Founder Institute Feedback Sessions

Each session typically begins with a brief introduction of the mentors, highlighting their expertise and background. For smaller cohorts, Local Leaders will invite the Presidents to provide a progress report from their Working Group. Additionally, Local Leaders may share important announcements and address any housekeeping items on the agenda. This sets the stage for an interactive and engaging session, allowing founders to receive feedback, support and valuable insights.

Getting consistent feedback throughout the business-building process is extremely helpful.

This is why every session includes multiple "Founder Hotseats", where Founders pitch their startup and the progress made in the program to a panel of Startup Mentors. Pitches are rated on a scale of 1 to 5 based on criteria such as the clarity of the presentation, the quality of the idea, and other key factors. An important aspect of the Hotseats is the Founder Institute's "no threes allowed" policy (read the explanation here). After providing their ratings, Mentors give the Founders critical advice on how to improve the pitch, idea, and business.

The session continues with Mentor talks and/or presentations, where 1-2 of the Mentors share their insights on the session's topic. The focus is on providing Founders with practical, actionable advice to address the challenges they face, drawing from the Mentors' own entrepreneurial experiences and real-world strategies. Topics that are covered during the weekly sessions include customer development strategies, business model comparison, co-founder relationships and equity structure, pitching and fundraising from angel investors and VCs, building an MVP, prioritizing features and building a roadmap, and more.

The next portion of the session is a Q&A discussion in which Founders will have the opportunity to ask the Mentors questions about the challenges they are facing. Here, Founders can hear personal stories from the Mentors themselves, get additional feedback on their progress, how to solve their problems, and more.

After the Q&A, Founders are split into 3 breakout rooms based on their track (Validate, Launch, Traction). In each breakout room, Founders present their "Strategy Presentations" for feedback from a Mentor who is assigned to that room. The Strategy Presentation focuses on a specific component of their business, such as the Buyer Persona, the Revenue Model, the Go-To-Market Startegy and more, allowing Founders to dive deeper into a particular aspect of their startup and receive in-depth feedback from the Mentors. These presentations are prepared by the Founders each week as part of their weekly Sprint, where they learn the fundamentals of a topic and develop these presentation for review. If any group finishes before the others, they can join the main room for additional open Q&A with the mentors.

Networking takes place after the formal session ends, giving Founders the chance to continue building connections within the cohort. During this time, Founders are encouraged to engage with one another, exchange ideas, discuss challenges, and collaborate on potential opportunities. It's a valuable opportunity for Founders to find support among their peers and expand their network in a more informal setting.