This is where it all begins. During Orientation, we will review the Founder Institute program structure, curriculum, tools, and requirements in detail. In addition, you will identify mentors that can help you get the most out of the program, meet the other founders in your cohort, and learn more about their ideas and skillsets. Assignments for this session include creating a plan to complete the program, watching recommended Founder Institute training videos, and more.
Date
ago 23, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Every Founder follows the Agentic Track — an AI-personalized curriculum that adapts each sprint to be more advanced or more basic based on your stage, with powerful free AI agents to help complete the work.
The below deliverables are in addition to any custom "Epic Sprints" you may receive based on your specific challenges, and are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Office Hours - Book your first Office Hours with Local Leaders and Mentors to get guidance on the next steps for your business.
Hotseat Pitch - Prepare a one sentence verbal pitch for the weekly "Founder Hotseat", where you present to Mentors during the Feedback Sessions.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Weekly Focus
1. Orientation
2. Vision and Ideas
3. Research and Customer Development
4. Revenue Models
5. Mentor Idea Review
6. Startup Legal and IP
7. Team and Advisors
8. Product Development
9. Mentor Progress Review
10. Sales and Traction
11. Branding and Marketing
12. Bootstrapping and Fundraising
13. Graduation
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
Date
ago 24, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Market Research - Utilize our market research template to collect accurate and available market information on the customer problems you are analyzing.
Personas - Build an initial Buyer Persona to better understand your target customer's needs, challenges, and buying process.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Weekly Focus
1. Orientation
2. Vision and Ideas
3. Research and Customer Development
4. Revenue Models
5. Mentor Idea Review
6. Startup Legal and IP
7. Team and Advisors
8. Product Development
9. Mentor Progress Review
10. Sales and Traction
11. Branding and Marketing
12. Bootstrapping and Fundraising
13. Graduation
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
Large and fast growing markets have the power to elevate mediocre companies into greatness, and conversely, dying markets can doom otherwise solid companies. In this session, you’ll learn how to systematically research your market and gain a deep understanding of your target customer. Assignments include competitive research, defining your key business assumptions, interviewing additional potential customers, and more.
Date
ago 29, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Customer Interviews - Develop a longer series of customer interview questions based on your initial interviews and key assumptions, with at least ten open-ended customer interview questions for each customer problem.
Revenue Modeling - For each remaining customer problem, develop or improve a professional landing page targeted to your initial customer archetype, and quickly build up a mailing list to receive customer feedback.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Weekly Focus
1. Orientation
2. Vision and Ideas
3. Research and Customer Development
4. Revenue Models
5. Mentor Idea Review
6. Startup Legal and IP
7. Team and Advisors
8. Product Development
9. Mentor Progress Review
10. Sales and Traction
11. Branding and Marketing
12. Bootstrapping and Fundraising
13. Graduation
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
Strong unit economics are essential for a strong business. This week, you will learn the components and key metrics of different revenue models from experienced CFOs and Founders. Then, you will build a number of financial models for your ideas, speak to potential customers, select a single revenue model to pursue, and more. In addition, you will use all of the research performed to date to select your final startup idea to build in the program.
Date
set 05, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Revenue Models - Narrow down that problem to three potential revenue models, and thoroughly analyze the positives and negatives of each model.
Professional Pitch Deck - Use our templates to develop a professional three minute long pitch deck, based on the feedback, concepts and flow that have resonated from your Hotseat pitches.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Weekly Focus
1. Orientation
2. Vision and Ideas
3. Research and Customer Development
4. Revenue Models
5. Mentor Idea Review
6. Startup Legal and IP
7. Team and Advisors
8. Product Development
9. Mentor Progress Review
10. Sales and Traction
11. Branding and Marketing
12. Bootstrapping and Fundraising
13. Graduation
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
Your naming and positioning are the starting point for all of your company’s marketing. In this session, you will learn the components of great company names, and how to position your product effectively in the eyes of the consumer. By the end of the week, you will brainstorm and analyze a variety of names, and then select a final name after performing more customer research. In addition, you will build your first pitch deck, and begin interviewing law firms for your company.
