Get Your Idea Off the Ground with the World’s #1 Pre-Seed Accelerator
Build a proper business in just 14 weeks.
Leverage a global network of 25,000+ Mentors, Grads and CEOs of successful companies for a life-time.
Earlybird application deadline and enrollment for the Fall 2025 Cohort until 19th of August!
"The key to this program is DOING"
Instead of just thinking about ideas you are gently forced to turn your business idea into reality. Execution is everything after all.
Gregor Herdmann, Alumnus, PaketConcierge
"Even with a business administration background, you learn a lot"
Even if you have a business administration background, you learn a lot of new things about many tasks and challenges involved in starting a business.
Yascha Roshani, Alumnus, Honest & Rare
"Life Changing"
Customer Satisfaction
No drama, no excuses, no compromises! Barely two weeks into it, and it’s already life-changing. I’m humbled and deeply grateful.
Dora Petrova, Alumnus, FemGems
A program designed for idea and early-stage startups, specifically
From Silicon Valley to Europe’s startup and technology capital
Globalizing Silicon Valley
Founder Institute is the world’s first idea-stage accelerator. Our program was built with early-stage Founders in mind specifically, meaning you can join with just an idea or MVP. We provide invaluable knowledge from top Mentors and deliver decades of startup and entrepreneurship experience in an intensive 14-week offline format. We quickly switched to a pure online format when Covid19 hit and do now continue to offer most of the program in a virtual fashion and the most valuable networking sessions in a hybrid (online and offline) format.
Why us
Unicorns, Zebras & Camels
Since its inception in Palo Alto, in 2009, Founder Institute’s proven methodology has helped build over 7,000 companies across 6 continents. Among them Udemy, esusu, TravelCar, TransTrack or PaintJet to name a few.
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Our mission: Let’s put your idea to the test
Contrary to other early-stage accelerators, we welcome anyone with just an idea for a Startup. Can you turn this into a scalable business? That’s what we will help you figure out. Our mission is to support forward-thinking and ambitious Founders, helping them validate and develop an idea fast, and build solid foundations for a sustainable business.
Join us: FI Germany
We actively contribute to Berlin and Germanys diverse and fast-growing early-stage entrepreneurial ecosystems: close to 500 startups are created every year in Berlin; since 2019 the Founder Institute Berlin Chapter helped launch more than 100.
Diverse
35% of them are female-led companies, more than 50% are founded by migrants
Reliable & structured
We offer the 14-week core program as well as regular workshops on Customer and Product Development, Pitching, Marketing and Fundraising
Lifelong global network
Build a global network of peers and mentors with us
Impact matters
We are the first FI chapter in the world with a dedicated Impact track alongside the regular curriculum!
What to expect: 14 weeks to give life to your business idea
On average, only 30% of our Founders make it through the semester, by design. We will challenge you every step of the way to ensure your business stands on solid grounds and you are equipped for what comes next.
Our program is notoriously hard because growing and sustaining a business is much harder.
We ask our Founders to commit 25 hours to the program on a weekly basis, minimum. This means you can keep your regular job while testing your idea with us.
A Structured Methodology
Since 2009, Founder Institute’s proven methodology has helped over 7,000 companies across 6 continents build businesses that matter. Know what to work on, and when, with our proven business-building sprints and structured approach.
A Challenging Process
Each week in the program, participating Founders join a 3+ hour Session to receive training, pitch the Mentors and get evaluation and feedback. After each session, our Founders then build their businesses for the rest of the week through a series of practical and challenging Business-Building Sprints, Office Hours, and group meetings. The Founder Institute is hard, because building an enduring business is much, much harder.
World-Class Mentors
CEOs and Founders of top companies such as Get your Guide, Plan A, Delivery Hero, Cavalry Ventures, nuri or ClaimCompass have generously mentored for FI Berlin in recent years.
Constant Feedback
Pitch every week in front of peers, Mentors and your Local FI team for direct feedback on your idea and progress.
