Build a Great Startup in 2026 with the FI Seattle Startup Accelerator

The Founder Institute, the world’s most proven network to turn ideas into fundable startups, is excited to announce that we are now accepting applications for the Seattle Spring 2026 program!

If you could use a structured process and a lifetime of support from Seattle's top investors and entrepreneurs to build a startup, then apply to the Seattle Spring 2026 Founder Institute today.

Since 2009, our highly-structured accelerator programs have helped entrepreneurs at the earliest stages grow quickly, know what to do next, and make connections with the largest community of startup advisors.

It all starts with our renowned ‘FI Core’ accelerator, which pushes founders at the idea and pre-seed stages to reach the milestones needed for investment and sustained growth. Alumni of FI Core then receive free access to our advanced ‘Founder Lab’ accelerators for years to come, and can get matched with prospective investors in the FI Venture Network, a collection of global funds actively investing in the earliest rounds of funding.

To celebrate the launch, the Founder Institute will host several free online startup events in Seattle, where you can learn from top entrepreneurs:

Founder’s Guide to AI: Converting Data into Business Value with AI: 10:00am, Mar 03, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/385856
Founder Institute Online Information Session: https://FI.co/infosession
What Do Investors Really Look For? Startup Funding Q&A with Keshia Theobald-van Gent: 9:00am, Mar 09, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/387419
The 10x Leadership Framework for Growth in Large Organisations : 10:00am, Mar 10, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/389247
Startup Advisors 101: How to Find Advisors and Maximize their Impact: 5:30pm, Mar 10, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/388431
From Zero to Startup Idea: A Practical Founder Framework: 5:00am, Mar 16, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/387693
Cash Flow Survival for a First-Time Founder: 9:00am, Mar 17, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/388838
Venture Trailblazers, featuring Andrew D’Souza (VIP Event): 9:00am, Mar 19, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/389957
[Restricted] VIP Pitch Lounge: Get Feedback from Global Investors & Advisors (Private Event): 9:00am, Mar 24, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/389046
Stuck Without a Startup Idea? Build One That Fits You: 5:00pm, Apr 07, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/390128
How Multiple Pivots positioned Checkbox as the ‘Legal Front Door’ for Corporations: 5:00pm, Apr 13, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/389463
Real Startup Lessons From FI Alumni Across the World: 9:00am, Apr 14, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/390749
How to Choose the Right Startup Idea Before You Build: 9:00am, May 18, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/390299
Inside the Founder Institute: Real Stories From Alumni: 9:00am, Jun 15, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/390481
Stop Overthinking and Build a Great Startup Idea: 9:00am, Jul 20, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/390619
Meet FI Alumni Founders: High-Growth Startups Panel : 9:00am, Aug 10, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/391171
Build a Startup Idea Investors Won’t Ignore: 5:00pm, Aug 18, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/391256
Break the Idea Loop and Decide What to Build: 5:00pm, Sep 21, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/391540
From Idea to Traction: Lessons From Global FI Alumni: 9:00am, Oct 13, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/390895
From “Maybe” to Momentum: Building a Great Startup Idea: 5:00pm, Nov 17, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/391410
From First Idea to First Funding: Global Alumni Stories: 9:00am, Dec 08, 2026 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/391021

See all upcoming events

The Seattle program is led by some of the region's top startup leaders, including Aniket Naravanekar (CEO & Co-founder, Skillsheet), Jewel Atuel, Nicole Doyle (Founder / CEO, Aspir).

In addition, some of Seattle's top investors, entrepreneurs, and CEOs will be participating in the program, providing them with expert feedback and evaluation. The list of startup mentors for the Seattle Founder Institute includes:

