Soon I am off to India to deliver the keynote address at TiECon in Kerala and help judge a 1M/1M Pitch-Fest competition next Friday, October 26. Then, on Thursday, November 1, I will be leading the Kolkata 1M/1M Pitch-Fest Competition at iLEAD. As part of a joint effort with local leaders to help invigorate entrepreneur development in Bengal, ten top entrepreneurs will be pitching their businesses for the opportunity to win six scholarships to the 1M/1M program. To pitch and compete, entrepreneurs need to complete the application form and submit it by October 20. I hope to see you in Kolkata (register here) and Kerala (register here)! Now more about the conversations during this week’s roundtable.
Kimbra Studios
First, Kimbra Orr a 1M/1M premium member from Littleton, Colorado, came to discuss a few strategic pieces of her business, Kimbra Studios. Kimbra has a photo jewelry business that she has been restructuring. She wants to focus on design and marketing, and has decided to outsource manufacturing and logistics to a firm in California. On the marketing and business development side, Kimbra has continued to build a nice portfolio of OEM partners - typically sites that offer photo sharing and merchandising services - and act as their photo jewelry vendor. This strategy will continue. In addition, she wanted my feedback on other segments she wants to enter - personalized home merchandise being one of them. She also wanted my feedback on catering to men, which I strongly advised her against.
Green Hero
Next, Boris Hristov from Sofia, Bulgaria, pitched Green Hero, a carbon trading marketplace. The concept was very complex, and my feedback is that
it needs to be simplified vastly before anyone can understand what is being offered, and can then make the decision to transact on the exchange. In principle, the idea of a carbon trading exchange sounds fine. We debated whether a B-to-B approach is better than a B-to-C approach. Business model issues also appear extremely complicated, and need huge simplification leaps.
It was, however, very interesting to see entrepreneurs from Bulgaria starting to use the 1M/1M program.
You can listen to the recording of today’s roundtable here.
As always, I would very much like to hear about your business, so let me invite you to come and pitch at one of our free 1M/1M public roundtables. We will be holding future roundtables, most at 8:00 a.m. PDT, on:
-Friday, October 26, TiECon Kerala 1M/1M Pitch-Fest
-Thursday, November 1, Kolkata 1M/1M Pitch-Fest, Register Here.
-Thursday, November 8, 147th 1M/1M Roundtable, Register Here.
-Thursday, November 15, 148th 1M/1M Roundtable, Register Here.
-Thursday, November 29, 149th 1M/1M Roundtable, Register Here.
If you want a deeper relationship with me, you are very welcome to join the 1M/1M premium program. If you have any questions about the program, please, first study the website, especially What to expect from the 1M/1M premium program and the FAQs. If you have additional questions, please email me, and I would be very happy to respond. Please note that I work exclusively with 1M/1M entrepreneurs.
I also invite you to join the 1M/1M mailing list for the ease and convenience of getting updates. This way we can stay in touch, and it will help you to decide if 1M/1M is a program for you.
Sramana Mitra is the founder of the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) initiative, a virtual incubation program that aims to help one million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant, she writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy, and is 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.