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Since launching in Seattle in 2012, the Founder Institute has graduated over 65 companies in the region, including some of the area's fastest-growing startups like Pethub, Memetales, Puzzazz, OnContracting, ReadyPulse, Litesprite, SnapSwap, Writer.ly, and more. In addition, our efforts in Seattle have also been profiled by several top media channels, including the Seattle TimesGeekwireXconomy, and The Puget Sound Business Journal.

Today, the Founder Institute is excited to announce that we are now accepting applications for the Seattle 2024 Semester!

If you could benefit from expert training and advice to launch a technology startup in Seattle, click here to apply today

Those who apply by the Early Admissions Deadline (Feb 11, 2024) will have their application fees waived (typically $50) and are eligible for Founder Institute Fellowships

The Founder Institute is the world's largest entrepreneur training and startup launch program, with over 7,000 graduate companies spanning 200+ cities worldwide. In our four-month, part-time program, promising startup entrepreneurs "learn by doing" and launch a company through structured training courses and expert feedback from a large network of business mentors. Plus, you are not required to quit you day job to participate, so you can begin testing and developing your startup ideas without putting your livelihood at risk.

In order to celebrate the launch, the Seattle Founder Institute will several free startup events for the general public, where you can meet top entrepreneurs and learn more about the program: 

  • How to Build a Moonshot: Lonestar’s Mission to the Moon: 10:00am, Apr 01, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/340666
  • Founder Institute Online Information Session: https://FI.co/infosession
  • Pitch Lounge: Get Feedback on Your 1-Minute Pitch Idea from Startup Experts: 10:00am, Apr 03, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/340629
  • Ask an Investor Anything: Q&A with a Venture Capitalist: 10:00am, Apr 15, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/338410
  • Founder Showcase: Startup Pitch & Networking Event: 10:00am, Apr 18, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/337995
  • Building a Fundable Start-up Brand: 10:00am, May 20, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/338816
  • Startup Pitch Practice: Share Your Idea and Get Expert Feedback: 5:00pm, May 27, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/339413
  • How to Come Up with Great Startup Ideas: 5:00pm, Jun 10, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/339735
  • Co-Founder Networking: Find a Business Partner: 10:00am, Jun 17, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/339945
  • How to Turn your Value Proposition into a Product Market Fit: 10:00am, Jun 24, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/341485
  • Employee to Entrepreneur: How to Make the Transition to Startup Founder: 10:00am, Jul 01, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/340256
  • Startup Pitch Practice: Share Your Idea and Get Expert Feedback: 5:00pm, Jul 15, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/341272
  • Startup Fundraising Q&A: Meet Investors from the FI Venture Network: 10:00am, Jul 17, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/341371

The Seattle Chapter will be led by local leaders Maria Dykstra (Startup Advisor, Entrepreneur, and Managing Director of TreDigital) and Ram Valliyappan (Founder of Infinitus Apps, and Senior Manager at Groupon).

In addition, some of Seattle's top entrepreneurs will help teach founders in the program, including: 

