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 Washington DC Founder Institute, including many from out of town. See the full list below.
Adeo Ressi
Founder/CEO, Founder Institute
Adeo Ressi is the founder and CEO of the Founder Institute, the worlds largest startup-technology company accelerator. The Institute is the eighth startup that Mr. Ressi has founded or built, four of which were acquired and three of which are still operating. Mr. Ressi was also a Founding Member of TheFunded.com, an online community of 17,000 CEOs to research, rate, and review funding sources worldwide.
Ajay Sravanapudi
Founder/CEO, LucidMedia
Ajay Sravanapudi is the Founder and CEO of LucidMedia, a leading Demand Side Platform in display advertising. For the past 10 years, as he transformed a three person startup in telecom in 2000, into a cutting edge business in advertising, Ajay has seen and regrettably, experienced more than his fair share venture capital related "issues". Prior to starting LucidMedia, Ajay was the VP of Product Architecture at Versatility. Prior to that he was a Principal at American Management Systems (now CGI-AMS). He received a M.S. in Information Management from Penn State University in 1990 and a B.S. from IIT Madras in 1987. LucidMedia was acquired by Videology on September 27, 2012. Ajay is now President, Display Advertising at Videology. Having more fun and considerably less stressed. Anxious to help other entrepreneurs avoid similar stress if possible.
Andy Louis-Charles
Vice President, Business Development, CustomInk.com
Andy Louis-Charles is the Vice President of Business Development of CustomInk — one of the largest online custom apparel companies in the US — where he leads the companys strategic investments and partnership opportunities. Over his career, Andy has founded, managed, and invested in numerous companies and investment partnerships. Andy received a Bachelor’s of Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Tech where he was inducted into the ANAK Society, the highest senior honor. Subsequently, he earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Florida College of Law, where he graduated cum laude.
Benjamin Young
CEO, Nexercise
Benjamin is the CEO of Nexercise, a mobile platform that uses friendly competition and real rewards to motivate busy people to lose weight and stay fit. Prior to Nexercise, Benjamin was involved in several leadership and technical roles such as the Director of Products at Angel.com and the Director of Technology at Precipia Systems. Benjamin holds a BS in Computer Science from UVA, and graduated top 5% of his class as Palmer Scholar from the Wharton School of Business.
Bill Schafer
CEO, Digital DME
Strong entrepreneurial management and executive leadership experience in the healthcare software industry. Founded and led OrthoSpot increasing revenue from $60k in 2001 to $1.8M in 18 months with 5 people who knew nothing about the orthopedc industry. Restructured business model and developed distribution channel resulting in immediate growth in net revenue.
Brendan Robinson
Cofounder and CEO, Deconstruction
Brendan Robinson is the Cofounder and CEO of Deconstruction, which is bringing the Internet of Things to construction sites to manage noise, vibration and weather changes. An experienced construction executive and industrial engineer, Brendan has spend 14 years developing and implementing innovative practices to help clients deliver world class facilities. He currently resides in Baltimore and enjoys working in the construciton and technology communities in the Baltimore and Washington DC area.
Brent Halliburton
VP Products, Verve Wireless
Brent Halliburton is currently the VP, Products at Verve Wireless after Verve acquired his start-up, Deconstruct Media. Started and sold multiple companies, worked in technology consulting (Group Cortex, Hackett Group, Booz Allen), big companies (Booz Allen, Aol, Advertising.com), and small companies (Group Cortex, MillStar, Deconstruct Media, Verve Wireless). Broad range of technology expertise: Enterprise software, consumer web apps, online advertising. Read his blog at http://www.cogmap.com/blog/
Chuck Teubner
Managing Director, Newport Board Group
Chuck Teubner brings to Newport Board Group a deeply experienced executive background as Chairman of the board, CEO and COO of leading edge technology companies. He has significant fundraising experience in excess of $1billion in equity and debt financing, numerous M&A transactions, and multi billions in product sales.
Dan Solomon
Managing Director, Builder LLC.
Dan is an accomplished entrepreneur as well as a recognized expert in marketing and communications. He is currently Managing Director of Builder, LLC providing strategic counsel and business development assistance to several corporations in the media, health care, and education industries. Dan was CEO of Virilion, which was a digital advertising agency with offices in New York, Boston, Austin, and Washington, DC with clients such as eBay, UNICEF, Anheuser Busch and Abbott. Under Dans leadership, the firm was in the INC 5000 list three years in a row.
