My Founder Institute Experience

I would like to announce that I have graduated from the Founder Institute course and I would like to say how lucky I feel that I have given myself the chance to participate into this program.

For me, just attending the Founder Institute has changed my life. I have felt happier working trying to build my new company than I have ever felt through my studies and working career. I have felt challenged and I have loved every minute of it! You need to be committed and open to all challenges that FI will throw at you; and they are many! You need to spend numerous hours, working hard, talking to your team, and being resourceful and full of energy to not DROP OUT. I have learned to pitch my idea, get feedback, feel low in one day and then find solutions the very next day and feel excited again! I would recommend the FI course to all regardless of how advanced they are in their business if they had had no training since FI teaches you the way of the right methodology, the main steps you have to follow in order to succeed.

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How ready are customers for startup companies and how ready are we, the Founders?

There is a deep and long discussion regarding the cost of acquiring new customers and retaining old customers but while reading about this, thinking about customers old and new, I can’t help but wondering:

Are customers ready for you? Are you ready as a Founder to pursue your dreams no matter what?

Through my start-up business I am focusing on adding value to customers that have interests and want to connect with local and travelers, but are my customers ready for my product and me? People have learned to satisfy their needs and pay less attention and respect to others while doing so. I find it hard to believe that someone will pay you for a service and continue to pay to connect with others, to care for others, to learn new things and be open to be influenced while communicating. How selfishness really affects us when considering going out of the norm for a long period of time?

I can easily see the value in many start-up businesses. On the other hand the recent article about how many people working in start-ups have been affected by depression or are currently dealing with depression moved me. We worry and struggle to get funded for our businesses, have sleepless nights building our products and have meetings to get there and we get burned in the process of doing so…

What if we try to make our business working in the smallest scale possible; working with our families and friends to test the product, get feedback, build the team, and build the business? And if the closest are not enough, expand the request to the neighborhood, small village and/or town. In this case we can understand and test our revenue model, test our product and understand our targeted customers and costs both of acquisition and retention customers. If we affect the lives of our closest we will certainly don’t feel depressed. If we teach the closest to care, maybe the rest will follow. And there is also the possibility for these closest to be the ones that will support us in the long run, give us funding or more importantly give us great ideas and solutions to problems to overcome the lows of starting a start-up business!