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The Seattle Founder Institute, the local chapter of the world's largest pre-seed startup accelerator, is proud to announce the newest Alumni from the Fall 2019 program.

Over 160 people applied to the program, and after an intense four months of aggressive business-building sprints and constant evaluation and feedback from investors and mentors, just 8 companies were able to make it through. 

Each of these Founders have demonstrated a high level of perseverance and creativity, and their businesses have been thoroughly vetted and supported by a panel of Seattle's top startup experts and investors.  

And now, without further ado, we present the Alumni of the Seattle program: 

  • Aghaz Investments - is an automated, online investment advisor for Muslims to conveniently invest and save for their goals in a manner consistent with their beliefs.
  • RockStable - uses their USD-equivalent token, ROKS, to help ten million Filipinos working outside the Philippines save in fees when sending money back home to support their families.
  • Signtag - provides businesses needing signage a new way to receive multiple offers to save money.
  • Vesa - an interactive virtual advocate that empowers patients with real-time information to make informed decisions about their healthcare.
  • WorkerBe - enables people to more effectively manage their professional development with a collaborative goal tracking platform.
  • AirGo - develops standalone Passive Advanced Driver Awareness Systems (PADAS) for vehicles without ADAS systems.
  • Lessn - helps college students get last minute tutoring from expert peers, and provides a great way for student tutors to boost their earnings.
  • Abacus - connects learners with experienced makers in their community
    to put their hands on real skills and collaborate on handmade projects
    in-person (part 2 of pitch video here).

The Fall 2019 program would not have been possible without help, because it truly takes a city to raise a startup. We would first like to thank the Local Leaders of the Seattle Founder Institute: Lainey Lee (Director, FI Seattle), Levi Velez Reed (Managing Director, FI Seattle). Our Local Leaders play an incredibly important role in building the local Founder Institute program, and creating an environment and network in Seattle that is conducive to building to great companies.

In addition, the Seattle 2024 program was supported by some of Seattle's top technology organizations, including:

Live Demo Day pitches from the founders: 

Some of Seattle’s top startup mentors helped our founders in the program, including:

  • Adam Wiener: Chief Growth Officer, Redfin
  • Adam Mangone: VP of Growth and Marketing, Xnor.ai
  • Amy Hutchins: Founder, Chief Product Officer, Unearth Technologies, Inc.
  • Barret Newberry: CEO, Leasera
  • Ben Rush: Business, Pioneer Square Labs
  • Bill Bromfield: Partner, Fenwick & West
  • Bob Crimmins: Founder, MoonTango
  • Brian M Pasalich: Chief Success Officer | Co-Founder, Syntoniq
  • Chris Haberle: Principal Product Marketing Manager, AWS
  • Court Lorenzini: Co-founder, DocuSign
  • Edmond Sanctis: Partner, REASON Venture Partners
  • Glenn Wisegarver: CEO, Sigma IQ
  • Ian Lurie: EVP, Clearlink
  • Janiece Jenkins: Associate, Fenwick & West
  • Jay Goyal: President, Actively Learn
  • Jeremy Zaretzky: Managing Director, Founder Institute Seattle
  • Jim Poss: CEO, Modifi
  • John Borofka: Founder, Walnut+Oak
  • John Scrofano: Director of New Initiatives, Remitly
  • Julie Pham: VP of Community Engagement and Marketing, WTIA
  • Laura Malcolm: Founder/CEO, Give InKind
  • Levi Velez: Manager, Echo Product Marketing GTM, Amazon
  • Mamtha Banerjee: Senior Director of Technology, Expedia Group
  • Matt Rubright: VP of Early and Growth Stage Tech, Silicon Valley Bank
  • Maureen Ezekwugo: Chief Customer Officer, RealSelf
  • Rebecca Lovell: Director, Create33
  • Robert Le: Director, FI Seattle
  • Ryan Micheletti: Head of Global Operations, Founder Institute
  • Ryan Mc Robert: Associate, Fenwick & West
  • Scott Weller: President, Radian Labs
  • Symon Perriman: CEO & Founder, FanWide
  • Terri Richardson: CEO, Accelerate Consulting Group, LLC
  • Travis Murdock: Executive Vice President, Ruder Finn

In the Founder Institute's pre-seed accelerator program, early-stage entrepreneurs and teams build their business alongside a critical support network of local startup experts that share equity in their success, and through a structured and challenging business-building process that has helped alumni raise over $1.75BN. 

After Graduation, the new Seattle Founder Institute Portfolio Companies now have a fast-growing company that has been fully validated by experienced startup founders, with access to the Founder Institute's global network and post-graduate support programs to continue building their business. 

Leaders of the world’s fastest-growing startups have used the Founder Institute to raise funding, get into seed-accelerators, generate traction, recruit a team, build a product, transition from employee to entrepreneur, and more. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 200+ cities and 100+ countries, the Founder Institute’s mission is to Globalize Silicon Valley and empower talented and motivated entrepreneurs to build companies that will create one million new jobs.

The next Seattle Founder Institute program is accepting applications.

 

*  *  *

Alumni of the Founder Institute are creating some of the world's fastest growing startups, having raised over $1.75BN in funding, and building products people love across over 200 cities worldwide.

See the most recent news from our Grads at FI.co/news, or learn more about their stories at FI.co/journey


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