Dave Sandrowitz
Owner & Principal Consultant, Substrate LLC
Dave is a startup veteran, an advisor, a small-time investor, and a mentor via Startup Weekend and The Fort. He is currently owner and principal at Substrate, an operations consultancy focused on providing hands-on project, ops, and biz dev services to tech startups (not coaching, not strategy...real, roll-up-your-sleeves stuff). Prior to Substrate, Dave spent six years in Sales Ops and Client Services for TARGUSinfo, which was recently acquired by Neustar. Before that, Dave had the pleasure of serving as the tech lead during the design and launch of an RFID-based supply chain system for the USMC, a system that was deployed in theater in 2003 and is still used to this day.
David Greene
Vice President and Financial Advisor , Bernstein Global Wealth Management
David Greene is a vice president and financial advisor in the Private Client Practice of Bernstein Global Wealth Management. He advises high-net-worth individuals and institutions regarding investment strategies and works closely with clients and their professional advisors on a wide range of investment matters, including tax and estate planning, concentrated stock positions, and the sale of privately held businesses. David has founded, advised, and managed several emerging technology companies on his own and through organizations including Active Angel Investors. He is a graduate of the Mindshare program, class of 2008, and of Harvard College and Harvard Business School.
Dede Haskins
President/CEO, NewVision Health, Inc.
Dede is the Founder and CEO of New Vision Health, a healthcare technology company, as well as an experienced, award winning senior executive with a successful 20+ year career history with six of Northern Virginia’s fastest growing companies (Cigital, Proxicom, Legent, MAXM, XMCO, and RCI). She is experienced in both commercial and government services environments, and is a highly organized, competitive leader, capable of teaming with peers and building high-performing teams to drive revenue generation.
Ed Broenniman
Managing Director and Founder, Piedmont Group, LLC
Mr. Broenniman is the Managing Director/Founder of the Piedmont Group, LLC, a results oriented management development company that specializes in building high growth companies. Mr. Broenniman’s expertise is taking middle market and emerging firms with significant market potential and focusing the Directors and the management on what they must do to increase profitability and stockholder value. He has over 30 years of successful experience as a CEO/COO, Board Member, and Corporate Advisor with public and privately held high growth firms. He has an MBA from Stanford University and BA from Yale University.
Ed Harrell
Managing Partner
Harrell knows a thing or two about making things happen. The Chevy Chase, Md., resident has more than 30 years of experience in managing private and public programs in the areas of privatization, technology commercialization, entrepreneurial training, capital market development, private investment in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East and early stage financing of technology companies. He has held senior managerial positions with Rohm & Haas Co., E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., the State Department, the Agency for International Development and Price Waterhouse, LLP. Harrell also has served as executive director of the Murata Business Center incubator in Carlisle for three years, while he was an adjunct professor of International Business and Management at Dickinson College.
Eric Koefoot
Co-founder, Ascend Sales Partner
As co-founder of Ascend Sales Partner, Eric Koefoot helps companies make sense of the Internet and how it impacts their future, assists in the development of new revenue-generating products, and builds sustainable, profitable digital businesses. An experienced software executive and an Internet pioneer, Eric either founded or served as a senior executive for early-stage Internet companies since 1996. He was most recently the founding CEO and Publisher of U.S. News Ventures, a branded Internet publishing company funded in part by U.S. News & World Report. Prior to that role, he was co-founder and CEO of Five Star Alliance, a successful eCommerce startup in Alexandria, which became the largest independent booker of luxury hotels worldwide and was sold in 2007 for over a 10X return to investors in less than 3 years.
Eric Wechselblatt
Partner, Holland & Knight
Eric Wechselblatt is a Partner in the firms Business Law Group and Co-Chair of the firms Venture Capital and Emerging Growth Companies Team. He represents clients in a variety of corporate and securities activities, with an emphasis on venture capital transactions and other private placements, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate matters.
Eric Malawer
CEO, DeepMile Networks
Eric Malawer is the CEO and co-founder of DeepMile, where he has overall responsibility for corporate strategy and development and commercial solutions development. Prior to founding DeepMile, Eric spent nearly a decade in the US National Security community, most recently serving as the Subcommittee Staff Director for Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment on the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee. He previously served overseas as an Intelligence Officer with a primary focus on counterterrorism operations in the Middle East and Africa. Following his overseas assignments, Eric was a senior consultant to the Office of the Director of Central Intelligence, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the senior leadership at the National Security Agency.
