My Experience at the Founder Institute, by Kiran Bulusu

In this post from his blog, Kiran Bulusu, Founder of Sensory Health Systems and a graduate of the Silicon Valley chapter, shares his recent experience with the Founder Institute.

Below "My experience @ Founders Institute" has been republished.

"Finally the day arrived. My company Sensory Health Systems graduated from the one of the world's largest and finest startup accelerators, “Founder Institute” . It was one of the most intensive programs I have ever gone through and the key take away is: "Ideas are worthless unless thought, validated, derived, and executed well". I went with a passion of doing a chronic disease management app and I have pivoted at least a dozen times before I settled with my current idea of early detection platform for cardio-respiratory care. Without the expert mentors feedback and the weekly assignments (aka: company building activities), I would have easily wasted 2 years of time and money. Every entrepreneur knows time is the essence of money and I’m grateful that I quickly learned from just 4 months.

The workshops, weekly company building assignments, group discussions and hot seats where everyone has to pitch in front of mentors/whole class really makes this an interesting program. There is a lot of hard work and sweat involved. I was really stressed for time between a full time job, which involved working in 2 different time zones, 2 kids under 3 years and my spouse working for another startup. But what kept me going was the FI ecosystem of expert mentors, and each of the mentors despite their busy schedule always responded and provided me with meaningful feedback. I never had the occasion where a mentor would just say this doesn't work or this sucks. They always told me how best to go to my next stage.

Overall it was an awesome experience and I hope they will succeed in their mission. Like the way they are helping to achieve my mission, I would love to help them in achieving their mission as well. Good Luck FI."

For more inghts from Kiran, click here to read more from his blog.