Great Founders Start Here.

The Founder Institute is the world’s premier idea-stage accelerator and startup launch program. Through a challenging curriculum and strong post-program support, we provide aspiring entrepreneurs with structure, mentorship, and a network to start an enduring company. Learn More

Apply to the Program

Proven Results

Leaders of the world's fastest growing companies have used our program to form and improve their business ideas, create an advisory board, recruit co-founders, improve their pitch, launch a product, raise capital, generate revenue, and more. The scale of our successful alumni is unprecedented.

See our Graduates

2,300+

Companies
Launched

72%

Company
Survival Rate

$15B

Estimated
Portfolio Value

Stronger Together

Through a unique Liquidity Pool, the Founder Institute creates strong local communities where Graduates, Directors, and Mentors all receive equity in the companies formed. These strong local networks are also connected to a massive global ecosystem that spans six continents.

Learn our Methodology

9,000

CEO & Founder
Mentors

170

Global
Chapters

20,000

Jobs
Created

Mentors

Leila Banijamali

Leila Banijamali - CEO & Founder, Startup Documents (San Francisco FI) , Startup Documents

Leila Banijamali, CEO and Founder of Startup Documents, is an entrepreneur and tech licensing lawyer based in San Francisco, Ca...

Travis Giggy

Founder, Swing by Swing Golf

Travis Giggy is founder of Swing by Swing Golf, with nearly 3M golfers in 139 countries. Swing by Swing was recently acquired. ...

Gopi Rangan

Cofounder, INSEAD Angels

Bram Cohen

Founder/Chief Scientist, BitTorrent

I'm Bram Cohen, mostly known for inventing BitTorrent and I now work as Chief Scientist at BitTorrent Inc. Previously I worked ...

Mark Frohnmayer

Founder, Arcimoto

Mark graduated from UC Berkeley in 1996 with a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. After 11 years leading th...

Ciarán Byrne

Co-Founder , Envolv

Entrepreneur - Solutions oriented leader with specialist knowledge in consumer product and medical device design and marketing....

Events

Event Image

2017-12-20

Founder Institute Holiday Party

Adeo Ressi, Ryan Micheletti, Mike Suprovici
Palo Alto
06:30 PM

Insights

Insight Image

Startup Misconceptions

Startup Misconceptions: You Should Never Tell Anyone Your Startup Idea

By Joe Garza on 2014-09-24

Insight Image

Grad News

San Francisco Startup eTrack Tech a Recent Finalist at Disrupt Berlin Startup Battlefield

By Joe Garza on 2017-12-17

Insight Image

Founder Insight

How to Find & Test the Best Price for Your Product

By Joe Garza on 2016-12-14

Partners

Are you ready to join the world's premier startup launch program?

Apply to the Program