Application: TradeKing Financial Entrepreneur Pitch-Fest Competition

Complete and return to maureen@1mby1m.com

See Frequently Asked Questions for further details.

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Your answers to the following 14 questions will be used to qualify you for consideration in the program. They also make a good grounding for developing your ideas into a marketable venture. A few notes before you get started answering the questions:

Make your responses brief but with enough detail to explain your business. Submit your responses as a WORD or PDF document no more than two pages long.
TradeKing is a financial services firm and encourages innovation in that sector. Though there is a preference for Pitch-Fest ideas that relate specifically to that sector, we are open to responses that have an indirect impact.
Responses must be returned by email to maureen@1mby1m.com.
We will accept applications through Spring 2013 and will acknowledge receipt of your completed form.
Please read the selection criterion listed at the bottom before answering the questions.

Questions: Please give brief, concise answers to the following:

1. Value Proposition: What are you trying to create? How will it benefit an online investor?

2. Describe the customer segment that you are servicing.

3. Validation: Have you validated your business idea with any potential customers? Why do you believe customers will want to use your idea/platform/service?

4. Positioning: What is the positioning of your offering? Who are the competitors? How do you compete? Differentiate?

5. Monetization: How do you monetize? What is the business model?

6. TAM: How big is your market opportunity? This determines your financing and go-to-market strategy in a significant way. Please note that we look for bottom-up TAM analysis.

7. Bootstrapping: Have you done enough bootstrapping before approaching investors? Is your company fundable, or is it one that needs to be bootstrapped all the way (which is okay with us, too)?

8. Financing: Are you bootstrapping? Are you planning to raise money? Have you raised any money so far? From whom? How much? What are your capital requirements to build this business?

9. Customer Acquisition: What is your customer acquisition strategy, cost, conversion rate, channels, channel costs? How many paying customers do you have right now? How much traffic? How many free users? Any other information on traction / validation metrics?

10. Team: Who is on the team, and what functions do they cover? Don’t worry, we believe in lean, capital-efficient startups, and hence, small teams. Freelance resources are perfectly acceptable to get things done. 1M/1M’s partner, eLance, is specifically focused on helping you get things done efficiently.

11. Stage: What stage are you at now? Concept? Minimum Viable Product? Free Users? Paying Users? Revenue? Profitability?

12. Anything else that is interesting about your venture that you think we should know?

13. Explain why you are best positioned to execute on this initiative.

14. Please take a look at the short videos about the 1M/1M program below. They answer some frequently asked questions about 1M/1M and show how we work with entrepreneurs. Base on this information, please tell us what your objectives are and how you would use the program if you were to win a scholarship.

SELECTION CRITERION

Innovative Idea and Business Model Being Proposed
Best and Most Creative use of the TradeKing API functions
Individual’s background
The Strategic Vision and the Market Viability of the idea
Ability of the participant to create and execute on the business idea
Best combined use of the TradeKing API with any other API provider

VIDEOS ABOUT THE 1M/1M PROGRAM

TradeKing Financial Entrepreneur Pitch-Fest Competition

Frequently Asked Questions: TradeKing Financial Entrepreneur Pitch-Fest Competition

View All Testimonials

Testimonials

“1Mby1M 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 also acted as an advisor helping us navigate complex term sheet clauses like tranche financing and liquidation preferences. 1Mby1M also helped us win the $40,000 Microsoft BizSpark Startup Challenge Grant by helping us refine our pitch, market sizing analysis, and other details. I would enthusiastically recommend the 1Mby1M program for first time entrepreneurs and technical founders who need help with understanding other aspects of running a business.”

Girish Mathrubootham, Founder & CEO at Freshworks – Raised $484 Million in Funding and went Public on Nasdaq with a $10B+ Valuation

“Working with the 1Mby1M team is perhaps one of the best decisions I’ve made on the spur of the moment. I was tracking 1Mby1M for a while and used to get their e-newsletter. I was always cynical about the pay to play model in the Bay Area. I tested the model quite late in our evolution on a whim and was surprised by everything. It was the best $1000 spent. I would strongly urge founders who are at the ideation stage to sign up – you will save yourself a lot of time, trouble and resources. Through 1Mby1M, I was introduced to Warren Weiss, a renowned former sales executive who worked with Steve Jobs at NeXT, and is now a successful VC in Silicon Valley.”

Dharmesh Singh, Co-founder and CEO, Fullcast - Raised $4 Million in Series A Funding

“I joined the 1Mby1M Premium program in 2020 and had a very good experience interacting with Sramana. Her inputs during the private roundtable sessions added a lot of value; she addressed the exact objectives I had. She also made a number of valuable introductions. Overall, the program had a very positive influence on our journey.”

Abinash Saikia, Co-founder of EnCloudEn, Acquired by Quantum Corporation in 2021

“The 1Mby1M program has been a phenomenal help to us. Within days of joining, Sramana introduced us to some 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. Many thanks for all the help, support and mentorship through the years.”

Vikrant Mathur, Co-Founder at Future Today

“Working with Sramana Mitra and the 1Mby1M Premium program has been invaluable for Adya as a bootstrapped company to better understand how to best position the product and the company while working within constraints. Sramana has a very fresh perspective that promotes bootstrapped startups making slow, steady progress while rejecting the need for institutional investments. This also makes companies better targets for acquisitions. Thanks to her introductions, we were able to pitch Adya to the right companies at the senior executive levels. This led to, I am happy to say, an acquisition of Adya by Qualys! Without Sramana, this happy outcome would likely not have happened.”

Deepak Balakrishna, Co-Founder and CEO, Adya (Acquired by Qualys)

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