The Founder Institute's four-month curriculum covers everything you would expect from an early-stage startup program, including topics like "Startup Legal and IP” towards the beginning, to “Fundraising” near the end. What makes the curriculum special is the Mentors that teach it, whose passion, feedback and support helps our companies avoid rookie mistakes and set the foundation for a meaningful and enduring company.
The Founder Institute carefully recruits approximately 25 Mentors per Semester, who are normally the CEO or founder of a successful startup. Rather than specialists or consultants, we prefer Founders and CEOs to give our companies "the entrepreneur's perspective." The mentors share their experiences, best practices, and mistakes, while also providing specific guidance and feedback on the Founder companies.
In addition, the Founder Institute's unique Graduate Liquidity Pool allows our mentors to share in the equity of companies formed in each program - and, their share is based solely on the anonymous ratings they receive from the Founders both during, and after the program. In this way, the Founder Institute incentivizes mentors to take a special interest in our startups, and provide as much assistance as possible after the program.
We have a great lineup of Mentors confirmed for the Autumn 2013 Perth Founder Institute, including many from out of town. See the full list below.
Adam Yap
COO, Health Engine
Currently an investor and COO of HealthEngine.com.au, Adam was previously COO of CalorieKing Wellness Solutions, a global leader in nutrition management software and solutions, and was a telecommunication consultant at Accenture. Adam is an experienced internet investor with a passion for helping early stage companies successfully operationalise their businesses. He loves helping businesses stay focused and iterate.
Adeo Ressi
CEO, TheFunded.com
Adeo Ressi is Founding Member of TheFunded.com, an online community of 17,000 CEOs to research, rate, and review funding sources worldwide. Adeo also runs the Founder Institute, a mentoring program that helps entrepreneurs launch hundreds of world-class companies each year. The Institute is the eighth start-up that Adeo has founded or built, four of which were acquired and three of which are still operating.
Brodie Mc Culloch
Managing Director, Spacecubed
Brodie is the Managing Director of Social Innovation in Western Australia which runs the Co-working, Collaboration, and Innovation Space in the Perth CBD called Spacecubed. His first venture was www.condomstoyourdoor.com; a condom delivery business which lapsed when he went to work overseas. His second venture was a reseller of Website Analytics software, called E-Metrics. Previously, Brodie has held Marketing and Management roles at Multinational Companies focused on Digital, Experience, Revenue and Sales. Brodie has a B.A. in Marketing Management and E-business and began work on his MBA but then stopped to focus on helping other companies get their start.
Claire Robertson
Co-Director, Founder Institute, Perth Chapter
Claire is an eCommerce & Digital Marketing Consultant at Evantage Pty Ltd, as well as a mentor for Startup Weekend. Prior to returning home to her native Australia, she spent 6 years in London working as the Product & Marketing Director for MedicAnimal.com, the largest online pet supplies retailer in the UK. Claire joined MedicAnimal as the company's vet and employee #5, eventually leading MedicAnimal's marketing and product effort through an institutional fundraising round and a competitor acquisition. Claire holds a BSc BVMS in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery from Murdoch University.
Clinton House
CEO & Founder, Inhouse Group
In early 2009, Clinton House founded ‘Inhouse Group’, dedicated to his passions; digital media, strategic marketing communications and technical innovation. Formed at the height of the Global Financial Crisis, ‘Inhouse Group’ has developed into a multi-million dollar company employing over fifteen staff from its King Street office in Perth, Western Australia. Inhouse Group's flagship product 'Inhouse Insights' is a leading edge analytic service, monitoring consumer behaviour within retail environments to deliver real-time data on traffic volumes, dwell, path, loyalty and conversion rates. This brings to the physical world, a level of business intelligence and visualisation previously available only to the virtual world of retail. Clinton’s commitment to innovation has led him to be a Grand Finalist in both the Department of Commerce ‘Innovator of the Year’, and ‘WA Information Technology and Telecommunications Awards’. In both, he was commended twice, in different categories for separate innovations.
Craig Chetty
Co-Founder, Student Edge
Craig is a passionate entrepreneur and Co-Founder of the highly successful student organisation Student Edge. Student Edge serve their members with an offering around three core pillars of focus, which include helping students: - save money & manage their finances - find a job that they're passionate about (casual, graduate, traineeship & apprenticeship opportunities) - by assisting them with their wider career & life decisions Craig has had experience pitching to investors, partners and suppliers. He has been instrumental in securing the support of schools, government and enterprise corporations over his 10 years in the business.