Date
set 12, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Weekly Focus
1. Orientation
2. Vision and Ideas
3. Research and Customer Development
4. Revenue Models
5. Mentor Idea Review
6. Startup Legal and IP
7. Team and Advisors
8. Product Development
9. Mentor Progress Review
10. Sales and Traction
11. Branding and Marketing
12. Bootstrapping and Fundraising
13. Graduation
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
Date
set 19, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
After the Mentor Idea Review, Founders receive a larger number of custom "Epic Sprints" with deliverables based on their specific challenges. Below are high-level previews of standard deliverables.
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Advisor Candidates - You will create (or fill out) an Advisory Board in the next 5 weeks, so develop a target list of new advisor candidates based off your identified needs and gaps in knowledge/ connections.
Advisor Outreach - Leverage the FI network to get introductions to your targets where necessary, and follow our templated process to make progress on your advisory board.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Weekly Focus
1. Orientation
2. Vision and Ideas
3. Research and Customer Development
4. Revenue Models
5. Mentor Idea Review
6. Startup Legal and IP
7. Team and Advisors
8. Product Development
9. Mentor Progress Review
10. Sales and Traction
11. Branding and Marketing
12. Bootstrapping and Fundraising
13. Graduation
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
Date
set 26, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Law Firm Engagement - If you don't already have a law firm, meet with your law firm candidates and sign an "engagement letter" with your chosen firm.
Corporate Formation Agreements - If you don't already have a suitable corporation, secure all of your corporate formation agreements which govern how the business conducts itself.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Weekly Focus
1. Orientation
2. Vision and Ideas
3. Research and Customer Development
4. Revenue Models
5. Mentor Idea Review
6. Startup Legal and IP
7. Team and Advisors
8. Product Development
9. Mentor Progress Review
10. Sales and Traction
11. Branding and Marketing
12. Bootstrapping and Fundraising
13. Graduation
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
Date
out 03, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Hiring Process - Develop a hiring and onboarding process using our guidelines to add team members into your organization, and begin executing on the process.
Test Projects - Develop at least one test project for each of your top two or three roles, which should create opportunities for credible candidates to demonstrate their skills.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Weekly Focus
1. Orientation
2. Vision and Ideas
3. Research and Customer Development
4. Revenue Models
5. Mentor Idea Review
6. Startup Legal and IP
7. Team and Advisors
8. Product Development
9. Mentor Progress Review
10. Sales and Traction
11. Branding and Marketing
12. Bootstrapping and Fundraising
13. Graduation
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
Date
out 10, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Intellectual Property - If you have not already, secure and protect the intellectual property for all of the work done to date. Examine the need for patents, if applicable, following our guidelines.
Team Analysis - Define and get extensive feedback on the requisite technical skills, soft skills, expertise, and networks will be needed in your core team.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Weekly Focus
1. Orientation
2. Vision and Ideas
3. Research and Customer Development
4. Revenue Models
5. Mentor Idea Review
6. Startup Legal and IP
7. Team and Advisors
8. Product Development
9. Mentor Progress Review
10. Sales and Traction
11. Branding and Marketing
12. Bootstrapping and Fundraising
13. Graduation
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
Date
out 17, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Polished Investor Pitch Deck - Create an expanded, 12-slide pitch deck incorporating any feedback from the Investor Progress Review, using our templates.
Growth - Make progress on your growth goals, and examine or adjust how your strategy and the system to keep yourself accountable is performing.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Weekly Focus
1. Orientation
2. Vision and Ideas
3. Research and Customer Development
4. Revenue Models
5. Mentor Idea Review
6. Startup Legal and IP
7. Team and Advisors
8. Product Development
9. Mentor Progress Review
10. Sales and Traction
11. Branding and Marketing
12. Bootstrapping and Fundraising
13. Graduation
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
Date
out 24, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Alternatives - Identify two alternative models (markets or "pivots") for your go-to-market solution to discover the most lucrative market opportunity. Interview at least 2 customers for each alternative.