Abdellah Aouf: Chief Executive Officer, GO PLATFORM
Adam Mangone: CEO , Mangone Ventures
Adeo Ressi: CEO, Decile Group / VC Lab
Ahmed Muzmmal: VP of Engineering (Cofounder), Gaper
Alain Raynaud: CEO, FairSoftware
Alan Gonzalez: Founder & CEO, DevMatch
Albert Lam: Partner, Dorm Room Fund
Aleksandra Manuilova: Senior Portfolio Development Manager, Microsoft
Alex Katzman: Founding Partner, Growth Inflection
Amber Fehrenbacher: Growth Marketing Director & Venture Fellow at Material Change Institute , Condoit
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.
Angie Parker: Executive Director, Alliance of Angels (AoA)
Aniket Naravanekar, Skillsheet
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 Stacey: CEO, Pitchverk
Ben Rush: Business, Pioneer Square Labs
Ben Hallen: Neal and Jan Dempsey Endowed Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, University of Washington - Michael G. Foster School of Business
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, Behave Technologies (Formerly Syntoniq, Inc.)
Bryan Rutberg: Partner, AG Consulting Partners
Cairen Cheese
Candice Dietz: Founder, Givespace
Caroline Frost: Product Manager, Amazon Web Services
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
Cindy Engstrom: CEO and Founder, Solomomo
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
Collin Dayley: Founder, Collin Dayley Coaching
Connor Gray: CEO, Stealth
Dan Fine: Managing Partner, Fine Solutions
Dan Kihanya: Director, REI Path Ahead Ventures, REI
Dan Moore: Cofounder, Tarka
Dana Sather Robinson: Pitch Trainer, Pitch Coach, Angel Investor, Pitch 4 Impact Inc
Danl Kasow: Principal, Sorted Solution
Daria Boldyreva: Founder, Wunderdogs
Dave Cotter: Owner, Kelsor Ventures LLC
David Anderson: GM, Kilby Silicon Valley Labs at Texas Instruments
David Jorjani: Founder, Qatalyst Labs
David Abu: Snr PM, Microsoft
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
Evan Poncelet: evan@dreamward.vc, Dreamward Group / Venture Black
Fabian Geyrhalter: Founder and Principal, FINIEN
Fredrick Tsang: IP Attorney, Fenwick & West
Garrett Gross: Director of Growth, Xemelgo
Gary Gaessler: SaaS Community Builder, Nylas, Co-Founder of CloudElements
Gaurav Malhotra: CMO, PickMyCar USA
Gillian Muessig: Co-Founder, Moz
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
Hiroki Kudo: Founder, CEO, Easy Proposal
Huba Rostonics: CEO, System & Soul
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
Jaya Venkata Sravani Potturi: Senior Product Manager - Technical, Amazon
Jeff Croft: CRO, Kurvv
Jeffrey McIntosh: Founder, McIntosh Tea
Jen Haller: Chief of staff, Ascend VC.
Jenn Steele
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
Jesse Posey: Co-Founder, COO, Managing Partner, Dreamward Group
Jewel Atuel, Dash Foundry
Jim Poss: CEO, Modifi
Joe Bezdek: Co-founder, DivX, Inc.
John Borofka: Founder, Walnut+Oak
John Kinsella: Senior Engineering Leader, AWS
John Robinson: Founder and Owner, Resolution Photomatching
Jonathan Greechan: Co-Founder & CEO, Founder Institute, GP Founder Capital
Jonathan G. Blanco, Niftmint
Jordan Hopson: Venture GM and Principle, BCG X
Jordan Syms: Group Account Director, Prophet
Joseph Horsman: Investor, Madrona
Josh Trujillo: Entrepreneurship Consultant, Rural Innovation Strategies, Inc. / Center on Rural Innovation
Josh Dougherty: Co-Founder & CEO, A Brave New
Julian Fung: Solutions Architect, Real Estate Investor, Qualtrics, Avalanche Assets
Julie Pham: CEO, CuriosityBased
June W Choi: Managing Partner, Serval Ventures
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
Kayla Kroot: Fundraising & Storytelling Consultant, Kayla Kroot LLC
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.
Kevin Chan: Director, Product Marketing, Fleetio
Khurram Agha: Founder, Aghaz Investments
Kristopher Alford: Venture Capital, Cercano Management
Kt Mc Bratney: GP
Lainey Lee: Director, Founder Institute
La Jolla Jantaraamornkul
Laura Malcolm: Founder/CEO, Give InKind
Leila Ergul Demir: Founder, Partner UP
Levi Velez Reed: Venture Partner, Startup425
Lewis Lin: CEO, ManageBetter
Lindsay Randall: Sr. Program Manager, Moonbeam
Lisa Fernow: President, Fernow Consulting
Loren Kosloske: Head of New Verticals - Mobility, Uber
Louis Newkirk: Co-Founder / City Leader, Venture Black / Founders Live
Luke Arrigoni: Founder / CEO, Loti
Madhu Singh: Chief Legal Officer, Foundry Law Group
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
Mercedes Bankston: Founder, Funderstar LTD
Meredith Felton: Senior Product Marketing Manager, Enable
Michael Goldman: CFO, EN 360 Holdings
Michael Avent: Partner, Perkins Coie LLP
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
Nick Hughes: Founder & CEO, Founders Live
Nicole Doyle: Founder, CEO, Aspir
Noah Wallach: Founder, Hope OS
Noemi Ceapa: Founder / CEO, The Consulting Studio
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
Peter Crawford: Co-Founder & COO, Eduvero
Pilar Fernandez Hermida: Founder i-Expand (We help Health Tech companies go global), i-expand
Pooria Arab: Managing Partner, Beeloud
Pradeep UN: Founder, CEO, Seerflix Inc
Puneet Kohli: CEO, Careerflow.ai
Rachel Kroft: Fractional CPO, Happy Warriors
Raja Mawad: Founder, Thrv.health
Rebecca Lovell: Director, Create33
Rich Minice: Corporate Associate, Fenwick & West
Richard Shaw: Senior Lead Product Manager, Shopify
Rick Graham, Radd Studio Inc.
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
Saaniya Ekram Shaikh
Saikiran Chandha: CEO, SciSpace (Formerly Typeset.io)
Sanjit Singh: COO, Various Companies
Santosh Khare: Founder & CEO, Touchbase, Inc.
Sarah Studer: Program Manager, University Of Washington, WE Lead
Scott Weller: President, Radian Labs
Shaahin Cheyene: Founder and President, Podcastcola Inc.
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
Stacy Saal: Managing Director, Jelly Collective
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, Contemplate
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
Vladimir Pletyukhin: Founder and Creative Director, Launch Deck
Will Barrett
Yemi Oluseun: Growth & GTM For FinTechs, The Change Hive
Yoko Okano: Co-founder, First Row Partners
Zac Corker: Sales & GTM Consultant, Private
Zorrawa Jefferson: Zorrawa Jefferson , True Start Ventures