Founder Institute getting fresh start in Seattle with return to in-person accelerator, events and more

Founder Institute, the global business incubator and pre-seed startup accelerator, is getting up and running again in Seattle.

Tech veteran Aniket Naravanekar, co-founder and CEO of Skillsheet, is one of the program directors working to rekindle the effort. Naravanekar previously led product at Seattle startups avante and CHEQ, and spent more than 11 years at Microsoft.

He’s joined by Nicole Doyle, founder and CEO of Aspir; Jewel Atuel, a technical program manager at Averro; and Angie Parker, executive director of the Alliance of Angels.

“I think the Seattle ecosystem has such a large amount of talent that it deserves more opportunities for aspiring founders to turn their ideas into a real business,” Naravanekar told GeekWire. “I’ve been going through this process as a founder myself and I want to provide more options to those that are still on the fence or want to build but not sure how.”

Founded in Palo Alto, Calif., in 2009, Founder Institute operates across across six continents and more than 200 cities, and has had more than 8,100 graduates, according to its website.

Naravanekar believes a lack of community and leadership derailed Founder Institute’s in-person efforts in Seattle and applicants were directed to remote/virtual cohorts starting around 2021.

“We’re now bringing back the local community — local mentors, local partners, sponsors, investors and in-person meetups and events,” he said.

Naravanekar said Founder Institute is using a new approach in which the Seattle leadership team is empowered to run things instead of being treated as a “satellite.”

“We’re still using the same FI tooling and branding but have a lot more leeway in decision making to suit the unique needs of the Seattle ecosystem,” he said.

The first cohort in Seattle begins in March. An open house on Dec. 12 at AI House in Seattle will serve as an official launch event and will feature two panels: “Building in Seattle” and “Scaling & Leverage.” Panelists include Evan Poncelot of Venture Black; Loti founder Luke Arrigoni; AI2 Incubator’s Jacob Colker; Nick Hughes of Founders Live; Taylor Black of Microsoft AI Ventures; Brooks Lindsay of Light Legal; Sarah Studer of the University of Washington’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship; and moderator Louis Newkirk of Venture Black and Founders Live.

Levi Reed, a former managing director at Seattle Founder Institute, is now an entrepreneur-in-residence at Startup425, a non-profit funded by six Seattle-area city governments, which announced a new accelerator last year. The 15-week program is modeled after the Founder Institute curriculum.