Advisor Follow-Up - In the next Step you will finalize advisors, so begin finalization meetings with your top candidates, and set up test Advisor Test Projects where necessary following our templates.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Weekly Focus
1. Orientation
2. Vision and Ideas
3. Research and Customer Development
4. Revenue Models
5. Mentor Idea Review
6. Startup Legal and IP
7. Team and Advisors
8. Product Development
9. Mentor Progress Review
10. Sales and Traction
11. Branding and Marketing
12. Bootstrapping and Fundraising
13. Graduation
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
Date
out 31, 2017
Time
12:30pm PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Sales - Pursue aggressive goals to close new revenue or users, which may be signups, payments, a signed contract, a pre-payment or a signed letter of intent.
Pivot - Consider a pivot if you are not meeting your growth goals, sales, product or hiring progress targets. If you decide to Pivot, schedule a call with one of your Local Leaders to discuss your proposed pivot in the business and do the same with your advisors.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Weekly Focus
1. Orientation
2. Vision and Ideas
3. Research and Customer Development
4. Revenue Models
5. Mentor Idea Review
6. Startup Legal and IP
7. Team and Advisors
8. Product Development
9. Mentor Progress Review
10. Sales and Traction
11. Branding and Marketing
12. Bootstrapping and Fundraising
13. Graduation
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
Date
nov 07, 2017
Time
11:30am PST
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Advisor Strategy - Set up a call with each of your advisors and briefly review your "Victory Condition", the funding strategy, hiring plan, sales plan and product plan.
Use of Proceeds - Examine the capital needs of the business, and extend your financial model to project revenues and expenses for a total of 24 months from now.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Weekly Focus
1. Orientation
2. Vision and Ideas
3. Research and Customer Development
4. Revenue Models
5. Mentor Idea Review
6. Startup Legal and IP
7. Team and Advisors
8. Product Development
9. Mentor Progress Review
10. Sales and Traction
11. Branding and Marketing
12. Bootstrapping and Fundraising
13. Graduation
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
Most people that enter the program do not make it to Graduation, because the Founder Institute curriculum is very demanding. However, the select few that Graduate have achieved several years of progress on their startup in just a few months. We typically celebrate the Graduating class with a small event attended by family members, mentors, investors, and more. Afterwards, Graduates gain access to the Founder Institute network, tools, and ongoing resources… and the real work of building and growing an enduring company begins!
Date
nov 28, 2017
Time
11:30am PST
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Weekly Focus
1. Orientation
2. Vision and Ideas
3. Research and Customer Development
4. Revenue Models
5. Mentor Idea Review
6. Startup Legal and IP
7. Team and Advisors
8. Product Development
9. Mentor Progress Review
10. Sales and Traction
11. Branding and Marketing
12. Bootstrapping and Fundraising
13. Graduation
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
The FI Core Program is just the beginning of a life long journey.
Founder Institute Alumni get access to a series of advanced accelerator programs, ongoing support from our Silicon Valley Team, valuable partner and service discounts, and more to continue building the business for years to come.
Continued Support
Dedicated Alumni Support Team in Silicon Valley
Access to the world's largest network of mentors and investors (40,000+)
Private Alumni mailing lists
$2.5M+ in partner discounts
Invites to FI sessions & network events
Potential introductions to investors
Structured Post-Programs
A series of virtual advisory programs where you work with our Silicon Valley HQ team to reach next milestones
Funding Lab helps get your lead investor within 6 months
The FI Venture Network matches Alumni ready for funding with a massive pool of investors that specialize in writing 'first or second checks' of funding
This is where it all begins. During Orientation, we will review the Founder Institute program structure, curriculum, tools, and requirements in detail. In addition, you will identify mentors that can help you get the most out of the program, meet the other founders in your cohort, and learn more about their ideas and skillsets. Assignments for this session include creating a plan to complete the program, watching recommended Founder Institute training videos, and more.
