Founder Institute

Startup Insights & Resources

Your central hub for startup knowledge, actionable guides, founder tools, and expert articles, organized around what matters most at each stage.

Founder Insights Newsletter

Join 50,000+ founders getting weekly insights.

New essays, free webinars, and invites to events in your city, every week.

Inside FI: Users Define a #Startup’s Product, by Ron Palmeri

Aug 03, 2012 · Video

Founder Institute #Startup Accelerator Launching in Rio de Janeiro?

Jul 30, 2012 · FI News

Selligy Wins Tie Breaker over Kindara to Take 11th #FounderShowcase Grand Prize [Video]

Jul 30, 2012 · Founder Showcase

Founder Institute Seeks Local Directors for New Locations

Jul 28, 2012 · FI News

Founder Institute Featured on Cover on New York Times

Jul 28, 2012 · FI News

The 11th #FounderShowcase is Here: With Kevin Rose, Aaron Levie, and Hiten Shah

Jul 25, 2012 · Events

Founder Showcase CrowdPitch Competition Winner: UpOut

Jul 24, 2012 · Events

A Great Windows 8 Event - Be Sure to Join Our Next One

Jul 24, 2012 · Events

Founder Institute #Startup Accelerator Launching in Rome?

Jul 23, 2012 · FI News

Founder Resources

Guides, tools, and frameworks that helped 10,000+ founders worldwide build their startups.

FAST Agreement

A standardized template to formalize founder–advisor relationships and lock in the right equity from the start.

Entrepreneur DNA Assessment

Discover your entrepreneurial strengths in a 30-minute assessment, built from 17+ years of founder research.

Applications are now open

Build your startup with AI agents doing the work

Join the FI Agentic Program: an AI-powered curriculum, world-class mentors, and free AI agents to turn your idea into a fundable company.

9,000+ companies launched since 2009

Turn your idea into the next unicorn

Our programs helped launch Udemy, Esusu, and thousands more, with a portfolio worth an estimated $20B. Yours could be next.

200+ cities and 95 countries

Join the world's largest agentic company builder

A global network of founders, mentors, and investors building enduring companies, with free AI agents to help you do the work.

Apply Now

The Founder Institute is the world’s largest agentic company builder, turning ideas into fundable startups, and startups into unicorns. Since 2009, the Founder Institute program has helped over 9,000 entrepreneurs build 9,000+ companies, including unicorns like Udemy and Esusu, raise over 2BN in funding, and grow a portfolio worth an estimated $20BN. Based in Silicon Valley and with chapters across 200+ cities and 95 countries, our mission is to empower communities of talented and motivated people to build impactful technology companies worldwide. Learn more about the Founder Institute.