Founder Institute Singapore Details
Update: I have updated some details of the warrants pool and application deadline below.
The recent announcement of The Founder Institute program expanding to Singapore brought a wave of excitement to the startup community. With programs like this and the recent JFDI incubator program, startups will have a good pool of mentors and advisors to tap on, to bring their companies forward. I caught up with Jeffrey Paine from Battle Ventures, the company involved in putting this together and he had some details to share.
Details of the Program
As most of you might already know, The Founder Institute is a startup mentorship program designed to help founders build world class technology companies. This is not just restricted to web technology, but covers others such as clean technology etc. Unlike other programs like Y Combinator, participants are not expected to already have an idea or prototype before coming for the program. The concept is to equip potential startup founders with the right lessons and skills, and to provide a melting pot of such people so that startups can be founded after the program. The program is between 3 – 3.5 months long, and sessions will be held 3 – 4 times a week in the evenings. This ensures that the participants won’t have to quit their jobs or stop running their current startup just to be part of this. While most of the mentors are based in the US, the program strives to have at least 2 of them actively engaging the participants every month in Singapore. This will mean that the mentors will fly down just to engage the participants and facilitate learning. There will also be a host of local mentors in the program, giving a good mix of US and Singapore mentors. Each session will also have an average of 2 mentors, providing adequate learning and guidance. It will entirely be based on non-technology related topics like funding, strategy, marketing etc. and there will be lots of group work. Along the way, the organizers will bring in investors for pitching sessions. This will comprise of both local and foreign investors. Once the program is complete, participants who incorporate a company are effectively “graduates” of the program.
Mentors Involved
The list of mentors involved are pretty impressive. A confirmed list of mentors is already available, with mentors from VC firms and top technology companies like Facebook. Based on my interaction with Jeffrey, I learned that a few more mentors have been announced specifically for Singapore (more details to come once they are confirmed). My main question to Jeffrey was that why were these high level mentors involved in the first place. What’s in it for them? His answer was very simple; (i) the opportunity to give back to the community and (ii) the potential opportunity to invest in these companies.
Who is Supporting This?
The program comprises partners from Battle Ventures and iAxil. The cost of the program will be subsidized by SPRING, with participants having to pay a subsidized fee off the full $1600 price (you can expect a 50% – 70% subsidy).
Warrant Pools – What Happens After the Program
The unique thing is the warrants pool after the program. Each company formed by participating founders during or right after the semester has the option to contribute 3.5% in warrants to a shared bonus pool. These warrants are collected into a bonus pool managed by the Institute on behalf of all stakeholders. The stakeholders here are essentially the other founders in the Singapore program, the mentors teaching in Singapore, local facilitators which, in this case, is Battle Ventures and Founder Institute in the US. While startups are not guaranteed investment, this is a very effectively way to provide deal flow to all the mentors and investors in the program.
Application
Applications for early acceptance into the Singapore semester are due on Feb 15th, with final application deadline on Feb 28th. For those interested in applying, click here
I am personally excited about this as this will give a much needed boost to the “lack of mentors” problem Asian startups have been facing for awhile.
tagged
