Winter 2009 Greater DC Area
The Founder Institute is a four month training program for both new and seasoned entrepreneurs. The Institute prepares founders to lead the next generation of world-class technology companies across a wide range of industries, from the biotech to the internet. Weekly company-building sessions are guided by experienced CEOs, and they are held in the evening to allow participants to keep their day job or develop their companies during business hours. All of the program stakeholders, from the participating founders to the experienced CEO Mentors, share in the upside generated by the companies formed during the program. Participants also enjoy free services from three dozen Institute Partners, fundraising opportunities at fair market value, and a teamwork-oriented environment to build a company.
Institute News
The Founder Institute Goes International
01/20/2010: by Jonathan Greechan
The Founder Institute is announcing a big expansion today, with new Spring 2010 Semesters in Singapore, Paris, Los Angeles and Denver. The deadline for early admissions is February 15th, with all applications due by February 28th, 2010.
- Apply to the Singapore Program
- Apply to the Paris Program
- Apply to the Los Angeles Program
- Apply to the Denver Program
The Institute is run by founders for founders, providing a framework for successful entrepreneurs to share their experiences and to help. We've already lined up an impressive group of mentors for the Spring semesters, including Nolan Bushnell (Founder of Atari), Michael Robertson (Former CEO of MP3.com), Aaron Patzer (Founder and CEO of Mint.com), Phil Libin (CEO of Evernote), and many more.
If you can benefit from training and mentorship to make your startup more successful, please apply. If you know a founder that needs help, encourage them to join the program.
We will be announcing a series of conference calls shortly, where prospective applicants can learn more about the program and have their questions answered. In addition, you can watch the video below about the Founder Institute, featuring the Institute's Founder, Adeo Ressi.
Welcome to the Founder Institute
For experienced CEOs, we invite you to a special one day symposium discussing the future of funding, hosted by TheFunded. More information is available below:
- http://www.FutureofFunding.com
Happy New Year!
01/05/2010: by Adeo Ressi
The Founder Institute wishes all of the participating entrepreneurs, Mentors, sponsors, and partners a Happy New Year and a successful 2010! This will be an exciting year for hundreds of enrolled Founders, who will incorporate a new technology business during the semester as part of their graduation process.
After incorporating on April 16th, 2009, the Institute had three goals: launch a successful first semester that proves the model, implement a founder selection process that efficiently identifies strong talent, and, assuming success, expand the model into six operating locations. The Institute achieved success in every objective except expanding the locations. We hit five instead of six, and it was hard.
In 2010, the Institute has another three goals: expand into a total of ten operating locations worldwide, help launch 500 enduring and meaningful technology companies, and develop scalable solutions to support the ongoing needs of the Graduates.
The 2010 goals are ambitious, and everyone is invited to help. Everyone is also invited to share in the upside: as a Founder, as a Mentor, and as a local partner. Let's make 2010 a year to remember for hundreds of companies and thousands of people.
Two Grads Launch in TechCrunch
12/22/2009: by Adeo Ressi
Two graduates of the Founder Institute Summer 2009 Bay Area semester have launched within three days of each other with articles in TechCrunch. The Summer 2009 Graduates are starting to gain traction with their ideas, which range from consumer electronics to video games.
The first graduate, Got Clues, is an educational entertainment company. Got Clues announced the launch of iRewardChart, an interactive iPhone application to help parents track and reward children activities, such as cleaning their room. You can read more below:
RewardChart Gets Your Kids To Shoot For The Stars… And Behave
The next graduate, Monstro.us, is an interactive video game company that looks to unite inspiring visual art with interactivity. Their first release, Entranced, has just just come out on the iPhone and is planned for the Wii, web, and PC/Mac, among other platforms. Entranced is a music game that focuses on the world and electronica genres with some novel game play. You can read more and watch a game play video below:
Founder Institute’s Monstrous Gets $400K To Make You Entranced
As you can see in the comments to the articles, the entire pool of Founders from the first semester actively support their peers, which is encouraging. Congratulations!
195 Founders Enrolled in Winter 2009 Semesters
12/09/2009: by Adeo Ressi
The Founder Institute has enrolled 195 Founders in the Bay Area, New York, Seattle, Washington DC, and San Diego for Winter 2009 semesters that run through ealry April, 2010. After tonight, all five locations will have launched first sessions.
Congratulations to the incoming Founders! We hope to help make your startups successful in 2009 and 2010!
41 Accepted from DC and New York
11/28/2009: by Adeo Ressi
The Institute accepted 41 Founders into the New York and Washington DC Area semesters Saturday evening, filling both locations with excellent candidates. The final admissions process occurs quickly by design. If you receive an acceptance letter, act on it sooner rather than later.
Accepted Founders have less than 48 hours to enroll. If an invited applicant does not respond, two people from the waiting list are invited to fill any single vacancy. The moment a location has the desired number of Founders committed, enrollment is closed and everyone is sent notice.
The Institute will start processing Seattle applications on Monday.
Good luck, and congratulations!