Date
ago 23, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Every Founder follows the Agentic Track — an AI-personalized curriculum that adapts each sprint to be more advanced or more basic based on your stage, with powerful free AI agents to help complete the work.
The below deliverables are in addition to any custom "Epic Sprints" you may receive based on your specific challenges, and are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Office Hours - Book your first Office Hours with Local Leaders and Mentors to get guidance on the next steps for your business.
Hotseat Pitch - Prepare a one sentence verbal pitch for the weekly "Founder Hotseat", where you present to Mentors during the Feedback Sessions.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
ago 2406:30 pmSession 2
Vision and Ideas
Date
ago 24, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Market Research - Utilize our market research template to collect accurate and available market information on the customer problems you are analyzing.
Personas - Build an initial Buyer Persona to better understand your target customer's needs, challenges, and buying process.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
ago 2906:30 pmSession 3
Research and Customer Development
Large and fast growing markets have the power to elevate mediocre companies into greatness, and conversely, dying markets can doom otherwise solid companies. In this session, you’ll learn how to systematically research your market and gain a deep understanding of your target customer. Assignments include competitive research, defining your key business assumptions, interviewing additional potential customers, and more.
Date
ago 29, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Customer Interviews - Develop a longer series of customer interview questions based on your initial interviews and key assumptions, with at least ten open-ended customer interview questions for each customer problem.
Revenue Modeling - For each remaining customer problem, develop or improve a professional landing page targeted to your initial customer archetype, and quickly build up a mailing list to receive customer feedback.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
set 0506:30 pmSession 4
Revenue Models
Strong unit economics are essential for a strong business. This week, you will learn the components and key metrics of different revenue models from experienced CFOs and Founders. Then, you will build a number of financial models for your ideas, speak to potential customers, select a single revenue model to pursue, and more. In addition, you will use all of the research performed to date to select your final startup idea to build in the program.
Date
set 05, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Revenue Models - Narrow down that problem to three potential revenue models, and thoroughly analyze the positives and negatives of each model.
Professional Pitch Deck - Use our templates to develop a professional three minute long pitch deck, based on the feedback, concepts and flow that have resonated from your Hotseat pitches.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
set 1206:30 pmSession 5
Naming and Positioning
Your naming and positioning are the starting point for all of your company’s marketing. In this session, you will learn the components of great company names, and how to position your product effectively in the eyes of the consumer. By the end of the week, you will brainstorm and analyze a variety of names, and then select a final name after performing more customer research. In addition, you will build your first pitch deck, and begin interviewing law firms for your company.
Date
set 12, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Sprints
set 1906:30 pmSession 6
Mentor Idea Review
Date
set 19, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
After the Mentor Idea Review, Founders receive a larger number of custom "Epic Sprints" with deliverables based on their specific challenges. Below are high-level previews of standard deliverables.
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Advisor Candidates - You will create (or fill out) an Advisory Board in the next 5 weeks, so develop a target list of new advisor candidates based off your identified needs and gaps in knowledge/ connections.
Advisor Outreach - Leverage the FI network to get introductions to your targets where necessary, and follow our templated process to make progress on your advisory board.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
set 2606:30 pmSession 7
Startup Legal and IP
Date
set 26, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Law Firm Engagement - If you don't already have a law firm, meet with your law firm candidates and sign an "engagement letter" with your chosen firm.
Corporate Formation Agreements - If you don't already have a suitable corporation, secure all of your corporate formation agreements which govern how the business conducts itself.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
out 0306:30 pmSession 8
Team and Advisors
Date
out 03, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Hiring Process - Develop a hiring and onboarding process using our guidelines to add team members into your organization, and begin executing on the process.
