Now, more than ever, the world needs entrepreneurs to build the future.
At the Founder Institute, we know times are tough, but we also know that economic downturns are a great time to start a business. This isn't just conjecture - the Founder Institute was started in April of 2009 (during the "Great Recession"), and world-leading companies like Microsoft, Tesla, and Apple also took advantage of cost savings during a recession to launch and get their initial traction.
That's why we are excited to announce today that applications are now open for the Seattle 2024 program.
If you could use a structured process and a lifetime of support from Oregon and Washington state's top investors and entrepreneurs to build something meaningful, then apply to the Seattle 2024 Founder Institute today.
We will be hosting several free startup online events with experts from Seattle and Portland over the coming weeks, where you can learn from top entrepreneurs from the comfort of your home:
- What is Entrepreneur DNA? Insights from 15 Years of Social Science Research: 10:00am, Apr 29, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/343833
- Founder Institute Online Information Session: https://FI.co/infosession
- Co-Founders Connect: Find a Business Partner Online: 5:00pm, May 01, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/343835
- How to Come Up with Great Startup Ideas (Interactive Online Event): 10:00am, May 08, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/343836
- Innovation Series: Connecting Corporates & Startups with Open Innovation: 9:00am, May 09, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/345262
- Startup Founders’ Guide to Building an Effective Go-To-Market Strategy: 10:00am, May 15, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/343839
- How to Build a Fundable Start-up Brand: 10:00am, May 20, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/338816
- Employee to Entrepreneur: How to Make the Transition to Startup Founder: 5:00pm, May 22, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/343842
- Startup Pitch Practice: Share Your Idea and Get Expert Feedback: 5:00pm, May 27, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/339413
- How to Quickly Establish Safe, Reliable, and Compliant AI Startups: 10:00am, May 29, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/343851
- What is Entrepreneur DNA? Insights from 15 Years of Social Science Research: 10:00am, Jun 03, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/343476
- Ask an Investor Anything: Q&A with a Venture Capitalist: 5:00pm, Jun 05, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/343868
- How to Come Up with Great Startup Ideas: 5:00pm, Jun 10, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/339735
- Employee to Entrepreneur: How to Make the Transition to Startup Founder: 10:00am, Jun 12, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/345636
- Co-Founder Networking: Find a Business Partner: 10:00am, Jun 17, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/339945
- How to Take a Value Proposition to Finding Product Market Fit: 10:00am, Jun 24, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/341485
- Startup Pitch Practice: Share Your Idea and Get Expert Feedback: 10:00am, Jun 26, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/345152
- Employee to Entrepreneur: How to Make the Transition to Startup Founder: 5:00pm, Jul 01, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/340256
- How Founders Beat Anxiety for Peak Performance : 10:00am, Jul 03, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/345704
- How to Acquire your First 100 B2C Customers: 10:00am, Jul 08, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/344451
- Startup Pitch Practice: Share Your Idea and Get Expert Feedback: 5:00pm, Jul 15, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/341272
- Startup Fundraising Q&A: Meet Investors from the FI Venture Network: 10:00am, Jul 17, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/341371
- What is Entrepreneur DNA? Insights from 15 Years of Social Science Research: 5:00pm, Jul 22, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/343986
