Apply

The Founder Institute, the world's premier pre-seed accelerator, is proud to offer the best applicants from the Startup Grind Chicago community with a fellowship to our Chicago Winter 2024 program.

Through this offer, anyone in the community can apply to the Founder Institute for free below, and the best overall applicant for the Chicago Winter 2024 program will receive a fellowship to participate in the world-renowned startup launch program for free ($899 USD value).

To be considered for this fellowship, those interested should complete their applications by the Dec 10, 2023 Final Deadline.

The Founder Institute is passionate about empowering entrepreneurs to build companies they can be proud of, so we want to hear from you!  

Build a Company with the Founder Institute

The Founder Institute is the world’s premier pre-seed accelerator and startup launch program. Through a challenging and rigorous curriculum, we provide aspiring entrepreneurs with the structure, training, mentor feedback, global network, and lifetime of support needed to start an enduring company. 

Leaders of the world’s fastest-growing startups have used our program to transition from employee to entrepreneur, test their startup ideas, build a team, get their first customers, raise funding, building a co-founding team, and more.

Who Should Apply?

The Founder Institute focuses on founders instead of ideas. If you are talented and motivated to do the work required to build an enduring tech or tech-enabled company, then we want to hear from you. This includes aspiring founders with a full-time job, solo founders, teams, and founders of established companies that are pre-funding.

What to Expect?

To qualify for the Startup Grind Chicago Fellowship for Chicago Winter 2024 Founder Institute, you must complete your application below. 

After completing the application below, you will be invited to take our Entrepreneur DNA Assessment, which is our main criteria for evaluating applicants. If you would like to learn more about our Admissions Process and review criteria, visit FI.co/admissions.

Not Ready?

If you want to learn more, our Overview page is a good place to start.

Ready?

Let's get started...

The Chicago Founder Institute is not currently accepting applications, but will be soon. 

You can see our currently enrolling chapters at FI.co/enrolling, our full list of cities at FI.co/global, or register below to get notified when there are new startup programs in Chicago.