The Founder Institute (FI) is an idea-stage accelerator to launch startups. I was part of its batch back in 2011. FI has achieved a handful of successful exits such as Udemy. FI chapters can be found in most of the world’s largest cities. There’s an ‘infrastructure’ dearth in many emerging markets when it comes to supporting a startup culture and providing the kind of ecosystem which FI specializes in. Some countries like Japan are especially hard for entrepreneurs if you are a foreigner or a local.

FI inspires idea-stage technologists through mentoring by experienced entrepreneurs. Its program is fine if you are at the napkin stage of building a company, but can be a waste of time if you have already built a product.

I’ve met Mitch Kapor and he tends to see things differently. He gave this great talk at FI. If social impact is in your DNA, then you are better off raising money from someone like Mitch who wants you to level the playing field across the world.