See If You Have What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur With Kevin Siskar

Wes Schaeffer | May 22, 2018

If you think you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur, the Founder Institute is for you

Stream below or right-click here to download the episode.

Helped found 110 companies
Founder Institute—early-stage accelerator
14-week accelerator program
- Bring in mentors, CEOs, etc
- Curriculum
- Working groups to simulate a Board of Directors
Why do people fail?

The company only dies when the founder quits."

Everything you think you know when you start is wrong...but don't stop
The best founders have a mindset that they are open to new things
Has a predictive psych test with five key factors
- High fluid intelligence. Not the same as IQ. How fast can you solve problems?
- High openness.
- Agreeableness (@60%)
- Professional experience.
- FI.co/dna
- Narcissism and entitlement are bad.
- Deceit and lying
- Excuse-making
- Predatory aggressiveness.
They take a 4% equity stake and put it in a bonus pool shared with all of the founders in the cohort and the mentors who volunteered their time, the local director teams, and the company
Run boot camp style.
- The last one started with 30, and 14 graduated.
- All meet in person
- Mentors rate founders, and founders rate mentors
Start with a vision
- Without a strong vision and passion, your business will die at the 2-3 year point
Iterate on one thing
Udemy is one of their grads
"Special assignments" are given by the mentors to founders who are falling behind
- Some quit
- Some crush it
"Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice From The Best In The World" you don't get paid well until you go deep on something
Do the self-work. Figure yourself out. Know your "why."