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 Rio Founder Institute, including many from out of town. See the full list below.
Alex Buchheim
Ceo, Limppano
Alex Buchheim is the CEO of Limppano S/A. He holds a Degree in Business Administration from the University Candido Mendes an Executive MBA from UFRJ, and graduated from Harvard Business School's Management Program.
Ana Araujo
Founder & Head of Product, Teckler
Ana is the Founder and product manager at Teckler, the first Brazilian payment platform for Social Network users. Previously, she served as Director of New Business for Match.com, Latam, and led the 2010 Coca-Cola World Cup digital campaign. Ana has a degree in Business Administration from PUC-RJ.
Andre Kischinevsky
Pró-Reitor, Instituto Infnet
Andre Kischinevsky is Provost of the Institute Infnet and CEO of Pix Network. He has an degree in computer science and an MBA in business management from Universidade Cândido Mendes. In 2002 he was selected as Endeavor Entrepreneur Magazine's "Empreendedor do novo Brasil".
Carlos Estigarribia
Founder, RightZero, SommoS
Carlos is a Brazilian entrepreneur and online industry veteran, having founded one of the first gaming studios in Brazil, LocZGames, which he sold to PlayPhone in 2006. In 2008 was invited by Electronic Arts to create EA’s first Latin America studio, in São Paulo. He is currently is a founding partner at RightZero. Here he works as a gaming consulting for online games in Brazil and SommoS, the first digital research/promotion/distribution portal focused in Brazilian cultural assets
Claudio Nasajon
Presidente, Nasajon Sistemas
Claudio is the Founder and President of Nasajon Systems, a software company with 30 years experience, recently named of top 150 IT companies in Brazil by IDG and Computerworld. Claudio holds a Degree in Engineering (UERJ), a Masters in Marketing (PUC-Rio), Extension in Strategy and Innovation Business (Wharton), OPM from Harvard Business School, and is Author of the "Enterprise Management".
Edson Mackeenzy
CEO , Videolog.tv
An expert in broadcast and video sharing, Edson is the CEO and Founder of Videology.tv and a professor of New Technology and Entertainment. He has served as a speaker for hundreds of communication conferences worldwide, and is the Co-Author of several media and technology related publications. Edson attended Universidade Cândido Mendes.
Eduardo Rodrigues
CIO, Fisgo.com
Eduardo the CIO of Fisgo.com and a UFRJ engineer with postgraduate studies in Economics Engineering and Project Management. He has extensive experience in information technology, having participated in pioneering IT companies, including the Click Opinion (1999) for market research online and Discount Hotel, a pioneer in online hotel reservation. In addition to Fisgo, Eduardo is the Founder of Louve.TV, MTV Gospel, and a director of IT Angels.
Eduardo Ramos
Reitor, Instituto Infnet
Eduardo Ramos is the Founder and Provost of Instituto Infnet, which operates in educational management. Eduardo has a doctorate in Administration and a Master's degree in Economics. He is the author of several publications on digital business and IT management, as a well as a professor of the Institute Infnet and Fundação Getulio Vargas.
Fred Arruda
Dir, Business Operations, EMC Brasil R&D Center
Fred Arruda is currently Director of Business Operations at EMC Research Center in Rio de Janeiro. Since 1984, he has been working for companies with technological differential, having experiences as CEO, COO, Executive Director, Sales Manager, Product Manager, Systems Analyst and Software Engineer in the areas of Venture Capital (Confrapar), Finance (Banorte Bank), Healthcare (WPD - now Agfa Healthcare), Telecom (Oi) and Informatics (C.E.S.A.R and Pitang). As COO of C.E.S.A.R (Recife/Brazil), he participated in the creation, management and funding of investments in over 15 startups. As Executive Director of the NascenTI Fund in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil, he participated in the evaluation of more than 200 companies and led the first 2 investments of the Fund.
Gabriel Corrêa E Castro
Executive Director, Viralata Produções
Gabriel is the Executive Director of Viralata Produções, a Film Production company in Brazil. While at Viralata, Gabriel has worked on FAZ AE, a reality show that challenges young entrepreneurs to start their own business in only 12 weeks time. Gabriel has a degree in Cinematography and Video Production from Universidade Estacio de Sá.
Gustavo Guida Reis
Founder & CEO, HelpSaude
Gustavo is a Brazilian internet entrepreneur with more then 11 years of experience. In 2000 Gustavo co-founded Bondfaro that he sold to Buscapé in 2006, where stayed as Product SVP until 2007. After briefly experiencing as an entrepreneur in the brick-and-mortar world, Gustavo was involved in the venture capital side of the startup word joining Naspers in 2008. In 2009, Gustavo co-founded HelpSaude, a leader in connecting patients and health providers.
Jorge Monteiro
CEO, Superfones
Jorge is the Founder and CEO of Superfones S/A. He has extensive experience in the telecom market, and has held executive roles at ATL, Claro and TIM, in both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Jorge holds a degree in Computer Science from Universidade Estácio de Sá, an MBA from Universidade Brahma, and a degree in Telecommunications from Ibmec Business School.
Marcelo Salim
Partner, Searchers
Marcelo is a Partner at Searchers and is a serial entrepreneur, having started several companies in Brazil and abroad. He has a B.S. in Mathematics and an M.Sc. in Systems Engineering from MIT and Babson College. In the year 2001 he was awarded "Entrepreneur of the Year" among all Endeavor entrepreneurs worldwide, as well as "Empreendedor do Novo Brasil" (2002) in a countrywide contest.
Monique Fernandes Nique
Entrepreneur and Founder, Tagarela Comunicação
Monique Fernandes is the founder of Tagarela Comunicação, a PR Agency specializing in entrepreneurship. In addition to Tagarela, Monique is also the founder of Geeks On Beer, a tech meetup, where entrepreneurs meet investors. She is a mentor at Papaya Ventures, a digital accelerator in Rio de Janeiro, and the organizer of a Geeks On Mocha Hackathon, a programing marathon.
Rangel Leonardo
Co-CEO/Founder and Product Director, Cortex Intelligence
Leonardo founded and runs Cortex, the main reference in innovative technology for market intelligence in Brazil. He is responsible for Cortex's product strategy, fund raising and general management. His previous career was made in the strategy area, having worked as a consultant for Accenture. He is also a professor of Entrepreneurial Finance at PUC-RIO. Leonardo is an Electrical Engineer from PUC-RIO, a full-time MBA from COPPEAD / UFRJ, and completed executive programs at Harvard.
