Founder Institute Singapore Opens For Applications
February 8, 2010 by Gwen
Filed under News Stop, Venture Capital & Private Equity
The Founder Institute is an entrepreneurship training programme “run for founders, by founders”. It was set up last year by Adeo Ressi (TheFunded.com) with the aim of mentoring entrepreneurs by people who have started and run successful startups themselves. Previously only available in the US, The Founder Institute has just expanded its programme internationally in collaboration with local partners. For Founder Institute Singapore, Battle Ventures (venture advisory and investment firm) and Ascendas iAxil (venture accelerator) will work with the Institute’s headquarters in bringing the programme to Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia’s entrepreneurs.
Founder Institute Singapore
Programme Details
- The programme will take place over 16 weeks. From 29th March – 12th July 2010 in Singapore.
- You don’t need an idea to join the Institute.
- You don’t have to a full-time entrepreneur to join the programme. It caters to individuals with day jobs who are nevertheless brewing ideas of their own.
- It consists of weekly 3.5 hour sessions based on a curriculum. The sessions will have between five and ten hours of assignment work that needs to be completed before the following session.
- All sessions will be videotaped, archived and made available online for use.
- Multiple co-founders from the same team/company can apply, but recommended maximum number of co-founders is three.
- You will get to interact informally and seek advice from mentors that have been especially chosen and invited to join the Institute.
- Upon graduating from the programme, you will receive a certificate.
- There are certain fees associated with the programme, read below to check out the breakdown.
- All graduating founders share in the equity upside of each other’s companies, creating a powerful peer support network by aligning incentives.
Industries
Though the focus is high-tech, all industries across IT, biotech, cleantech, and hardware are eligible.
Partners
Formed in 2009, Battle Ventures (www.battleventures.com) is a venture advisory and investment firm formed by a collection of technology and media entrepreneurs who have proven track records in building successful companies. Battle Ventures aims to provide entrepreneurs with operational and strategic expertise, mentorship, global networking opportunities, and access to seed capital.
iAxil is the venture accelerator arm of Ascendas (Asia’s leading business space solutions provider). Established in 1996 as the first privately owned and managed incubator in Singapore and leveraging on more than 14 years of experience, iAxil has grown into Asia’s leading venture acceleration centre offering start-up companies access to venture capital, business planning, financial modelling, market intelligence, deal structuring, pilot testing, mentoring, recruitment of talent, branding and PR, IP management,access to international markets and quick start-up space.
Besides the Founder’s Institute Mentoring programme, iAxil also runs the Global Market Access Programme, helping startups to venture into overseas markets such as US, China and Europe. iAxil also sets up incubator and venture accelerator programs for local and foreign government organizations, science and technology parks and universities.
Mentors
Underlying Founder Institute has always been its list of mentors who have successfully started up companies, many of which still hold CEO positions in those very companies. These mentors will be there to coach participants and to provide advice that cannot be gotten from just reading theoretical books on entrepreneurship. The first-hand experience of these mentors is impossible to quantify and is of great value to any fortunate entrepreneur in the programme.
For Founder Institute Singapore, CEOs & investors based here have also been recruited into the programme and they include:
- Dr Lai Kok Fung, Co-Founder & CEO, Buzzcity
- Pete Bonee, Innosight Ventures (previously Founder & CEO, Sylantro Systems Corp)
- Paul C. “Pete” Deemer, private consultant and investor based in Singapore since 2007, (previously founded and sold GameSpot to c|net Networks in 2000).
- Chin Chao, Sirius Capital Management
- Frank Levinson, Small World Group (SWG is one of the 7 appointed TIS incubators)
Other mentors include Adeo Ressi, the founder of Founder Institute himself; Jared Morgenstern, Facebook; Jeff Stewart, Urgent Career; Philip Kaplan, Blippy; Michael Diamant, Skip Hop.
Fees
There are 4 types of fees associated with the programme.
(1) Application fee: SGD 80
(2) Course fee: SGD $1,600 (Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents pay subsidized course fees of SGD $480)
(3) Warrants: Graduates will be invited to contribute warrants (currently unclear as to how long they should be valid for) for 3.5% of their companies (priced at fair market value) into a Bonus Pool that is shared between the other Founders, the Mentors, the local operators, and the Institute. 30% of the Bonus Pool returns goes right back to the Founders themselves, allowing each graduate to earn returns based on the success of their peers. Enrolled Founders can drop out at any time and avoid joining the Bonus Pool.
(4) Tuition fee (if successful at attaining external funding): USD 4,500
Welcome to the Founder Institute from Adeo Ressi on Vimeo.
Application
Entrepreneurs can start applying for the programme. The deadline for early acceptance for the spring semester is 15th Feb, with the final deadline on the 28th Feb. Applying early means that you are guaranteed a spot if accepted and if you are not accepted early, your application will be reviewed again at the final deadline.
Apply now to get your chance to participate in the first ever run of Founder Institute Singapore.
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