| Founder.org | |
| Type: | Non Profit Foundation |
| Foundation: | 2012 |
| Location: | San Francisco, California |
| Products: | 8D Company Building Program |
| Num Employees: | 20 |
Founder.org is a nonprofit foundation in San Francisco, California, United States[1] that invests in student entrepreneurs.[2] The organization features a company building program for student entrepreneurs at major research institutes and universities. Operated by a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs,[3] Founder.org supports teams across various industries including sensors, sanitation, influencer marketing, biotechnology, health and transportation.[4]
The organization offers a program for student entrepreneurs, recent alumni and faculty from its partner schools. The organization has a mission statement of helping entrepreneurial individuals build successful companies while staying in school.[5]
Founder.org partners with a number of colleges and universities which have innovation and entrepreneurship programs.[9] Students who are enrolled in these schools and have founded companies are eligible to participate in the programs. In 2014, there are 24 partner schools in the United States and Europe including Carnegie Mellon University, CDTM – Center for Digital Technology Management, Drexel University, École Polytechnique, École Centrale Paris, EDHEC, ESCP Europe, Harvard Business School, Imperial College London, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University, Purdue University, Stanford University, Technische Universität Berlin, Technische Universität München, The University of Edinburgh, University College London, University of California at Berkeley, University of California, San Diego, University of California San Francisco, University of Cambridge, University of Pennsylvania and University of Texas at Austin.
Founder.org was founded in 2012 by the CEO & founder of Splunk, Michael Baum.[10] It opened applications for the Class of 2014 in January 2013, and accepted its first ten companies in June 2013. The second Class of 2015 was increased in size to 50 companies and was accepted in June 2014.
Alongside seed grants, Founder.org invests additional capital into some of the startups in the program. As of September, 2014, the program had made 8 follow on investments. For example, the company participated in the round of energy intelligence startup, Verdigris Technologies.[11] In some cases, the program will act as the lead investor in a round. Founder.org led the seed round of a Stanford-based influencer marketing startup, NeoReach [12] [13] [14] and stethoscope, Eko.[15]