A Community of Peers
Join our next batch and create life-long relationships with fellow Founders, who face the same challenges as you.
A Lifetime of Support
Get access to a lifetime of support that far exceeds any comparable program. Many of the world’s fastest-growing startups have used FI to raise funding, get into seed-accelerators, generate traction, recruit a team, and much more.
Problem/Solution fit
Confirm the Market Demand
A common trap first-time Founders fall into, is to develop a product for which there is no market demand. At Founder Institute Berlin, our goal is not to graduate companies but to help idea-stage Founders validate their customer problem, so to start out with strong foundations.
Or move on to their next idea if they cannot find the right Problem/Solution fit — an idea is nothing but a blocker of the next idea if it is not acted upon.
After building a great company, the second-best possible outcome you can take from the program is understanding quickly that the problem you’re trying to solve is not big enough.
With the Berlin Chapter, you will be supported by a structured growth process that defines your next steps, helps you move quickly, and has proven to reduce the time and cost to building a startup.
Learn from the best
Pitch like it’s second nature
With so many Founders competing for attention, how do you make sure your idea stands out?
- Pitch every week and get feedback on your progress from the team and Berlin’s top entrepreneurs and investors.
We’ll turn you into a pitching machine in record time!
Build meaningful relationships
Leverage a Local & Global Network
Build a global business by leveraging the world’s largest network of Startup Mentors, Founders, and Investors. Based in Silicon Valley, FI spans worldwide across chapters in 200+ cities & 6 continents, with a global community of 25,000+ Mentors, grads and CEOs of many successful companies.
In Germany, you’ll have the support of 900+ local Mentors, 60+ actively contributing in each cohort.
FI Germany - We are a bunch of entrepreneurs, helping other entrepreneurs
A high-risk accelerator
The Equity Collective
To give entrepreneurs a critical support network to help them across the entire lifecycle of their business, Founder Institute has developed a groundbreaking Equity Collective where everyone shares equity in the companies formed from each program cohort.
About halfway through the program, companies contribute 2.5% in Warrants to a fifteen-year Equity Collective to incentivize the support during and after the cohort.
1.5% of the Equity Collective returns go back to your local cohort: 1% goes back to HQ, 1% to your local Team and .5% to your local Mentors. That means that everyone supporting is invested in your success.
2.5% is the smallest amount of equity to contribute that can still return reasonable value to the collective. As one example, setting up an advisory board normally requires 5% of a company to attract 5 or 6 advisors, and the Founder Institute wanted to be significantly less than 5% to attract over 60 Mentors during the program.
This is also a paid program ($699).
Why is that, when other accelerators might be free, provide funding and take no equity?
This is because we are a pre-seed, and typically high-risk, accelerator. Contrary to other later-stage structures, we will welcome anyone with just an idea and invest our time, efforts and network into giving life and shape to your dream company, starting from the ground up.
Moreover, Founder Institute is a long-term partner. Our commitment to you and your company goes far beyond graduation.
We are industry agnostic and our program is open to anyone who’s building a Tech company with Impact. We are however particularly excited about seeing applications for mobility, sustainability, social impact…
We ask our Founders to commit 25 hours to the program on a weekly basis, minimum. This means you can go through our program and test your idea while keeping your job.
To complete the program, a Founder or Team needs to develop an engaging idea for a technology company that is validated by the program Mentors, plan out the business, work on an offering, incorporate their company, and complete all of the required assignments – all within a four-month timeframe.
Reasons for not graduating differ, but each Founder who leaves is invited to join a future program, when they are ready to launch a business.
Early Application Deadline:
August, 19th, 2025
Final Application Deadline:
September 21st, 2025
Calendar:
October 7th, 2025 – January 29th, 2026
Course fee:
$599 (Early Bird)
$699 USD (Final Fee)
* You’ll have 3 sessions at the start of the batch to decide whether you want to stay with us. If not, you’ll get a full refund.
They help us help you
Our Sponsors & Partners
Platinum Partners
Community Partners