George Pappas
EVP Sales & Marketing, Presidium
High technology executive with deep cross-functional experience in R&D, Product Management, and Sales/Marketing. Have built and led a variety of high-growth organizations that create, market, and sell software products and services to a wide variety of organizations in industries including Financial Services, Telecommunications, US National Security Community, and Higher Education. Former EVP Sales & Marketing, Presidium; helped grow company to acquisition by Blackboard inc. Former EVP of Educap, leading technology-based Education Finance provider. Former CEO, Plesk inc - leading hosting infrastructure provider acquired by Parallels. Have strong Regional, National, and International experience. Was based in Hong Kong while running international operations for leading Internet payments provider CyberCash Have led R&D teams in US, India, Russia, Poland, and China. I am a member of the Edison Venture Fund Directors Network and a Board Member of their portfolio company, Motionsoft. I perform due diligence and assist in Entrepreneur deal structure creation and execution. A member of Greater DC Mindshare and MIssion LInk organizations of local High Tech Executives. Holder of Patent for Sales Risk Management system. Graduate of Boston University.
George Roche
Founder, Small Small Benefit Co.
Fall 2012 DC FI grad and founder of Small Small a food company focused on tackling food insecurity in Ethiopia. I have a background in management consulting, entrepreneurship, social impact, and international development. Im a published author in Forbes and love to brainstorm new ideas.
Glen Hellman
Cheif Entrepreneuriator, Driven Forward, LLC
Washingtons own Mr Cranky as crowned by the Washington Business Journal, Glen Hellman is Washington DCs #1 ranked startup blogger. Glens a former serial entrepreneur with multiple IPOs and $100M M&A exits. Hes a reformed hired-gun, turn-around CEO in the employ of Venture Capitalists who had lost faith in original founding teams. In addition hes an author, a leadership coach, a Vistage Chair and former Vistage Rookie of the Year. Glens an Angel investor voted by Tech Cocktail readers as the #1 Angel Investor in the US. He is a former board member of the University of Marylands Business Schools, Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. You can learn more about Glen on Driven Forwards Website and Blog.
Hilina Kebede
CEO & Co-Founder, Blissinvite
Hilina, CEO & Co-Founder of BlissInvite, is passionate about technology, design and innovation. An engineer by training she spent the latter part of her career at Home Depot ,Total Wine & More and Photocure focused on aligning business needs with creative technology solutions. She was responsible for critical business transformation initiatives and software implementation efforts in the areas of new product development, eCommerce, mCommerce, CRM , Supply Chain and Merchandising. She is now focused on her second startup BlissInvite, an online invitation and written communication management company.
Janet Van Pelt
CEO, DualEnroll.com
20 years of progressive experience growing entrepreneurial technology companies serving commercial and education markets. Exceptional at assimilating domain knowledge and applying business acumen to create targeted, executable growth strategies. Proven ability to work with entrepreneurial founders as a trusted partner in transforming early stage opportunities into scalable businesses. Highly proficient in advancing the organization’s objectives with senior executives at Fortune 50 companies and major IHE. Polished and experienced across wide spectrum of public speaking and presentation situations.
Jeffery Porro
Speechwriter, Porro LLC
At a time when the spoken word is more important than ever, Jeff Porro’s unique combination of talent and experience helps executives infuse the words they use with the power they want. Jeff is a speechwriter for Fortune 250 CEOs, diplomats, and other government leaders, as well as executives of some of the nation’s leading trade and professional associations. He is also an award winning screenwriter and a PhD with 20 years of experience in research, public policy, and business. He has been profiled in the Washington Post, National Journal, Washington Business Journal, and other publications. Before starting his own business in 1991, Jeff was associate editor of Teacher Magazine, assistant editor of the National Academy of Sciences’ Issues in Science and Technology, and an Op-Ed and speechwriter for People for the American Way. He has also served as a Senate staffer, a State Department official, and an arms control specialist for the Arms Control Association. From 1999 to 2002 he was senior vice president of M&R Strategic Services, a Washington DC, political communications firm. Jeff holds a PhD in political science from UCLA.
Jill Stelfox
VP & GM, Location Solutions, Zebra Technologies
Jill has founded and run several companies, including founding two venture capital backed technology companies. She is a successful serial entrepreneur, having bought & sold dozens of companies, raised over fifty million in venture capital & returned over 1000X to investors. Jill has been the CFO and EVP of Corporate Development at Binary, the CEO, Co-Founder and Chairman of Defywire, a wireless technology company, providing real-time safety solutions to public and private schools. Before launching Defywire, Jill was an owner, CFO and Director of Mobile & Wireless at Noblestar Systems, a professional services firm. Jill spearheaded Noblestar’s substantial growth including an expanded international presence both organically and through several acquisitions, including raising VC money and launching Riverbed Technologies. Jill also served as the Chief Financial Officer for Netafim Irrigation of North America, where she developed and implemented the companys strategic plan, along with business re-engineering initiatives.