The Weekly Session Format
11/27/2009: by Adeo Ressi
Each week over the four month program, the Founder Insitute runs training sessions, covering topics like "Intellectual Property" and "Generating Revenue." The standard session format is outline below. There are three special "Investor Sessions," where top rated angels and venture capitlists are invited to meet the participating Founders, and these sessions have a slightly different format.
| 5 Min | Facilitator Welcome | |
| 30 Min | Working Group Progress Reports | Each Working Group member should present one concrete milestone that they achieved in the last seven days to advance their product or service. |
| 20 Min | Mentor 1 | |
| 20 Min | Mentor 2 | |
| 20 Min | Mentor 3 | |
| 15 Min | BREAK | |
| 30 Min | Speaker Panel Q&A | Three Mentors sit together in the front of the room and answer questions from the Founders. |
| 30 Min | Founder Hotseat | Three Founders, chosen by the Facilitator, sit in the front of the room and have five minutes to describe their business, discuss a challenge that they are facing, and then there is a few minutes to get feedback from the Mentors and the class. |
| 30 Min | Working Group Assignments | Working Groups discuss tactics to complete the upcoming Assignment based on the information from the session itself. |
Dinner is normally served during the session, usually during the break.
Working Groups, which are teams of five participating Founders, are the backbone of the program. At three times in the semester, normally in the beginning of the program and then after the first two Investor Sessions, the Working Groups are randomly re-assigned. Working Groups meet at the beginning and end of each session and are expected to meet at least twice each week between sessions.
Acceptances are nearing...
11/26/2009: by Adeo Ressi
Happy Thanksgiving!
A couple hundred invitations were sent out last night to take the Admissions Test by Saturday morning, November 28th, to be accepted into the Washington DC Area and New York semesters. The test requires just over an hour to complete and is a necessary step in the application process. Acceptance letters for those that complete the test will be sent out on Saturday and Sunday for these two locations. Accepted applicants will need to be ready to enroll in the program by Monday afternoon, November 30th.
DC Area sessions start December 1st, and New York sessions start December 3rd.
Good luck!
Views of an Accepted Founder
11/25/2009: by Adeo Ressi
Roy Leban wrote an in-depth blog post about being accepted into the Founder Institute and his decision to enroll. It provides an interesting insights from the perspective of an experienced entrepreneur and technologist. A snippet from the post is below.
At first glance, I might not seem like the typical candidate for the Founder Institute. I'm not a fresh entrepreneur. I've been doing it a long time and I've had both favorable outcomes (sales) and failures (losing a lot of money). And I even serve as an advisor and mentor to a lot of other entrepreneurs. But, through it all, two things have remained constant: I'm an entrepreneur at heart, and I have a lot to learn.
And those two things are the key reasons that I'm excited that I just got accepted to be part of the Founder Institute's winter session in Seattle.
The Institute has now accepted 100 Founders across the five semesters, and more acceptances are underway. There are 103 Mentors, with another 30 Mentors expected.
Welcome, Roy!
San Jose Mercury News Article
11/22/2009: by Adeo Ressi
Scott Duke Harris wrote an article on Bootstrapping in Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News that mentions the Founder Institute. The article features two graduates: Tim Hyer of RentCycle and Jesse Hammons of Zaggle (beta).
"We don't encourage people to quit their jobs," said serial entrepreneur Adeo Ressi, who conceived the Founder Institute as an offshoot of TheFunded.com, his controversial Web site that subjects venture capitalists to anonymous reviews. "That is a legitimate funding vehicle in this financial market: Be gainfully employed."
Some Founder Institute grads were among those offering "alternative compensation" to 300 job-seekers at a recent Jobnob gathering in a Palo Alto nightspot. One was Jesse Hammons, founder of Zaggle, a new twist on social networking.
The Institute encourages bootstrapping, as well as various funding options, for Founders in the program.
Washington DC Update
11/21/2009: by Tonya Harmon for Winter 2009 Greater DC Area
December and January Location: We're pleased to announce that the first 6 sessions will be held at the Microsoft building in Reston, VA, on Sunset Hills Road.
Mentors: We've got nine great founders signed up to mentor the December sessions:
Your Vision and Idea Types:
- Arman Ashraghi - Founder and CTO of LogiXML
- Bernadette Hyland - Founder and CEO of Zepheira
- Matthew Mandell - Founder and CEO of CityCentric.com and DCSnacks.com
Basic Research:
- Jill Stellfox - Founder of DefyWire, CEO of Accession Point
- Evan Burfield - Co-founder and CEO of Synteractive Corporation
- Adeo Ressi - Founder of TheFunded.com, The Founder Institute.
Naming and Branding:
- Janet Van Pelt - Founder of Echo360, CFO of FreeWebs.com
- Clara Conti - CEO of OnDialog
- Bryan Thatcher - Founder and CEO of Fusebox, Empressr
Deadline for Applications: A reminder that the deadline for applying to the Founder Institute in the Greater DC Area is November 24th. What are you waiting for?!
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