
The Sydney Founder Institute, the local chapter of the world's largest pre-seed startup accelerator, is proud to announce the newest Alumni from the Sydney Virtual Autumn 2021 program.
Over 180 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 six 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 Sydney's top startup experts and investors.
Without further ado, we proudly present the newest portfolio Alumni of the FI Sydney program:
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TheCryptoPlayground
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Equaliser
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Food Markies
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GimmeNow
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Leen
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SkyThanks
The Sydney Virtual Autumn 2021 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 Sydney Founder Institute: Benjamin Chong, Charlotte Connell, Cheryl Mack, Chris Clark, Paul Krajewski, and Phoebe Zhang. Our Local Leaders play an incredibly important role in building the local Founder Institute program, and creating an environment and network in Sydney that is conducive to building to great companies.
In addition, the Sydney Virtual Autumn 2021 program was supported by some of Sydney's top technology organizations, including:
Some of Sydney’s top startup mentors helped our founders in the program, including:
- Adam Long: Managing Director, ThunderLabs
- Adeline Chu: Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Western Sydney University
- Adrian Bunter: Corporate Advisor | Angel Investor | Non-exec Director, Modus Partners
- Alanna Wright: Solicitor, Addisons
- Anna Cheng: Head of Growth Marketing, Turo Australia. Ex HealthMatch Ex Brighte Ex Spaceship
- Annie Liao: Investor, Aura Ventures
- Ant Moorehouse: CEO and Co-Founder, EarthTech
- Ashton Bishop: CEO , Step Change
- Ben Pecotich: Design & Innovation Director/Founder, Dynamic4
- Benjamin Ranck: Principal, MacroReactor
- Benjamin Chong: Partner, Right Click Capital
- Bronwen Kaspers: Customer Success Coach, Culture Amp cultureamp.com
- Cheryl Mack: CEO & Founder, Aussieangels.com + Activator at SheEO™
- Chris Clark: Co-Founder & CEO of BEERLOVE
- Chris Clark: Chris Clark, Sportsfusion
- Chris Darwin: CEO and Co-Founder, The Darwin Challenge App
- Chris Gillings: Venture Capital @ Five V Capital, & Founder @ Cut Through Venture
- Dane Eldridge: CEO, 4mation Technologies
- Daniel Ringrose: Business Coach, Future Results
- Daniel Lohrmann: Managing Director, ikaros
- David Isaac: Venture Building & Growth Strategy, Causality
- Dean Mc Evoy: Non Executive Director, Investor and Adviser, TechSydney
- Dennis Kibirev: Chief Growth Officer, Mesh Ai
- Dylan Mc Donnell: CEO, Foodini
- Evan Wong: CEO, Checkbox.AI
- Franziska Iseli: Founder, Basic Bananas
- Greg Campbell: Operations Director, Known (Burst SMS etc)
- Gwendolyn Ong: Co-Founder & Director, Cultivate
- Harshu Deshpande: Start-up & Scale-up Advisor, Google
- Jeff Perlman: Founder, Revenue Ninja (revenue.ninja)
- Jo Ucukalo: CEO, Handle My Complaint
- Joanna Ng: Early-stage investor, Investible
- Jonathan Greechan: Co-Founder & CEO, Founder Institute
- Julian Luca: Founder & now Horizon Program Manager, Innovation Bay
- Kate Hornstein: Marketing Communications and Brand Strategist, Kate Hornstein Consulting
- Leila Alem: Chief Design and Innovation and Adj Professor, ArcSense
- Maaike Doyer: Founder, Epic Angels
- Magdalena Reith: Startup- and Business Consultant, Magdalena Reith Pitch Decks
- Mandar Karlekar: Product Management Consultant, Thiga
- Marshall Hughes: Freight Manager, Freight Companies Australia
- Matt Allen: CEO, Tractor Ventures
- Matthew Browne: Co-Founder @Upflowy upflowy.com, @Donesafe donesafe.com, @Whispli, Investor @Black Nova Group etc
- Matthew Lickwar: Co-Founder | Growth | Operations | Product, Ynomia
- Maz Zaman: Managing Partner, HyperScaled
- Neil Smith: CTO, Simple KYC
- Nicola Rushton: Product designer & lean user researcher, nicolarushton.com
- Paul Wenck: Chair, Co-Founder Checkbox
- Paul Krajewski: Co-Founder DataShield AI, Co-Director Founder Institute Australia+NZ, former Sr. Product Manager
- Pete Cooper: Founder, The Start Society
- Pete Cooper: Former CIO, KBZ Bank
- Peter Browne: Owner, Intangible Communications
- Prashant Gami: CEO & Founder, x•enabler
- Rachel White: CFO, Part time CFO / fractional CFO
- Rayn Ong: Director, Ong Heng Investments
- Rebecca Dooley: Senior Associate, Addisons
- Roger Do: CEO, QSearch
- Roman Kovalenko: Chief Data Officer, Reserve Bank of Australia
- Ron Hill: Managing Director, SunRamp Health Tech Accelerator
- Ryan Cross: Manager for Prototyping, AWS, ANZ & APAC
- Sameer Babbar: Director, SVB Group
- Sarah Dean: Former Founder, EmineoHub
- Scott Crowe: Lead Recruiter, Canva
- Sorrel Osborne: Head of Growth, Playground xyz
- Timo Kugler: Co-Founder, NASH + BANKS
- Vern Chan: Startup Coach, Your Pivot
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 Sydney 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, building a co-founding team, 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 local Founder Institute program, the Australia + New Zealand Virtual Spring 2021 accelerator cohort, will be announced shortly. If you are interested in learning more or applying, visit FI.co/apply/sydney.
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.