John Shomaker
CEO, AdJuggler
John is CEO of AdJuggler, a global leader in digital ad management technology and media services. AdJuggler enables publishers and networks to source and manage all media through one, integrated platform that maximizes yield, based on the value and preferences of each unique user. The company’s highly scalable SaaS platform serves as the backbone for more than 200 global customers, representing more than 5,000 domains, 135 million unique visitors, and billions of monthly impressions. Before joining AdJuggler in 2009, he was the EVP at MarketBridge, a leading marketing strategy firm that works with global Fortune 500 companies to build innovative go-to-market models that accelerate growth across multiple marketing and sales channels. He worked with numerous marketing executives at clients such as IBM, Avaya, SAP, Cisco, and Nortel, and held several roles including management of the firm’s worldwide Consulting unit, and the launch of its advanced Analytics and Marketing Services units. Previously, he was a Managing Director at Dome Capital and an associate with Accenture and Goldman Sachs & Co. John graduated with his M.B.A. and B.S. from Washington University in St. Louis.
Justin Maddox
CEO , CrowdTrust
Justin Maddox is the CEO of CrowdTrust and a Fall 2012 DC Founder Institute Grad.
Liz Sara
Managing Director, Best Marketing, LLC
Elizabeth Sara has 25 years of experience in the local high tech community as an entrepreneur, business leader, angel investor and strategic marketer. In 2001, she founded Best Marketing, LLC to provide early stage and growth stage technology companies with strategic marketing, PR and business development services. Her company offers clients all the benefits of a full-scale, seasoned marketing department on a ‘virtual’ basis -- eliminating overhead and headcount associated with full-time staff. Even more importantly, she brings the experience of having worked with more than 75 companies during this time on the most strategic issues central to their success.
Marisa Terrenzi
Partner, Holland & Knight
Marisa Terrenzi practices principally in the areas of business and corporate law, with an emphasis on venture capital transactions and other private placements, mergers and acquisitions and general corporate matters. Her clients are engaged in industry sectors including software, telecommunications, services, government contracts, and information technology. She has represented a number of leading venture capital and private equity firms in numerous transactions as well as a wide range of early stage and later stage companies.
Richard Ambrose
Co-Founder, LaunchPosse
As Senior Associate with EMP Global, Richard has been investing in large infrastructure and basic industries in emerging markets for the past 9 years. As Co-founder of Pomona Impact, he has also been investing in and working closely with early stage companies oriented toward servicing the people at the bottom of the economic pyramid for the past three years. Lastly, he is also co-founder of LaunchPosse, an online platform that helps aspiring entrepreneurs leverage their social networks to develop and refine their business ideas.
Roger Yee
Investor/LP, Fortify Ventures
Roger is a veteran of start-ups, having founded three companies that included investor-backed funding and successful exits through acquisitions and IPOs. His previous companies and executive roles include ShadowLogic, Inc. (CEO), a cybersecurity services company; LaunchFuel, Inc. (CTO), a technology venture accelerator; and AppNet, Inc. (VP) an Internet and electronic commerce solutions firm acquired by CommerceOne for $2.1B. Most recently, Roger was Vice President at BAE Systems responsible for global defense and security programs and was an executive with DigitalNet, Inc. which was acquired by BAE Systems for $600M in 2004. Rogers work has been featured in The Washington Post, Federal Computing Week, Washington Technology, Government Security News and is a frequent invited speaker at government and industry events. He is currently an angel investor and LP with Fortify Ventures and mentor with Founder Institute and The Fort.
Sean McDermott
Founder & CEO, Windward IT Solutions
Sean McDermott is the Founder & CEO of Windward IT Solutions, a global management consulting and systems engineering firm. In 2004, Mr. McDermott also was the founder and CEO of RealOps, a pioneer in enterprise management software solutions used by some of the world’s largest financial and telecommunications companies. Three years after founding the company, BMC Software (NYSE:BMC) acquired RealOps in 2007 and Sean assumed management of a $120M software division. Mr. McDermott began his career with positions at Booz Allen Hamilton and the Department of Justice. Sean has a Bachelors degree in electrical engineering from Villanova University and a Masters degree in engineering from The Catholic University of America.
Shahed Amanullah
Co-Founder, LaunchPosse
A serial entrepreneur who has founded several Silicon Valley new media startups, Shahed Amanullah is CEO and co-founder of LaunchPosse, a DC-based startup that helps people leverage their social networks to build small businesses. Prior to starting LaunchPosse, Shahed served as Senior Advisor for Technology at the US Department of State, where he worked closely with the White House and other USG agencies on social entrepreneurship, social media policy, combating online extremism, and fostering innovation. Shahed also serves as CEO of Halalfire, which produces compelling online content for and market research on global Muslim communities.
