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The Founder Institute (http://fi.co), the world’s premier early-stage accelerator and startup launch program, is releasing new data on Montreal entrepreneurs from its psychometric “Entrepreneur DNA Predictive Admissions Test”.

After analyzing the results of over 30,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 cities worldwide and comparing those results to hundreds of entrepreneurs that have taken the test in Montreal, the Founder Institute has discovered that entrepreneurs in Montreal display the ideal temperament for entrepreneurship, and value hard work. Below are highlights of the Founder Institute’s findings for Montreal:

1. Montreal entrepreneurs have higher fluid intelligence than many other North American cities.
  • Montreal’s score is 6.97% higher than the global average, 3.25% more than Europe, 3.32% more than North America (6.28% more than Silicon Valley), 3.79% more than Asia, and 8.86% more than S. America.

Fluid intelligence is a largely genetic trait that measures one’s ability to quickly learn a rule set and apply the learned logic to solve problems. It is one of the most important traits that we have found for entrepreneurship.

2. Montreal entrepreneurs have the ideal entrepreneurial temperament
  • Montreal entrepreneurs display high emotional stability, and are 5.90% more emotionally stable than the global average, 6.94% more than Europe, 1.95% more than North America (3.24% more than Silicon Valley), 12.20% more than Asia, and 8.50% more than S. America.

Emotional Stability is related to neuroticism (another "Big 5 Personality Trait"), and people with high emotional stability have high impulse control and can remain calm in stressful situations. 

City Comparisons

The Founder Institute has compared the test results of Montreal Entrepreneurs versus other U.S. tech hubs.

Top 5 Fluid Intelligence Ranking in North America
  1. Montreal
  2. San Francisco
  3. Toronto
  4. Silicon Valley
  5. Denver

Fluid intelligence is a largely genetic trait that measures one’s ability to quickly learn a rule set and apply the learned logic to solve problems.

Top 5 Emotional Stability Ranking among North America
  1. Seattle
  2. San Francisco
  3. New York
  4. Montreal
  5. Toronto

Emotional Stability is related to neuroticism (another "Big 5 Personality Trait"), and people with high emotional stability have high impulse control and can remain calm in stressful situations.

Top 5 Conscientiousness Ranking among North America
  1. Boston
  2. Seattle
  3. San Francisco
  4. New York
  5. Montreal

Conscientiousness is a Big Five personality trait that measures somebody's responsibility, industriousness, and propensity for being thorough, careful, or vigilant.

As an early-stage accelerator that works with entrepreneurs at the very beginning of the company formation process, the Founder Institute uses the “Predictive Admissions Test” as it’s primary criteria for admissions. The test has been in development since 2009 with leading social scientists from the University of Toronto, and the Institute has Graduated 2000+ technology companies across 60+ countries. Through constant analysis of the data, tracking of Graduate company progress in the real world, and iteration of both the test and the training program, the Institute has identified a number of personality traits that correlate positively and negatively to entrepreneurial success.

For example, the Institute has found that traits like High Fluid Intelligence (someone’s ability to quickly understand new rulesets and apply them to solve novel problems) and High Openness (someone’s creativity, curiosity, and willingness to try new things) correlate very positively with entrepreneurial success, while traits like Emotional Instability and Narcissism correlate negatively. Interestingly, the Institute has found no correlation between IQ and entrepreneurial success. To learn more about the test, visit http://fi.co/dna. Journalists can also access a sample “quiz” with high-res imagery available for publishing, or request access to take the test and receive their results.

Applications are currently open for the Montreal Founder Institute’s 2017 semester at http://fi.co/apply/Montreal until July 30, 2017.

Since launching in 2014, the Montreal Founder Institute has Graduated 32 technology companies. The program is led by Sergio Escobar (Managing Director of Founder Institute Montreal), supported by Co-Directors Jean-François Ouellet (Assistant Professor at HEC School of Business) & LP Maurice (CEO, Busbud), and mentors include top local entrepreneurs like Beth Thouin, Ben Yoskovitz, Claude Théoret, Isaac Souweine, Dax Da Silva, Bruno Morency, and many more

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