  • Adam Mangone: CEO , Mangone Ventures
  • Adeo Ressi: CEO, Decile Group / VC Lab
  • Alain Raynaud: CEO, FairSoftware
  • Albert Lam: Partner, Dorm Room Fund
  • Aleksandra Manuilova: Senior Portfolio Development Manager, Microsoft
  • Amit Gupta: Sys Dev Manager, Amazon
  • Amy Hutchins: Founder, Chief Product Officer, Unearth Technologies, Inc.
  • Amy Swanson: CEO & Co-Founder, Ultropia
  • Andrew Lee: CEO, Esper
  • Andrew Klein: Founder, Zccounting
  • Andy Herman: Founder, Signtag Corp.
  • Anisha Vinjamuri: Founder & President , boza
  • Aracelis Nass: Senior Business Program Manager, Microsoft
  • Aswin Pranam: Sr. Product Manager, UVC Partners
  • Audrea Fink: Sales Coach & Strategist, mConnexions
  • Aviv Shalgi: CEO, Solar Simplified
  • BARRET NEWBERRY: CEO, Leasera
  • Ben Rush: Business, Pioneer Square Labs
  • Bill Bromfield: Partner, Fenwick & West
  • Bill Bryant: General Partner, Threshold Ventures
  • Bob Crimmins: General Partner, Startup Haven Ventures
  • Brandon Zhang: Business Analyst II, Amazon.com Services Llc
  • Brian M Pasalich: Chief Executive Officer | Co-Founder, Syntoniq
  • Bryan Rutberg: Partner, AG Consulting Partners
  • Candice Dietz: Founder, Givespace
  • Chandler Lewis: Founder, 360 Social Impact Studios
  • Charles Kwon: Managing Partner, Concitor
  • Cheale Villa: Founder, CEO + Visionary Rabbit, Visual Caffeine
  • Chinara Askerzade: Managing Partner at PocketVC early-stage VC, PocketVC Studio and PocketVC Technologies Inc
  • Chloe Feingold: Financial Advisor, Edward Jones
  • Chris Kelley: Principal, DFJ
  • Chris Haberle: Principal Product Marketing Manager, AWS
  • Chris Bruno: Owner, X2Y Strategic Advisors
  • Christina Lomasney: Director of Commercialization, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
  • Christy Johnson: CEO, Artemis Connection, Inc
  • Claire Mc Taggart: Founder & CEO, Square Peg Hires
  • Clare Gould: Founder & CEO, Your Vesa
  • Claudius Mbemba: Venture Investment Director, Startup Haven
  • Cody Birkland, Ultropia
  • Colleen Hilton: CEO, Alli Connect
  • Connor Gray: CEO, Stealth
  • Dan Fine: Managing Partner, Fine Solutions
  • Dan Kihanya: Director, REI Path Ahead Ventures, REI
  • Danl Kasow: Principal, Sorted Solution
  • Daria Boldyreva: Founder, Wunderdogs
  • David Anderson: GM, Kilby Silicon Valley Labs at Texas Instruments
  • David Jorjani: VP of Product and Engineering, Sayge
  • Diane Najm: CEO/Founder, PhotoPad
  • Divyanshu Sharma: Software Engineer 3, Platform Security (Authentication & Authorization), CrowdStrike
  • Edmond Sanctis: Partner, REASON Venture Partners
  • Elisa La Cava: Investor, Madrona Venture Group
  • Emeka Alozie: Director, IntuitiveX
  • Fabian Geyrhalter: Founder and Principal, FINIEN
  • Fredrick Tsang: IP Attorney, Fenwick & West
  • Garrett Gross: Product manager, Xemelgo
  • Gary Gaessler: SaaS Community Builder, Nylas, Co-Founder of CloudElements
  • Gira Wieczorek: Managing Partner / Co-Founder, Aleberry
  • Gira Wieczorek: Founder
  • Glenn Wisegarver: CEO, Sigma IQ
  • Graciela Perez: Founder & Lean Start Up Coach, Lean Sigma Tech, LLC
  • Ian Lurie: EVP, Clearlink
  • Irina Menn: CEO, Hopela
  • Jake Hite: CTO, Compete to Create
  • James Hu: CEO, Jobscan
  • Jana Krystofova Mike: Assistant Professor, Division of Pediatric Critical Care at University of California, San Francisco
  • Janiece Jenkins: Associate, Fenwick & West
  • Janis Machala: Corporate Director, Paladin Partners
  • Jay Goyal: President, Actively Learn
  • Jeff Croft: CRO, Kurvv
  • Jeffrey McIntosh: Founder, McIntosh Tea
  • Jen Haller: Chief of staff, Ascend VC.
  • Jennifer Azapian: Former Venture Partner and Advisor , Loyal VC | Mighty Capital
  • Jeremy Zaretzky: Managing Director, Founder Institute Seattle
  • Jeremy Bruck: Managing Partner, Data Valuation & Monetization, Gulp Data
  • Jim Poss: CEO, Modifi
  • Joe Bezdek: Co-founder, DivX, Inc.
  • John Borofka: Founder, Walnut+Oak
  • John Kinsella: VP Engineering, Not applicable
  • Jonathan Greechan: Co-Founder & CEO, Founder Institute
  • Joseph Horsman: Investor, Madrona
  • Josh Dougherty: Co-Founder & CEO, A Brave New
