The Founder Institute is an incubator program which makes you go through all the steps of building a company in 3 months. The program is intense and should not be taken lightly. First I would like to say, I learned in 3 months things that usually takes years to learn. You are being put in situation faced by entrepreneur from finding a logo to meeting with lawyers to incorporate your business. All in a very short time period. Every week there is a new challenge to tackle.
Throughout the course of the program you are being forced to rethink, to challenge your idea. As a matter of fact the goal is to try to kill it. Every week people in the program are being picked randomly to be on the hot seat. Mentors will give you feedback on your idea and areas they believe you should improve. There is some valuable feedback from these sessions as the mentors give you real life experiences. What I really liked about the program was meeting all these different entrepreneurs from various fields. We were all trying to make a difference by solving a simple problem. I must admit entrepreneurship is not for everyone. If you are a solo entrepreneur be aware that the course load may sometime be quite overwhelming. Especially while you are working fulltime. You will be asked to handle technical aspect of the company such as creating a landing page, as well as conducting interviews for your project. All very important topics to be addressed when building a meaningful and enduring company.
I am glad to be among the few survivors, out of the 400 who applied to join the program. I am part of the 12 graduates who made it to the end. And this is only the beginning.
The Founders Institute Demo day got some press in Les Affaires and Techvibes. More to come!!!