The Founder Institute, the world’s premier startup launch program has announced the “Star Fellow Program” (http://fi.co/starfellow) to inspire and empower entrepreneurs to build 500 new space-related businesses by 2025. The Founder Institute is releasing the Star Fellow program in partnership with some of the world’s foremost leaders in space entrepreneurship and innovation to simplify the complex process of launching a space startup. The program provides fellowships, expert assistance, and investment opportunities to entrepreneurs that plan to build space-related technology businesses..
News of the Star Fellowship was covered by SpaceNews.com in an article titles "500 new space startups by 2025? The Founder Institute wants to make that happen".
Starting on May 24th, 2017, the Founder Institute will now offer free admission for the most qualified applicants working on a space-related business in every Founder Institute program worldwide. In addition to the Founder Institute’s step-by-step startup launch program, these “Star Fellows” will also be supported by expert Mentors in the fields of space, such as Will Marshall Ph.D. (Co-Founder of Planet), Dr. Bob Richards (Founder & CEO of Moon Express), Eric Anderson (Co-Founder of Space Adventures), Dr. Sean Casey (Co-Founder and Managing Director of the Silicon Valley Space Center), Naveen Jain (Founder & CEO of Viome and Moon Express) and more. Upon graduating the program, “Star Fellows” will also be invited to pitch leading space investors, such as Draper Fisher Jurvetson (http://dfj.com).
“The greatest human achievement since the taming of fire and the cultivation of food will be the permanent habitation of the stars," says Adeo Ressi, Founder & CEO of the Founder Institute. “This is truly a once-in-a-millennia opportunity, and there are simply not enough entrepreneurs focused on it. Pioneering visionaries like Elon Musk have already proven the potential for private companies to achieve commercial success in space businesses, so we can no longer sit on the sidelines and count on governments and the military to handle it.”
In order to inspire talented entrepreneurs to launch space-related businesses, the Founder Institute will host a free, global webinar on June 20th called “How to Launch a Space Startup” featuring top space entrepreneurs and experts. To RSVP for this webinar, visit http://bit.ly/space-webinar. The Founder Institute also invites space experts and space organizations to pledge time towards mentoring the incoming Star Fellows by emailing starfellow@fi.co.
“There is no question that launching a technology business in space is hard,” says Ressi. “From 2001 until 2007, I worked as a cofounder of Life to Mars and as a Board Member of the X Prize Foundation. It truly ‘takes a village’ to build these types of companies, and while we have already formed a coalition of great minds around the Star Fellow program, we want any organization or expert willing to help the next generation of space entrepreneurs to come forward.”
For more information on the Star Fellowship program, visit http://fi.co/starfellow.