  • Julian Fung: Solutions Architect, Real Estate Investor, Qualtrics, Avalanche Assets
  • Julie Pham: CEO, CuriosityBased
  • Karin Kidder: Executive Director, E8 Angels
  • Kate Loose: Investment Director, Capria Ventures
  • Kate Edwards: AWS Startup BD/Co-Founder at Heartbeat , Heartbeat
  • Kathleen Baxley: Interim CFO / Strategic Venture Advisor
  • Kelly Lawton Abbott: Partner, SSM Law
  • Ken Kranseler: Managing Director, Kabuki Strategy
  • Ken Horenstein: Founder, GP, Pack Ventures
  • Kevin Yu: Co-founder & CTO, Socedo Inc.
  • Khurram Agha: Founder, Aghaz Investments
  • Kristopher Alford: Venture Capital, Cercano Management
  • Lainey Lee: Director, Founder Institute
  • Laura Malcolm: Founder/CEO, Give InKind
  • Levi Velez Reed: Venture Partner, Loyal VC
  • Lewis Lin: CEO, ManageBetter
  • Lindsay Randall: Sr. Program Manager, Moonbeam
  • Lisa Fernow: President, Fernow Consulting
  • Loren Kolsloske: Head of New Verticals - Mobility, Uber
  • Madhu Singh: Chief Legal Officer, Foundry Law Group
  • Mara Rada: CEO & Chief of Strategy, Feral (thinkferal.com)
  • Mark Landay: Managing Director, Dynamic Synergy
  • Matt Mandell: Principal, PayNerd.com
  • Matt Paulin: Founder , zCrowd
  • Matt Rubright: VP of Early and Growth Stage Tech, Silicon Valley Bank
  • Matthew Lickwar: Co-Founder | Growth | Operations | Product, Ynomia
  • Maureen Ezekwugo: Chief Customer Officer, RealSelf
  • Maximilian Von Poelnitz: Investment Director, DSM Venturing
  • Melissa Li: Managing Partner and Head of Community, Dorm Room Fund
  • Melissa Reaves, Story Fruition
  • Michael Goldman: CFO, EN 360 Holdings
  • Mikaela Kiner: CEO & Founder, Reverb
  • Mike Vandenbos
  • Mike Cozart: Angel Investor and Startup Advisor, Relumin
  • Milkana Brace: CEO, Jargon
  • Minda Brusse: Founding Partner, First Row Partners
  • My Le Goel: Founder & CEO, Flight Live, Inc.
  • Nelly Yusupova: Founder, TechSpeak.co
  • Noah Wallach: Founder, Hope OS
  • Oleksandr Pukhalskyi: Mr, SMG
  • Omi Iyamu: Product Manager, Google Austria
  • Pablo Casilimas, OneSixOne Ventures
  • Pascha Scott: Partner and Co-founder, VERTETUDE
  • Paul Watt: Global Business Manager, Google
  • Paul Adams: CEO & Founder, Sound Financial Group
  • Peter Leonard: CEO, Meddle
  • Pilar Fernandez Hermida: Founder i-Expand (We help Health Tech companies go global), i-expand
  • Pradeep UN: Founder, CEO, Seerflix Inc
  • Puneet Kohli: CEO, Careerflow.ai
  • Raja Mawad: Founder, Thrv.health
  • Rebecca Lovell: Director, Create33
  • Rob Hillas: Founder, PlainVanilla
  • Robert Le: Director, FI Seattle
  • Rohre Titcomb: COO, Female Founders Alliance
  • Ron Gentile: Founder, Moodfit
  • Ruth Becke: Founder & CEO, Plantmatch
  • Ryan Micheletti: Head of Global Operations, Founder Institute
  • Ryan Mc Robert: Partner, Fenwick & West
  • Saikiran Chandha: CEO, SciSpace (Formerly Typeset.io)
  • Sanjit Singh, Boltt.io
  • Santosh Khare: Founder & CEO, Touchbase, Inc.
  • Scott Weller: President, Radian Labs
  • Shaahin Cheyene: President
  • Shama Keskar: Cofounder & CEO, VoxAI
  • Shilpa Sharma: Co-founder & CEO, Flyte (flyteai.com)
  • Sneha Lundia Agrawal: Founder & CEO, Step2Growth
  • Sri Kasam: Director of Engineering, Nfinity
  • Steve Cherewaty: Founder & Creative Director, Abacus
  • Steve Carver
  • Suzanne Mills: Biz Dev & GTM - Retail & Fintech, Stealth Startup
  • Symon Perriman: CEO & Founder, FanWide
  • Tai Rattigan: Global Head of Partnerships & Alliances, Deel
  • Tarun Gulati: Founder & CEO, Adios
  • Taylor Black: Principal Program Manager, Office of the CTO Incubator , Microsoft
  • Terri Richardson: CEO, Accelerate Consulting Group, LLC
  • Thibaut Labarre: Founding Engineer, SingleFile.io
  • Travis Murdock: Executive Vice President, Ruder Finn
  • Vince Bianco: CEO, Advanced Medical Reviews
  • Yemi Oluseun: Founder/ CEO - Fintech, SaaS Business Growth, Automation & Change Management, The Change Hive
  • Yoko Okano: Co-founder, First Row Partners

  • And many more to be announced.
                                  We hope you will join us in Seattle and launch a company in 2015.


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