Program Schedule

This week, you'll get familiar with the program, set up your AI toolkit, prove your AI proficiency, and prepare to introduce yourself to the cohort.

This week, you'll explore the biggest possible idea to pursue, validate real customer problems, define your personal purpose, and draft your first pitches.

This week, you'll test pricing with real customers, build a revenue model that can scale, and map out the human and agent roles needed to run your business.

This week, you'll select one business to focus on, validate it deeply through customer development, and build an initial mockup of your product.

This week, you'll turn your mockup into a working prototype that customers can use, co-develop with a lead customer, and prepare for your first major review.

This is your first major milestone. You'll present your business and product to a panel of mentors who will rate you on idea viability, presentation skill, and research thoroughness.

This week, you'll incorporate your company, set up the legal foundation, protect your intellectual property, and start building your advisory board.

This week, you'll launch your go-to-market engine, get your product into the hands of paying customers, and set your victory conditions for the rest of the program.

This week, you'll push for 10% weekly growth, track both your business and AI performance metrics, and discuss growth strategies.

This Sprint prepares you for fundraising and the Demo Day next session. You will evaluate your funding options including Launch Financing from the Founder Institute, build a pipeline of at least 30 regional angels and 10 micro VCs, and extend your pitch to five minutes with a live product demo. Every element of your investor materials — deck, executive summary, data room — should be polished and ready to send.

Join a fun, outdoor activity to network with your peers in the program.

A bonus session to practice your pitch and get feedback from mentors.

This is the Demo Day — the final milestone of the program. You will pitch a panel of Angel Investors and VCs in a five-minute presentation with a deck and a live product demo, and be rated on your product progress, presentation skill, and model completeness. You’ll also confirm your investor pipeline is ready for outreach and set up post-program accountability systems to maintain momentum after graduation.

​FounderX (FounderX.com) is the exclusive VIP gathering of founders, mentors, investors, LPs, and accelerator leaders from the world's largest startup network.​This highly-curated, intimate 'un-conference' will gather 300+ leaders for three days of networking events, group workshops, and engaging talks from top Keynote Speakers.

Join a private networking dinner for FounderX - the private, VIP gathering of our global network.

Join the main conference day for FounderX - the private, VIP gathering of our global network. This ‘un-conference will take place all day and culminate in a Dinner and Afterparty with 250+ founders, investors, and accelerator leaders from the global FI Network.

Full-day conference at The Midway, San Francisco. Participants receive tickets to this conference. Learn more at StepSF.com.

Review progress and set your next goals for growth post-program. Onboard onto FI's post-program resources and benefits.