The Founder Institute, the World's Largest Startup Accelerator, is in the final stage of testing for the opening of its newest chapter in Seattle for 2016.
The testing phase ends Oct 21, 2025, so if you'd like to help bring this great program to Seattle, please fill out this form today and then spread the word.
In the Founder Institute's four-month, part-time program, promising entrepreneurs “learn by doing” and launch a company through structured training courses, practical business-building assignments, and expert feedback from a large network of business mentors. Plus, aspiring founders are not required to quit their day job to participate, so they can begin building a business around their ideas without putting their livelihood at risk.
Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 200 cities and 100 countries, the Founder Institute has helped launch over 8,100 companies, which have created over 30,000 new jobs. The company's mission is to “Globalize Silicon Valley” and create sustainable startup ecosystems that will create one million new jobs worldwide.
In order to complete the testing phase in Seattle, the Founder Institute is hosting free startup events this week;
- Ask an Investor Anything: Q&A with Rich Maloy: 5:00pm, Sep 08, 2025 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/377257
- Founder Institute Online Information Session: https://FI.co/infosession
- Responsible AI for Startups: Frameworks You Can Apply from Day One: 10:00am, Sep 15, 2025 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/377255
- Pitch Your Ideas to Investors & Experts: 10:00am, Sep 16, 2025 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/378605
- How to Get Investors to Notice Your Startup: AMA with Marta Marrucco: 10:00am, Sep 17, 2025 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/377249
- How to Come Up with Great Startup Ideas: 10:00am, Sep 22, 2025 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/377502
- Co-Founder Networking: Find a Business Partner: 10:00am, Oct 06, 2025 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/377836
- Startup Pitch Practice: Share Your Idea and Get Expert Feedback: 10:00am, Oct 27, 2025 (America/Los_Angeles): https://FI.co/e/377673
Leading the Founder Institute's efforts in Seattle are Amey Laud (Co-Founder and Director, Hiperware) and Dave Barcos (Founder, The Startup Brand).
Other successful entrepreneurs who have signed on to mentor founders in the program include:
- Abdellah Aouf: Chief Executive Officer, GO PLATFORM
- Adam Mangone: CEO , Mangone Ventures
- Adeo Ressi: CEO, Decile Group / VC Lab
- Ahmed Muzmmal: VP of Engineering (Cofounder), Gaper
- Alain Raynaud: CEO, FairSoftware
- Albert Lam: Partner, Dorm Room Fund
- Aleksandra Manuilova: Senior Portfolio Development Manager, Microsoft
- Alex Katzman: Founding Partner, Growth Inflection
- Allen Lee: Startup Operator & Investor, Various
- 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
- Balki Kodarapu: Fractional CTO, yourCTO
- BARRET NEWBERRY: CEO, Leasera
- Ben Stacey: CEO, Pitchverk
- 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, Behave Technologies (Formerly Syntoniq, Inc.)
- Bryan Rutberg: Partner, AG Consulting Partners
- Caesar Filori
- 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 Stepania, ThirstySprout
- David Jorjani: Founder, Qatalyst Labs
- Destiny Brandt
- 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: Director of Growth, Xemelgo
- Gary Gaessler: SaaS Community Builder, Nylas, Co-Founder of CloudElements
- Gaurav Doshi
- Gira Wieczorek: Managing Partner / Co-Founder, Aleberry
- 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
- James Schreitmueller
- 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
- Judy Nguyen
- Julian Fung: Solutions Architect, Real Estate Investor, Qualtrics, Avalanche Assets
- Julie Pham: CEO, CuriosityBased
- June W Choi: Managing Partner, Serval Ventures
- 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.
- Kevin Chan: Director, Product Marketing, Fleetio
- Khurram Agha: Founder, Aghaz Investments
- Kristopher Alford: Venture Capital, Cercano Management
- Lainey Lee: Director, Founder Institute
- Lakshmi Narayanee
- 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 Kosloske: Head of New Verticals - Mobility, Uber
- Madhu Singh: Chief Legal Officer, Foundry Law Group
- Mara Rada: Chief Operations and Strategy, Loon (loonbio.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.
- Neha Patadia
- Nelly Yusupova: Founder, TechSpeak.co
- Nicole Doyle: Founder, CEO, Aspir
- Noah Wallach: Founder, Hope OS
- Oleksandr Pukhalskyi: Mr, Case IQ
- 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
- Pooria Arab: Managing Partner, Beeloud
- Pradeep UN: Founder, CEO, Seerflix Inc
- Puneet Kohli: CEO, Careerflow.ai
- Rahul Garg: Senior Director of Product Management, Fidelity Information Services
- 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)
- Sanjaykumar Patel: Founder -Patent & Trademark Attorney, EXCELON IP - Patent & Trademark Attorneys
- Sanjit Singh: COO, Various Companies
- Santosh Khare: Founder & CEO, Touchbase, Inc.
- Sarah Anderson
- 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
- Soumyo Sinha
- Sri Kasam: Director of Engineering, Nfinity
- Steve Cherewaty: Founder & Creative Director, Abacus
- Steve Carver
- Sui Lin Yap: Director of Growth, Data Science, Product & Research Operations, Microsoft
- 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, Contemplate
- 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
- Wendy Werblin
- Yemi Oluseun: Growth & GTM For FinTechs, The Change Hive
- Yoko Okano: Co-founder, First Row Partners
- Yvonne Seidl
- And many more to be announced.
Help bring the Founder Institute to Seattle and fill out an Interest Form today.
