been able to quickly adjust the selling proposition, find a channel partner and reach high value prospects for its crowdsourced customer support offering.”
– Gioacchino La Vecchia, CEO at CrowdEngineering (Milan, Italy)

“Sramana's vision and mission for One Million by One Million is becoming a reality. As a serial entrepreneur and now a participant in the 1M/1M premium program I've received direct and relevant feedback from Sramana during my roundtable presentation. Sramana's mentoring along with the online lecture series has helped me perfect my presentation and pitch as I prepare to raise capital under difficult economic conditions.”
– Michaeline Daboul, President & Co-Founder, MMIS, Inc. (Portsmouth, New Hampshire, U.S.)

“Since joining 1M/1M we have gained some invaluable insights from Sramana and her team. I sincerely believe established businesses, as well as startups trying to reach the next plateau in their business, have a lot to gain from participation in 1M/1M. Sramana and her team take considerable interest, and in my view a lot of personal satisfaction in their clients’ successes.”
– Scott Clark, VP Business Development at Value of Insight Consulting (Miami, Florida, U.S.)

“I have found the 1M/1M premium program extremely useful in multiple ways. First, it gave us clear direction on how to move from a pure-play services business to a products business. It was very important for us to learn that we need to build a product that a customer needs rather than trying to convince the customer to think along the lines of our idea. Second, the number of connections we get from the 1M/1M program has been many and we have been successful in converting a few of them into our customers. Third, we get invaluable advice from Sramana on all aspects of business. When we were faced with a tremendous resource crunch, her advice to tap into the freelance community was extremely useful for us. All in all, we find the program very effective for us.”
–Ashok Jagathrakshakan, Founder and President at Azuyo (Bangalore, India)

You can find more information and register to attend here: http://strategyroundtable-oct6.eventbrite.com/

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About Sramana Mitra:
Sramana Mitra is the founder of the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant, she writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy, and she is the author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series and Vision India 2020. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. As an entrepreneur CEO, she ran three companies: DAIS, Intarka, and Uuma. Sramana has a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Find more information here: http://www.sramanamitra.com

About One Million by One Million:
One Million by One Million (1M/1M) is a global initiative to nurture a million entrepreneurs to each reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond, through education, incubation, strategy consulting, coaching, mentoring, business development, media outreach, and access to capital. Find more information here: http://1m1m.sramanamitra.com