Stephen Candelmo
CEO and Co-Founder, Klaggle
Stephen Candelmo is currently the CEO and Co-Founder of Klaggle, an enterprise search and text analytics company located in the Washington DC area. Given his 14 years of expertise in corporate and technology matters as a corporate attorney and former original co-founder of Fedbid, the leading auction exchange for federal procurement, Stephen is well versed in the legal and business aspects of emerging companies and their investors. Stephen is a proud alumni of Mindshare and inaugural member of the Fort, DCs first start-up accelerator program.
Sunjay Pandey
COO and Co-Founder, Wovenly
Sunjay is the co-founder and COO of Wovenly - the first and only edutainment platform for injecting educational content into electronic entertainment. Prior to Wovenly, Sunjay was the CEO of ALTERthought a boutique distributed systems consultancy. At ALTERthought he defined and led the companys client business development and intellectual property strategy. He led ALTERthought to 300%+ revenue growth, the spin-up of an algorithmically-traded Hedge Fund (Canal Street Capital) and the launch of 2 SaaS products including the worlds first Knowlege Networking platform (Oyogi) and the worlds first SaaS Product Estimation platform (Planix). Sunjay holds a Masters in Management Information Technology from The University of Virginia and a degree in English Literature from Appalachian State University. He enjoyes writing songs, playing guitar, and braving gut-wrenching open mic performances. He lives in the DC Metro area with his patient wife and inspiring son and daughter.
Tanya Renne
Cofounder and CEO, Orchid
As co-founder and CEO of Orchid, Tanya manages the growth and vision of the company. She has led her team from start-up to now being a competitive player in a challenging and crowed market. This process has lead her to multiple crossroads and challenges around diversification, channel strategies, and product development. Tanya brings a range of expertise and talents to her work with tenacity, determination and legendary persistance. She is highly skilled in multiple stages of development, product profitability, needs-assessment, design, data and financial modeling. Shell run through a wall whenever necessary. Tanya graduated with honors from Colorado College 400 years ago and received her masters degree in sociology from the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) while on a Fulbright. She published a book called "Anas Land: Sisterhood in Eastern Europe" which can be found on Amazon, used book stores, and remainder piles if you are lucky. Shes a great cook and has rusty fluency in a handful of useless languages.
Tim Keough
Founder & CEO, Kinsail Corporation
Tim Keough is the founder and CEO of Kinsail Corporation, a leading provider of solutions that enable organizations to automate and bring online information and payment processes like permitting, applications, registrations, licenses, and more. Tim has founded several other companies (AperServ, Zona Financiera, and Virtual Loan Corp) raising approximately $50 million in VC funding. Tim went to George Mason University on a full academic scholarship and enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters as well as attempting to remain active.
Tom Brooke
Partner, Holland & Knight
Thomas W. Brooke practices intellectual property law at Holland & Knight. Mr. Brooke handles matters involving trademark, copyright, trade secret and patent litigation, trademark and copyright prosecution, drafting license and technology transfer agreements, and all forms of intellectual property counseling. He is a member of the firms task force on electronic discovery.
Tonya Harmon
CEO, CareWorks
Tonya Harmon is leading the expansion of CareWorks in the US. As the Affordable Care Act revolutionizes the way social care is managed in this country, Tonya is excited to be part of a team that is on the forefront of this change. Tonya is the founder of Harmony Information Systems, Inc., where she raised over $40M in funding. Tonya was selected as a winner for the 2009 Top 100 CEOs for the Greater DC Area; 2007 and 2008 winner of the SmartCEO Top 50 Women Entrepreneurs; and was a 2008 finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year from Women in Technology. Tonya leads the Greater DC Area Chapter of the Founder Institute and is dedicated to developing the leadership skills of up and coming high tech entrepreneurs. Tonya is a passionate and frequent speaker on the topic of women and entrepreneurship.
William (Bill) Martinez
Deputy Director for Programs, Center for Civil-Military Relations
My name is William J. Martinez and I am currently the Deputy Director for Programs at the Center for Civil-Military Relations in Monterey, California. Previous positions begin with retirement from the Army after 28 years service serving at all levels of command to Brigade command; I then worked for two Defense Contractor companies: Cubic Defense and Raytheon, my last position was as the CEO of a new start up IT business called Net-Centric Mission Services which had projected revenue of $50M in the first year. I received a BS in Engineering from the United States Military Academy and two MS degrees from Indiana University and the Army War College. I have completed several Military courses focused on leadership and earned numerous awards and citations. I speak fluent Spanish, I also enjoy fitness and golf.