- How to Build a Personal Brand: The Startup Founders Guide to Thought Leadership: 10:00am, Jul 24, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/343685
- How to Come Up with Great Startup Ideas : 10:00am, Jul 29, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/341700
- Co-Founder Networking: Find a Business Partner: 5:00pm, Aug 05, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/341892
- Pitch Lounge: Practice Pitching Your Business Idea to Startup Experts : 5:00pm, Aug 19, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/341760
- Ask an Investor Anything: Q&A with a Venture Capitalist: 5:00pm, Aug 26, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/341825
- Employee to Entrepreneur: How to Make the Transition to Startup Founder: 5:00pm, Sep 02, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/343266
- What is Entrepreneur DNA? Insights from 15 Years of Social Science Research: 5:00pm, Sep 09, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/344233
- Startup Fundraising Q&A: Meet Investors from the FI Venture Network: 10:00am, Sep 16, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/342395
- How to Come Up with Great Startup Ideas: 10:00am, Sep 23, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/343582
- Startup Pitch Practice: Share Your Idea and Get Expert Feedback: 10:00am, Oct 02, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/342079
- Startup Fundraising Q&A: Meet Investors from the FI Venture Network: 5:00pm, Oct 14, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/342472
- Employee to Entrepreneur: How to Make the Transition to Startup Founder : 10:00am, Nov 04, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/343369
- Startup Pitch Practice: Share Your Idea and Get Expert Feedback: 5:00pm, Nov 06, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/342177
- Co-Founder Networking: Find a Business Partner: 5:00pm, Nov 18, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/344721
- What is Entrepreneur DNA? Insights from 15 Years of Social Science Research: 5:00pm, Nov 25, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/345463
- Startup Fundraising Q&A: Meet Investors from the FI Venture Network: 10:00am, Nov 27, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/342572
- Startup Pitch Practice: Share Your Idea and Get Expert Feedback: 10:00am, Dec 02, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/342279
- What is the DNA of an Entrepreneur? Insights from 15 Years of Research: 10:00am, Dec 04, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/345367
- Co-Founder Networking: Find a Business Partner: 10:00am, Dec 09, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/344830
- How to Come Up with Great Startup Ideas: 10:00am, Dec 16, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/344949
- Startup Fundraising Q&A: Meet Investors from the FI Venture Network: 5:00pm, Dec 23, 2024 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/342654
Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 200+ cities worldwide, the Founder Institute provides high-potential entrepreneurs and teams with the devoted support network and structured growth process needed to get to traction and funding. Participants in the 4-month core program also get access to a lifetime of support through the Founder Institute's industry-leading post-programs.
The Seattle / Portland Virtual 2020 program is led by some of the region's top startup leaders, including Jeremy Zaretzky (Managing Director, FI Seattle), Levi Velez Reed (Director, FI Seattle), and Lainey Lee (Program Manager, FI Seattle).
In addition, some of Washington and Oregon's top investors, entrepreneurs, and CEOs will be participating in the program, providing them with expert feedback and evaluation. The list of startup mentors for the Seattle 2024 Founder Institute includes:
- Adam Mangone: CEO , Mangone Ventures
- Adeo Ressi: CEO, Decile Group / VC Lab
- Alain Raynaud: CEO, FairSoftware
- Albert Lam: Partner, Dorm Room Fund
- Aleksandra Manuilova: Senior Portfolio Development Manager, Microsoft
- Amit Gupta: Sys Dev Manager, Amazon
- Amy Hutchins: Founder, Chief Product Officer, Unearth Technologies, Inc.
