During this roundtable, we had two pitches and two discussions with 1M/1M premium members.

instruMagic
First, Eyal Eldar from Tel-Aviv, Israel, pitched instruMagic, an iPad app for playing songs on a guitar. Eyal is working with one of the largest sites for sheet music distribution and his game plan is to go to market through them as a starting point. As someone who has played a musical instrument, I appreciate how time consuming it is to learn to play, and how much practice it takes to get good. Eyal is making this process easier by having the app play the chords (bass) and the user just playing the right hand (treble). I love the concept, although, I am not sure if this is necessarily a large enough business opportunity to attract institutional capital. For bootstrapping, it’s perfect!

Fair Observer
Then Atul Singh from Daly City, California, pitched Fair Observer, an online media site for deep analysis on current affairs a la The Economist. Atul wants to crowd source a range of contributors from around the world, and monetize via sponsorships. He wants to raise $1 million.

Unfortunately, the online media business model is deeply broken, and the only companies who have succeeded are The Economist and The Wall Street Journal. They have great subscription businesses. Most of the rest of the eco-system is struggling with declining CPM rates, and the smaller publications have a hard time monetizing at all. TechCrunch did a very good business, but it was a bootstrapped company, by and large. In general, the Internet is today a colossal free rider problem. Hence, building businesses is harder, especially in domains that have large masses of customers who expect everything for free.

In other words, this company will either need to be bootstrapped, or, it will need to raise money from individuals or funds who have other agendas than financial returns.

Also, Erika Brodnock from London, England, discussed Karisma Kidz. Erika is a 1M/1M premium member, and she is in the midst of negotiating a minimum viable product for her educational gaming company. Erika stopped by to discuss the budget for the MVP development project.

Finally, Victor Alexiev from Sofia, Bulgaria, discussed Pool Talent. Victor is a 1M/1M premium member as well, working on an online jobs venture focused on high-end software developers. Victor is trying to work out a validation strategy, a go-to-market strategy, and a financing strategy. Victor needs to spend some time digesting the curriculum on those topics, and we can pretty much define the strategies soon after. A lot of what he needs to learn is adequately tackled in the curriculum.

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 at 8:00 a.m. PDT on:

Thursday, August 23, 139th 1M/1M Roundtable, Register Here.

Thursday, August 30, 140th 1M/1M Roundtable, Register Here.

Thursday, September 6, 141st 1M/1M Roundtable, Register Here.

Thursday, September 13, 142nd 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.