the founder institute
The Founder Institute is the world’s most proven network to turn ideas into
fundable startups, and startups into global businesses. To date, FI has helped
launch over 6,500 companies across 200+ cities and six continents. The company
was founded in 2009 by serial entrepreneur Adeo Ressi and his colleague,
Jonathan Greechan. The idea for the program spawned from operating
TheFunded.com, where it became apparent that most entrepreneurs at the idea and
launch stages lacked the structure, feedback, and support network needed to be
successful. News of the launch was announced on TechCrunch, the first Founder
Institute program methodology was crowdsourced by over 10,000 CEO members of
TheFunded.com, and the inaugural program started in May 2009 in a small
classroom at Stanford University. There were originally no plans to expand
beyond Silicon Valley, but upon receiving immense inbound interest to launch the
program in other cities, the Founder Institute began to expand. Today the
program operates across 200 + cities and is localized into 9 languages. In
total, Founder Institute Alumni have raised over $1.75BN and are worth an
estimated $30BN.