- Amy Swanson: CEO & Co-Founder, Ultropia
- Andrew Lee: CEO, Esper
- Andrew Klein: Founder, Zccounting
- Andy Herman: Founder, Signtag Corp.
- Anisha Vinjamuri: Founder & President , boza
- Aracelis Nass: Senior Business Program Manager, Microsoft
- Aswin Pranam: Sr. Product Manager, UVC Partners
- Audrea Fink: Sales Coach & Strategist, mConnexions
- Aviv Shalgi: CEO, Solar Simplified
- BARRET NEWBERRY: CEO, Leasera
- Ben Rush: Business, Pioneer Square Labs
- Bill Bromfield: Partner, Fenwick & West
- Bill Bryant: General Partner, Threshold Ventures
- Bob Crimmins: General Partner, Startup Haven Ventures
- Brandon Zhang: Business Analyst II, Amazon.com Services Llc
- Brian M Pasalich: Chief Executive Officer | Co-Founder, Syntoniq
- Bryan Rutberg: Partner, AG Consulting Partners
- Candice Dietz: Founder, Givespace
- Chandler Lewis: Founder, 360 Social Impact Studios
- Charles Kwon: Managing Partner, Concitor
- Cheale Villa: Founder, CEO + Visionary Rabbit, Visual Caffeine
- Chinara Askerzade: Managing Partner at PocketVC early-stage VC, PocketVC Studio and PocketVC Technologies Inc
- Chloe Feingold: Financial Advisor, Edward Jones
- Chris Kelley: Principal, DFJ
- Chris Haberle: Principal Product Marketing Manager, AWS
- Chris Bruno: Owner, X2Y Strategic Advisors
- Christina Lomasney: Director of Commercialization, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Christy Johnson: CEO, Artemis Connection, Inc
- Claire Mc Taggart: Founder & CEO, Square Peg Hires
- Clare Gould: Founder & CEO, Your Vesa
- Claudius Mbemba: Venture Investment Director, Startup Haven
- Cody Birkland, Ultropia
- Colleen Hilton: CEO, Alli Connect
- Connor Gray: CEO, Stealth
- Dan Fine: Managing Partner, Fine Solutions
- Dan Kihanya: Director, REI Path Ahead Ventures, REI
- Danl Kasow: Principal, Sorted Solution
- Daria Boldyreva: Founder, Wunderdogs
- David Anderson: GM, Kilby Silicon Valley Labs at Texas Instruments
- David Jorjani: VP of Product and Engineering, Sayge
- Diane Najm: CEO/Founder, PhotoPad
- Divyanshu Sharma: Software Engineer 3, Platform Security (Authentication & Authorization), CrowdStrike
- Edmond Sanctis: Partner, REASON Venture Partners
- Elisa La Cava: Investor, Madrona Venture Group
- Emeka Alozie: Director, IntuitiveX
- Fabian Geyrhalter: Founder and Principal, FINIEN
- Fredrick Tsang: IP Attorney, Fenwick & West
- Garrett Gross: Product manager, Xemelgo
- Gary Gaessler: SaaS Community Builder, Nylas, Co-Founder of CloudElements
- Gira Wieczorek: Managing Partner / Co-Founder, Aleberry
- Gira Wieczorek: Founder
- Glenn Wisegarver: CEO, Sigma IQ
- Graciela Perez: Founder & Lean Start Up Coach, Lean Sigma Tech, LLC
- Ian Lurie: EVP, Clearlink
- Irina Menn: CEO, Hopela
- Jake Hite: CTO, Compete to Create
- James Hu: CEO, Jobscan
- Jana Krystofova Mike: Assistant Professor, Division of Pediatric Critical Care at University of California, San Francisco
- Janiece Jenkins: Associate, Fenwick & West
- Janis Machala: Corporate Director, Paladin Partners
- Jay Goyal: President, Actively Learn
- Jeff Croft: CRO, Kurvv
- Jeffrey McIntosh: Founder, McIntosh Tea
- Jen Haller: Chief of staff, Ascend VC.
- Jennifer Azapian: Former Venture Partner and Advisor , Loyal VC | Mighty Capital
- Jeremy Zaretzky: Managing Director, Founder Institute Seattle
- Jeremy Bruck: Managing Partner, Data Valuation & Monetization, Gulp Data
- Jim Poss: CEO, Modifi
- Joe Bezdek: Co-founder, DivX, Inc.
- John Borofka: Founder, Walnut+Oak
- John Kinsella: VP Engineering, Not applicable
- Jonathan Greechan: Co-Founder & CEO, Founder Institute
- Joseph Horsman: Investor, Madrona
- Josh Dougherty: Co-Founder & CEO, A Brave New
- Julian Fung: Solutions Architect, Real Estate Investor, Qualtrics, Avalanche Assets
- Julie Pham: CEO, CuriosityBased
- Karin Kidder: Executive Director, E8 Angels
- Kate Loose: Investment Director, Capria Ventures
- Kate Edwards: AWS Startup BD/Co-Founder at Heartbeat , Heartbeat
- Kathleen Baxley: Interim CFO / Strategic Venture Advisor
- Kelly Lawton Abbott: Partner, SSM Law
- Ken Kranseler: Managing Director, Kabuki Strategy
- Ken Horenstein: Founder, GP, Pack Ventures
- Kevin Yu: Co-founder & CTO, Socedo Inc.
