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About Us

The Founder Institute is the world’s most proven network to turn ideas into fundable startups, and startups into global businesses. To date, FI has helped launch over 7,500 companies across 200+ cities and six continents.

The company was founded in 2009 by serial entrepreneur Adeo Ressi and his colleague, Jonathan Greechan. The idea for the program spawned from operating TheFunded.com, where it became apparent that most entrepreneurs at the idea and launch stages lacked the structure, feedback, and support network needed to be successful.

News of the launch was announced on TechCrunch, the first Founder Institute program methodology was crowdsourced by over 10,000 CEO members of TheFunded.com, and the inaugural program started in May 2009 in a small classroom at Stanford University. There were originally no plans to expand beyond Silicon Valley, but upon receiving immense inbound interest to launch the program in other cities, the Founder Institute began to expand. Today the program operates across 200 + cities and is  localized into 9 languages.

In total, Founder Institute Alumni have raised over $1.85BN and are worth an estimated $20BN.

Our VISION is that there are talented people everywhere whose potential can be unlocked to make an impact on the world through entrepreneurship.
Our MISSION is to empower talented and motivated people to build technology businesses that positively impact the world, no matter their location, race, gender, or sexual orientation.

We BELIEVE that

  • Great companies start with great people.
  • Great companies can be built anywhere.
  • Great companies are not built alone.
  • Anyone can change the world through entrepreneurship.
  • Focus is one of a founder's greatest challenges.
  • Startups are much harder than you think.

Our Program

We help pre-seed entrepreneurs and teams build get to traction and funding by establishing a critical support network of local startup experts that are invested in their success, and by providing a structured and challenging business-building process that has helped our alumni raise over $1.85BN. Leaders of the world’s fastest-growing startups have used the Founder Institute to raise funding, building a co-founding team, get into seed-accelerators, generate traction, recruit a team, build a product, transition from employee to entrepreneur, and more. 

Learn more about our startup accelerator programs.

Headquarters Team

Our central operations are run from our Palo Alto Headquarters with a small team of incredibly passionate people.

Adeo Ressi

Co-Founder & Chairman

Jonathan Greechan

Co-Founder & CEO

Andrew Crawford

Head of Finance

BV Satyaram

Technology Manager

Guru Mohan Reddy

Full Stack Developer

Dorian Vought

Customer Support & Expansion Associate

Janet Todorova

Expansion and Bulgarian MD

Viktor Minchev

Portfolio Analyst

Plamena Murdzheva

Program Admissions Associate

Hercules

CMO (Chief Morale Officer)

Linda Barnes

Accounting

Donatas Petrauskas

UI/UX Designer

Megan Todd

Head of Admissions

Mike Suprovici

Managing Director, Portfolio Success

Ryan Micheletti

Director of Global Operations

Scout Tweedie-Yates

Regional Manager

Paloma Lecheta

Regional Manager

Dustin Betz

Content and Community Marketing

Simona Irmova

Operations Associate

Martín Martinez

Portfolio Success & Marketing

Jeremy Geiger

Portfolio Success

Elena Zubiria

Finance

Ayhan K. Isaacs

Head of Global Growth

Diane Bailey

Head of Accelerator Growth

Ben Stacey

Regional Manager

Daniel Thomas

Portfolio Success

Global Team

Local Founder Institute Chapters are run by some of the world's top startup leaders. Below is a sampling of our longest tenured local leaders.

Alex M. Dascalu

Regional Director, Romania

Andy Zain

Managing Director, Indonesia

Ayami Wanasinghe

Managing Director, Sri Lanka

Anna Radulovski

Regional Director, Amsterdam and Luxembourg

Benjamin Chong

Managing Director, Sydney

Bruno Dequech Ceschin

Director, Curitiba

Dale David

Director, Manila

Emna Ghariani

Director, Tunisia

Ferdinand Muhlhauser

Managing Director, Berlin

Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr.

Regional Director, Africa and Lagos

Gisela Veritier

Managing Director, Córdoba

Gopi Mattel

Director, Chennai

Harold Hughes

Director, Austin

Haymée Pérez Cogle

Managing Director, Angola

Heislyc Loh

Director, Malaysia

Jason Jacobsohn

Managing Director, Chicago

Jeffrey Paine

Managing Director, Singapore

Jeremy Zaretzky

Managing Director, Seattle

Leo Ku

Director, Hong Kong

Lorena Sánchez García

Managing Director, Mexico City

Marco di Biasi

Director, São Paulo

Mariah Lichtensternu

Managing Director, Sacramento

Martín Martinez

Regional Director, Texas

Merry Riana

Director, Indonesia

Nima Kazerooni

Managing Director, Curitiba, Florianopolis

Olivia Czetwertynski

Director, Berlin

Oriol Bes

Director, Barcelona

Pablo Ambram

Managing Director, Chile

Paloma Lecheta

Director, Brazil

Quang Mai Duy

Director, Vietnam

Sanal Sankar

Director, Chennai

Sayyed Adhmad Masud

Director, Islamabad

Sergio Escobar

Managing Director, Montreal

Sunil Sharma

Managing Director, Toronto & Waterloo

Trần Mạnh Công

Director, Vietnam

Urs Rothmayr

Managing Director, Barcelona & Andalucia

There are over 250 Local Leaders or Founder Institute Chapters across the globe... please bare with us as the full team display technology is under maintenaince.