Top all-time · #1899
The Founder Institute
Company blog · fi.co/postsstartupsbusiness
The Founder Institute is the company blog at fi.co, writing about startups and business. Since 2011, 40 different Hacker News readers have linked it 50 times, most often “Founder / Advisor Standard Template (Fast)”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (17) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Linked as the Founder Institute site, mostly for its FAST advisor agreement template and startup equity and fundraising guidance. Most comments just point to it without judging it.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 17 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
We help aspiring, first-time, and solo-founders go from zero to funded using AI tools, a proven methodology, and a supportive global network.
Most-linked posts?
- Founder / Advisor Standard Template (Fast)7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2019-03-06
- /contents/fast2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-03-23
What Hacker News says?
Note that the below makes big assumptions as to what the situation looks like. I read a lot between the lines, so take the words below with a grain of salt. I won't sugar coat it: it's a tough situation to be in because you need to fix a potential mistake that was done a while back and doing so, while going in the proper direction of fairness, can be interpreted as unfair by other parties. First I would have a discu…
Comment linking /fast
on “What I Learned in My First Year Year as a Solo Founder”Submitted Elon Musk Explains the Fallacy of Learning from Failure as a story · 22 points
HN discussionThe easiest way is to reach out to entrepreneurs that have raised before and see if they are willing to be an advisor in exchange for equity in your company. If you have something they believe in, they won't hesitate to introduce you to investors they know in exchange for equity in your company. If you go through the advisor agreement at https://fi.co/fast you can get a sense of how much equity you should give up. I…
Comment linking /fast
on “Ask HN: How to raise a seed round in a down market?”Submitted Do One Thing Well as a Startup. Identify Your “One Thing” Like This as a story · 8 points
HN discussionFounder Institute has something like that model. I haven't heard of any breakout successes from them yet. http://fi.co/
Comment linking /
on “Any stories of employees with equity successfully taking home over $1m? $500k?”Submitted Ultimate List of Startup Resources (Part 1) as a story · 6 points
HN discussionI am a very happy customer of Orrick. They helped me tremendously with my incorporation (c-corp Delaware) and I attend their seminars frequently. These documents are great, but I recommend you go directly to Orrick: http://www.orrick.com/practices/corporate/emergingCompanies/... . They also have some wizards that help you prefill documents, like the term sheet generator ( https://tsc.orrick.com/ ) Also, the Founder…
Comment linking /contents/fast
on “Orrick's Legal docs for startups”Submitted Don’t Make it So Hard to Promote Your Startup as a story · 5 points
HN discussionFor advisors, there's FAST: https://fi.co/FAST
Comment linking /FAST
on “SAFEs are not bad for entrepreneurs”Submitted 10 Articles on Running a Two-Sided Marketplace as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThere are ways to do biographical interviews which DO produce worthwhile results. Topgrading has examples of how to do this, and Aaron Patzer (the Mint guy) spoke about it -- basically you go through someone's resume and job/life history and ask why they made decisions at each step, which exposes most lies (due to inconsistency) and does reveal novel predictive information (even if a resume is relatively polished-fo…
Comment linking /posts/599?target=Guadalajara
on “The Talented Ms. Hornstein: How Shirls Fooled The Valley”Submitted How Being a Good Writer Can Make or Break Your Startup as a story · 3 points
HN discussionFounder's Institute does exactly this for their cohorts: http://fi.co/faq#fees (see the optional fees)
Comment linking /faq
on “Equidate Launches A Secondary Market For Early Startup Employees To Sell Shares”Submitted Each hour of talking to customers can save up to 20 hours of product development as a story · 3 points
HN discussionHi Andrew. I've been in the C level, advisory, and investor roles at early stage companies. I'm certainly not an expert compared to many who frequent HN, but I hope I can add a bit of value. There's no need to give up a board seat. Normally your lead investors will be taking a seat, and it could cause you issues when you try to raise. You want to recruit some advisors who can move the needle for you with complementa…
Comment linking /fast
on “Ask HN: How much equity to give board members of a startup?”Submitted How Darma Raised $100K in the First Day of Their Kickstarter Campaign as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSpace startups have really taken off over the last decade, thanks to big players like Blue Origin, Space X and Virgin Galactic. There are a lot of other entrants, in what can now genuinely be called an industry, thanks to dedicated startup accelerators like the Founder Institute Space Program. "Opportunities are flourishing today in Space Tech. There's now an increasingly connected ecosystem to support even pre-seed…
Comment linking /insight/founder-institute-space-tech-virtual-2022-applications-open
on “Ask HN: I want my next startup to be in space tech. Where do I start?”Submitted University Night: Meet Columbia, Cornell Tech, and NYU Founders as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThat's exactly the circumstance. Found this one from upcounsel; https://www.upcounsel.com/advisory-agreement and another one from Founder Institute; https://fi.co/fast Will check if they'll do the job for now. Thanks for the tips and pointers!
Comment linking /fast
on “Ask HN: Any Good Template(s) for a Startup Board Membership Agreement?”Submitted How to Get Early Sales at Your Startup as a story · 2 points
HN discussionGood job on getting a product going! Having a solid advisory team that inspires you and motivates you through the ups and downs of a startup is very important. This individual will hopefully help you stay focused along the way. A common custom would be to treat her as a strategic advisor, offering 0.1-1% equity, with vesting. Try to have some understanding of how much time they can commit to and on what frequency. A…
Comment linking /fast
on “Ask HN: How much equity to give to a mentor?”Submitted How to Embrace Failure as You Transition from Employee to Entrepreneur as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAdvisor to a startup: 0.25% to 0.75% vesting over two years. Time commitment is in the 1 meeting a month to 1 meeting per quarter. Take a look at this legal template: https://fi.co/contents/fast#
Comment linking /contents/fast
on “Ask HN: What type of compensation for 'Technology Adviser' type role?”Submitted Startup Ecosystem Canvas as a story · 2 points
HN discussionHere is one approach: http://fi.co/contents/fast
Comment linking /contents/fast
on “Ask HN: How much equity do you offer a mentor (if any)?”Submitted Phil Libin on Product development as a story · 2 points
HN discussionBeing a founder means being a jack of all trades, especially early on. So my advice would be to learn how to do it yourself. It might take you a few trials and errors, but that's ok. You can find a list of 34 questions to ask to a potential co-founder here: http://fi.co/posts/34-questions-to-ask-a-potential-co-founde... * Another way is to delegate the task of interviewing a non-technical co-founder to a professiona…
Comment linking /posts/34-questions-to-ask-a-potential-co-founder
on “Ask HN: Dual technical co-founders?”Submitted What Does the Instagram Acquisition Mean for Startups? A LOT as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThis is not direcly connected to any incubator (yet). I'm a student of Moscow Founders Institute Summer program ( http://fi.co ). Was making this site as a side project to practice Python/Flask/Redis. At Founders Institute I met Eugene Gordeev from Russian Ventures ( http://rusve.com ) and we decided to carry on this experimental project.
Comment linking /
on “Show HN: Hacker News clone for Russian startup community”Submitted Who were 2011's Best Startup Investors? as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
