FAQ

Founders in these programs are joining interactive feedback sessions with mentors over Zoom, collaborating with their cohort via Slack, leveraging our newly released Virtual Office Hours Tools to speak privately with mentors, using our existing backend course tools to build their business, and getting access to new benefits like weekly "AMA" events with Silicon Valley leaders.

We have already transitioned the program to virtual in 30+ cities around the globe, and the feedback has been very positive. The program quality is not changing. 

In fact, Founders in programs that are going virtual will receive even more opportunities for collaboration, relationship building, and feedback when building their startup, such as;

1. More Office Hours Opportunities with Local Leaders and Mentors, and early access to our newly released Office Hours scheduling tool.  
2. Weekly AMA ("Ask Me Anything") Conference Calls and Private Webinars with the Silicon Valley FI Headquarters Team (including Adeo Ressi, CEO of Founder Institute), so you can get even more answers to the biggest questions you have building your business across a variety of topics.
3. Fast Track to our Post-Programs ("Founder Lab"), where you can work closely with our Silicon Valley HQ to reach advanced milestones like raising a seed round of funding for your business. Since our post-programs have always been virtual, we are going to be running them at a much higher frequency during the crisis.
4. Free and unlimited global program access for life. As an FI Grad, you can attend any in-person program session in any city around the world at anytime (including any future in-person program in your city). 

No. In fact, they are great time to start a company, and this is not just conjecture: the Founder Institute was founded in April 2009, during the "Great Recession". 

Obviously, recessions are extremely challenging times for established businesses, and as a result, their contractors, partners, and employees. The macroeconomic and personal devastation caused by downturns cannot be overstated. They literally change the world.

However, if you are going to try to find a positive in the all the pain recessions cause, it is the opportunity for idea-stage, pre-seed, and nimble CEOs to quickly adapt and build products that resonate in the changing market. During a recession, large companies will move slow, talent is readily available, and the normal costs of real estate/ goods/ services is significantly lower. Many of the world's largest tech companies used these benefits to their advantage to launch and get traction during an economic downturn, such as Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Udemy, etc.

The Founder Institute encourages founding teams to apply to the program, and a typical cohort contains roughly 40% teams, and 60% solo-founders. When a team joins the Founder Institute, the 4% pledge to the Equity Collective remains the same (it is 4% per company, not Founder).

Founding teams can decide to send one co-founder, multiple co-founders, or all co-founders to participate in the program, but each co-founder must apply separately (noting the name of your company in your application, in the “Company Name” section). Since we are the ‘Founder’ Institute, each co-founder’s application will be evaluated independently by our admissions team (one co-founder gaining acceptance does not mean that their entire team is accepted). However, even if one co-founder is rejected, any accepted co-founders are still invited to participate.

Teams are also able to enroll in the program for a discounted course fee per-founder: Teams of 2-3 are invited to enroll for 1.5x the course fee, and Teams of 4-5 for 2x the course fee.

Each enrolled founder will be responsible for completing assignments and participating in working groups, and 1-2 team members will be responsible for pitching during program sessions. Non-participating co-founders are not permitted to join the FI program sessions, but are welcome to participate in program Office Hours and company-building assignments, as well as many perks post-program.

You can receive a full refund of your course fee in your first Founder Institute program if you drop out before the start-time of the third program session (currently, the "Customer Development" session). This gives you the opportunity to try out the program for two sessions, with no risk. You can see the program schedule at FI.co/program, and all refunds are processed within 30 days after the third program session.

Similarly, if all or part of a team decides to drop out before the Refund Deadline, then the course fees paid will be refunded in accordance with the team pricing. So for example, if all co-founders drop out, then all course fees paid will be refunded; if a 4-5 member team downgrades to a 2-3 person team, then the difference between 1.5x and 2x the course fee will be refunded; and if a 2-3 or 4-5 member team downgrades to a solo-founder, then the difference between 1x the course fee and 1.5x and 2x the course fee will be refunded, respectively.

In order to guarantee a spot in the program, we encourage founders to complete their enrollment promptly. Typically we close enrollment approximately 7 days before the start date of the program, but if the class fills up before then you may not be guaranteed a spot.