Dash Dhakshinamoorthy
Founder, Startup Malaysia
Dash is a serial entrepreneur, startup catalyst and evangelist driving StartupMalaysia.org. Dash leads the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) movement in Malaysia as its host for the last three years and was also an attendee to President Obama’s Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington D.C last year.
David McKinney
CEO & Founder, Filter Squad
Founder & CEO of Filter Squad. We make the Discovr apps for iPhone and iPad (#1 app across the globe, with 3 million downloads). Also former UK Top 40 musician. Also former marine biologist for Australian Federal Government. Proud Dad. Excited about life.
James Graham
Co-Founder, Quickboats
Quickboats is the owner and designer of the world’s most advanced and simply coolest folding boat. The boat is a multi-award winning product with numerous international patents.
Jeremy Chetty
Co-founder, Student Edge
In 2003, Jeremy Chetty co-founded Student Edge a student services website and membership with three university mates. Today, the program boasts over 470,000+ members, 110 participating educational institutions and a growing list of sponsors and partners. Since inception, Jeremy oversaw and implemented the marketing and communication strategy for Student Edge. He also worked with the team to create the brand, develop relationships with key stakeholders, educational institutions and growing the membership base. With both McDonalds and Apple as key partners of Student Edge, Jeremy has a lot of experience to contribute on the subject of pitching to partners.
Linh Le
Co-founder, Corality
MD and co-founder of a stealth startup (watch this space!). Linh has recently returned to Perth from the US, after graduating from Harvard Business School's MBA program in 2011. Since his return Linh has not only begun work on his own startup, but has also taken up the role of Director at TEDxPerth. Linh's CV is impressive and varied, including positions at Goldman Sachs JB Were, Azure Capital (Perth-based investment bank). Linh is sought after as a consultant in the areas of business/commercial analysis and financial modelling and has acted for a range of clients across a number of industries, including mining, energy, utilities, telecommunications and technology, as well as provided financial modelling training through Corality Financial Group.
Marcus Tan
CEO, Health Engine
Dr Marcus Tan is CEO & Founder of Health Engine, a nationwide booking engine for healthcare clinics. Marcus is a seasoned healthcare executive and company director with over 15 years of clinical and commercial experience in startup and publicly listed organisations. Marcus also supports the tech startup eco-system as the Managing Partner of Future Health Ventures, an angel fund that invests in Health Technology startups.
Matthew Macfarlane
Venture Capital Investment Director, Yuuwa Capital
Venture Capital Investment Director at Yuuwa Capital, Matt is an IT start-up entrepreneur, and Chartered Accountant with international business development and M&A experience in telecommunications and multi-national data comms companies. Matt has worked in very large and very small organisations as advisor, as a principal and as a co-founder.
Paul de Grijp
Founder, BackupAgent
In 2003 I founded BackupAgent, a cloud backup software vendor based in the Netherlands. The software is being sold via 300 partners in 40 countries to 50,000 SMEs. The company has 25 employees and is profitable. As a software entrepreneur with over 9 years business experience, building innovative and scalable products with a great customer experience is what I am passionate about.
Phil Morle
Director, Pollenizer
Phil Morle is the Co-Founder of Pollenizer, a full service startup investment machine. With Pollenizer, he has created an ecosystem which allows for new tech companies to start including inception funding (up to $100K AUD), team (engineering, product, UI, back office, customer development), process (lean startup). Before Pollenizer, Phil held the position of CTO at Kazaa for 5 years and led the development of a technology strategy which saw 5 million users online at any one time, millions of downloads per day and a total global user base of over 100 million; all this powered by innovative technology, a globally distributed team and a sprinkling of imagination. Prior to his work in the tech industry Phil was a theatre director with companies in the UK and Australia.
Sam Birmingham
Founder, WeBe
Sam is a key organizer for Startup Weekend Perth, as well as an applications product manager at iiNet. He is passionate about startups, innovation and challenging the status quo. With a diverse mix of academic qualifications, professional experience and real-world applications, he prides himself with his ability to execute business plans and see long-term results. His specialties include create problem solving, strategic planning, and digital disruption and innovation.