Test Projects - Develop at least one test project for each of your top two or three roles, which should create opportunities for credible candidates to demonstrate their skills.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
out 1006:30 pmSession 9
Product Development
Date
out 10, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Intellectual Property - If you have not already, secure and protect the intellectual property for all of the work done to date. Examine the need for patents, if applicable, following our guidelines.
Team Analysis - Define and get extensive feedback on the requisite technical skills, soft skills, expertise, and networks will be needed in your core team.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
out 1706:30 pmSession 10
Mentor Progress Review
Date
out 17, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Polished Investor Pitch Deck - Create an expanded, 12-slide pitch deck incorporating any feedback from the Investor Progress Review, using our templates.
Growth - Make progress on your growth goals, and examine or adjust how your strategy and the system to keep yourself accountable is performing.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
out 2406:30 pmSession 11
Sales and Traction
Date
out 24, 2017
Time
11:30am PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Alternatives - Identify two alternative models (markets or "pivots") for your go-to-market solution to discover the most lucrative market opportunity. Interview at least 2 customers for each alternative.
Advisor Follow-Up - In the next Step you will finalize advisors, so begin finalization meetings with your top candidates, and set up test Advisor Test Projects where necessary following our templates.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Revenue Modeling
Legal & IP
Branding & Design
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
out 3106:30 pmSession 12
Branding and Marketing
Date
out 31, 2017
Time
12:30pm PDT
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Sales - Pursue aggressive goals to close new revenue or users, which may be signups, payments, a signed contract, a pre-payment or a signed letter of intent.
Pivot - Consider a pivot if you are not meeting your growth goals, sales, product or hiring progress targets. If you decide to Pivot, schedule a call with one of your Local Leaders to discuss your proposed pivot in the business and do the same with your advisors.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
nov 0706:30 pmSession 13
Bootstrapping and Fundraising
Date
nov 07, 2017
Time
11:30am PST
Sprints
Below are just high-level previews of the 10-15 deliverables you'll complete through Working Groups and Office Hours:
Deliverables
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Advisor Strategy - Set up a call with each of your advisors and briefly review your "Victory Condition", the funding strategy, hiring plan, sales plan and product plan.
Use of Proceeds - Examine the capital needs of the business, and extend your financial model to project revenues and expenses for a total of 24 months from now.
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Financial Planning
Team & Advisors
Fundraising Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
nov 2806:30 pmSession 14
Graduation
Most people that enter the program do not make it to Graduation, because the Founder Institute curriculum is very demanding. However, the select few that Graduate have achieved several years of progress on their startup in just a few months. We typically celebrate the Graduating class with a small event attended by family members, mentors, investors, and more. Afterwards, Graduates gain access to the Founder Institute network, tools, and ongoing resources… and the real work of building and growing an enduring company begins!
Date
nov 28, 2017
Time
11:30am PST
The Agentic Track
Personalized by AI to your startup's needs — more advanced or more basic — with powerful free AI agents to help you complete the company building work.
Sprints
Pitching
Customer Development
Leadership Development
Sales & Customer Acquisition
Product Development
Team & Advisors
Fundraising & Prep
Post-Program Onboarding
Session 15+
Post Programs
The FI Core Program is just the beginning of a life long journey.
Founder Institute Alumni get access to a series of advanced accelerator programs, ongoing support from our Silicon Valley Team, valuable partner and service discounts, and more to continue building the business for years to come.
Continued Support
Dedicated Alumni Support Team in Silicon Valley
Access to the world's largest network of mentors and investors (40,000+)
Private Alumni mailing lists
$2.5M+ in partner discounts
Invites to FI sessions & network events
Potential introductions to investors
Structured Post-Programs
A series of virtual advisory programs where you work with our Silicon Valley HQ team to reach next milestones
Funding Lab helps get your lead investor within 6 months
The FI Venture Network matches Alumni ready for funding with a massive pool of investors that specialize in writing 'first or second checks' of funding
