Panama's chapter of the global Founder Institute pre-seed accelerator network.
- Location:
- Remote
- Equity:
- ~2.5%
What you need to qualify
- Building a tech or tech-enabled business at the pre-seed stage.
- Open to aspiring founders who are still employed full time, to solo founders, and to founding teams.
- Companies are generally less than a few years old and before significant funding, revenue or traction.
- Too advanced if the company already has significant funding, traction or revenue; Founder Institute points those founders to a seed accelerator instead.
- Not for service businesses such as marketing agencies, and not for founders whose aim is to flip a company or get rich quick.
- Each co-founder must apply separately, naming the shared company in the Company Name section of the application.
Eligibility
- Eligible stages
- All stages
- Countries
- Global, subject to the provider’s eligibility and approval
How to apply
- 1
Check whether the chapter is open
Founder Institute runs each city on a cohort cycle and lists the chapters taking applications at fi.co/enrolling. Opening https://fi.co/join?target=9170 states in one sentence whether this chapter is accepting applications right now.
- 2
Create a Founder Institute account
The application begins by registering on the chapter page with a first name, last name, email and password, or with a Google or LinkedIn account.
- 3
Complete the written application
Fill in the written portion of the application. Founding teams put the shared company name in the Company Name section so the admissions team can link co-founders who apply separately.
- 4
Take the Entrepreneur DNA Assessment
A required online aptitude and personality test that takes roughly 30 minutes. Founder Institute calls it the main criterion for acceptance and says there is no way to prepare for it, so it recommends taking it somewhere quiet.
- 5
Wait for the human review
Every application is reviewed by people at Founder Institute's Silicon Valley headquarters, which typically returns a decision by email within 72 hours. Applicants are placed in one of four states: Accepted, Reviewing, Finalist or Declined.