- Khurram Agha: Founder, Aghaz Investments
- Kristopher Alford: Venture Capital, Cercano Management
- Lainey Lee: Director, Founder Institute
- Laura Malcolm: Founder/CEO, Give InKind
- Levi Velez Reed: Venture Partner, Loyal VC
- Lewis Lin: CEO, ManageBetter
- Lindsay Randall: Sr. Program Manager, Moonbeam
- Lisa Fernow: President, Fernow Consulting
- Loren Kolsloske: Head of New Verticals - Mobility, Uber
- Madhu Singh: Chief Legal Officer, Foundry Law Group
- Mara Rada: CEO & Chief of Strategy, Feral (thinkferal.com)
- Mark Landay: Managing Director, Dynamic Synergy
- Matt Mandell: Principal, PayNerd.com
- Matt Paulin: Founder , zCrowd
- Matt Rubright: VP of Early and Growth Stage Tech, Silicon Valley Bank
- Matthew Lickwar: Co-Founder | Growth | Operations | Product, Ynomia
- Maureen Ezekwugo: Chief Customer Officer, RealSelf
- Maximilian Von Poelnitz: Investment Director, DSM Venturing
- Melissa Li: Managing Partner and Head of Community, Dorm Room Fund
- Melissa Reaves, Story Fruition
- Michael Goldman: CFO, EN 360 Holdings
- Mikaela Kiner: CEO & Founder, Reverb
- Mike Vandenbos
- Mike Cozart: Angel Investor and Startup Advisor, Relumin
- Milkana Brace: CEO, Jargon
- Minda Brusse: Founding Partner, First Row Partners
- My Le Goel: Founder & CEO, Flight Live, Inc.
- Nelly Yusupova: Founder, TechSpeak.co
- Noah Wallach: Founder, Hope OS
- Oleksandr Pukhalskyi: Mr, SMG
- Omi Iyamu: Product Manager, Google Austria
- Pablo Casilimas, OneSixOne Ventures
- Pascha Scott: Partner and Co-founder, VERTETUDE
- Paul Watt: Global Business Manager, Google
- Paul Adams: CEO & Founder, Sound Financial Group
- Peter Leonard: CEO, Meddle
- Pilar Fernandez Hermida: Founder i-Expand (We help Health Tech companies go global), i-expand
- Pradeep UN: Founder, CEO, Seerflix Inc
- Puneet Kohli: CEO, Careerflow.ai
- Raja Mawad: Founder, Thrv.health
- Rebecca Lovell: Director, Create33
- Rob Hillas: Founder, PlainVanilla
- Robert Le: Director, FI Seattle
- Rohre Titcomb: COO, Female Founders Alliance
- Ron Gentile: Founder, Moodfit
- Ruth Becke: Founder & CEO, Plantmatch
- Ryan Micheletti: Head of Global Operations, Founder Institute
- Ryan Mc Robert: Partner, Fenwick & West
- Saikiran Chandha: CEO, SciSpace (Formerly Typeset.io)
- Sanjit Singh, Boltt.io
- Santosh Khare: Founder & CEO, Touchbase, Inc.
- Scott Weller: President, Radian Labs
- Shaahin Cheyene: President
- Shama Keskar: Cofounder & CEO, VoxAI
- Shilpa Sharma: Co-founder & CEO, Flyte (flyteai.com)
- Sneha Lundia Agrawal: Founder & CEO, Step2Growth
- Sri Kasam: Director of Engineering, Nfinity
- Steve Cherewaty: Founder & Creative Director, Abacus
- Steve Carver
- Suzanne Mills: Biz Dev & GTM - Retail & Fintech, Stealth Startup
- Symon Perriman: CEO & Founder, FanWide
- Tai Rattigan: Global Head of Partnerships & Alliances, Deel
- Tarun Gulati: Founder & CEO, Adios
- Taylor Black: Principal Program Manager, Office of the CTO Incubator , Microsoft
- Terri Richardson: CEO, Accelerate Consulting Group, LLC
- Thibaut Labarre: Founding Engineer, SingleFile.io
- Travis Murdock: Executive Vice President, Ruder Finn
- Vince Bianco: CEO, Advanced Medical Reviews
- Yemi Oluseun: Founder/ CEO - Fintech, SaaS Business Growth, Automation & Change Management, The Change Hive
- Yoko Okano: Co-founder, First Row Partners
- And many more to be announced.
Since 2009, the Founder Institute has helped over 7,000 Alumni raise over $1.75BN funding, get into seed-accelerators, generate traction, recruit a team, build a product, transition from employee to entrepreneur, and more (see the FI 10 Year Impact Report here).
Join us in Seattle and Portland to help build the future.
Apply to the Seattle 2024 Founder Institute today, or learn more at FI.co/overview.
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