The Founder Institute Chicago's Summer 2017 Semester is now accepting applications at www.fi.co/join. The early bird application deadline is March 26, 2017 and final application deadline is on April 30, 2017.
- World’s Largest Startup Launch Program - Become part of the world's largest global startup network with the assistance of our company-building curriculum, expert feedback, and peer support. The Founder Institute has graduated 2,100 companies and 2,500 founders across 150 cities across six continents.
- Anybody Can Apply - Anybody who is passionate about building a technology company is welcome to apply: idea or no idea, full-time job or unemployed, young or old, male or female, experienced in business or straight out of school. We also support a wide range of technology industries: including digital media, software, biotech, cleantech, ecommerce, advertising, consumer electronics, and more.
- Keep Your Day Job - Through a part-time four month program, existing and prospective founders can launch their dream company with expert training, feedback, and support from experienced startup CEOs - while still keeping their day job.
- Graduate Liquidity Pool - Our unique Graduate Liquidity Pool enables graduates and mentors to share in the equity upside of each class, creating local, teamwork-based ecosystems where great new businesses can flourish.
- Learn from Seasoned Mentors – The backbone of the Founder Institute is its mentors who lead the weekly training sessions. The mentors assist founders by sharing their experience, outlining the latest tactics, and providing critical feedback. You can see some of our program mentors at www.fi.co/mentors.
- Service Provider Discounts - We leverage our global scale to secure free and discounted services from leading law firms, hosting companies, technology providers, and over 200 other vendors.
- Fellowships - The Founder Institute offers a number of different Fellowships, providing opportunity for promising founders to launch a company in our startup program, free of charge. The Founder Institute Chicago includes fellowships for female, veteran, and technical. You can find more details at www.fi.co/fellowships. Apply by the early bird deadline of March 26 to qualify.
- Prestige - The growing success of Graduates, combined with the difficulty in completing the program and the credibility of the Mentors, make graduation a prestigious accomplishment to help you secure investment, close partnership deals, find co-founders, and ultimately build a meaningful and enduring business.
