ihateit & The Founder Institute — Part I: We’re In

ihateit is proud to announce that it has been accepted to the Founder Institute Mentorship program for the Autumn 2016 semester in Sydney, which starts on the 7th of March 2016.

Who Are We?

ihateit helps haters to safely vent so that others can help to turn their hate into joy.

So What Is The Founder Institute Anyway?

The Founder Institute is a 4 months mentorship program. It is not an incubator, or an accelerator. You will not get any money from FI. It teaches startup founders the typical mistakes to avoid, as well as the critical aspects that necessitate strong attention in order to increase the chances of success, and eventually become a long lasting successful business. To achieve its mission, the Founder Institute leverages its worldwide network of CEOs and startup experts. Those experts mentor and judge each participant once a week (each Tuesday night in Sydney from 630pm until 9pm). Every week, each founder is expected to submit an assignment that focuses on a critical aspect of their company. In Sydney, the program covers the following aspects:

1. Orientation (2016–03–07) Welcome and meet your peers.
2. Vision and Ideas (2016–03–08) Develop a set of strong ideas.
3. Research and Customer Development (2016–03–15) Test your ideas with research.
4. Revenue Models (2016–03–22) Chose an idea and a model.
5. Naming and Positioning (2016–04–05) Name your business.
6. Mentor Idea Review (2016–04–12) Present your idea for feedback.
7. Startup Legal and IP (2016–04–19) Build a legal and IP strategy.
8. Team and Advisors (2016–04–26) Recruit your first team members.
9. Product Development (2016–05–03) Plan to build your offering.
10. Mentor Progress Review (2016–05–17) Present your progress for feedback.
11. Sales and Traction (2016–05–24) Start generating traction.
12. Branding and Marketing (2016–05–31) Establish market credibility.
13. Bootstrapping and Fundraising (2016–06–07) Capitalise the business.
14. Graduation (2016–06–21) Graduate from the program.

The 2 mentor review sessions (step 6 & 10) are particularly important, as you could be kicked out from the program if your company’s business model is not deemed good enough. On average, 66% of the initial batch of founders give up, or are excluded from the program.

Why Did ihateit Join FI?

As mentioned above, FI is not an incubator, or an accelerator. We will not receive any investment from FI. On the contrary, to join the program, we had to pay US $1350. If we raise more than US $50,000 at any stage, we will have to pay an extra fee of US $4500 to FI. No matter what happens, finishing the program means giving FI 3.5% of your company. All in all, we are extremely confident in our ability to execute and deliver an amazing product, but we are not so confident in running a startup. We’ve been working in Customer Development, Engineering, and Marketing for a while, but we lack expertise in Legal, Funding, and Networking. In a nutshell, we recognise we need to be mentored, and trading 3.5% of our company to de-risk our chances of derailing our big dreams is acceptable.

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N E X T → Part II: Introducing Team Grey & ihateit First Pitch