After a lot of hustling we were able to get enough applications and interest to cross the threshold to officially launch Founder Institute in Iceland. You can still join the program, I am really happy to put Iceland on the map of Founder Institute. I would like to thank everyone who has made this possible especially Eyjolfur and Tinna with NMI, Gisli Olafsson and Aevar Bjornsson who are the co-directors of the program and all the mentors who helped. I think it is a major milestone for all those who helped in the initiative. If anything it is a great milestone for the Startup Community in Iceland. I have always said that the Entrepreneurial Density in Iceland is very good. I believe we need a lot of these kinds of initiatives that raises the bar on the local founders and enables them to build enduring companies. I have been working with one founder at a time, I thought it was time that I worked with more than one. That resulted in me searching for programs that facilitated that, Founder Institute encapsulates all the things that I wanted to see in a program and I am really happy that we were able to officially launch this in Iceland.

We will continue to host meetups and events that help founders in their journey to building enduring companies. We are hosting a Startup Pitch Bootcamp tomorrow, this is a workshop and it should help any founder who wants to get a good 90 second pitch nailed down. If you are wondering why this is important see the following blog post “How to Master the Startup Pitch: Watch these Founder Showcase-Winning Pitch Videos“.  Those who are part of the Founder Institute class from anywhere in world will have an unique opportunity:

If you’d like to learn how to pitch from renowned Silicon Valley startup experts, apply to the Founder Lab today. This 10-day intensive course in Silicon Valley will teach you how to pitch to the world’s top venture capitalists, and will culminate at the 16th Founder Showcase event.

We are bringing all those practical things that make Silicon Valley really work to Iceland and my belief is that we will be able to execute faster because it is Iceland.