Dreamups Innovation Campus (DIC) is a completely new chance for young entrepreneurs from Moldova to create, develop and deliver their startups in the world. DIC now is operating with a completely new program for the startup community in the Republic of Moldova and they brought on the market the Founders Institute Program.
Dreamups is a community where youth enthusiasts learn from each other, exchange ideas to make them grow and launch global products or services. The purpose is to create a correct and competitive environment in the country. Innovation, entrepreneurship, global community and sustainability are 4 pillars of Campus. Local businesses, public institutions, foundations, experts and mentors, investors, freelancers, NGOs and research associations are all encouraged to involve in this community to develop entrepreneurship environment in the country.
Sergiu Matei, one of the Co-founders of Dreamups Innovation Campus and Daan Weddepohl
Founder Institute is the world’s premier startup launch program for talented entrepreneurs. Present in more than 100 cities, this program started in the heart of Silicon Valley, Palo Alto and now it is exploring an opportunity to expand to Moldova. The best way to learn is by doing. Through a structured, 3.5 month curriculum of weekly training courses and business-building assignments, young people graduate the Founder Institute as the Founder of an enduring company. Plus, FI has a global mentor network exceeds 4,400 people, mentors as founders of Angry Birds, Evernote, Mint, Udemy and many more. Estimated portfolio value of Founder Institute companies is $15Billion + and venture funds as Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Accel Partners and others invested in FI startups. The idea to expand this program in Moldova came from Dreamups co-founders. Past year, 2 of them participated in this program in USA and they successfully graduated the San Francisco Semester. Now, Dreamups will implement for the first time this program in Chisinau under Founder Institute umbrella.
FI is an international program for founders with a full-time job, solo founders, teams, and founders of established companies. Through weekly training and feedback sessions led by top startup mentors, office hours with local directors, group meetings with fellow founders, and challenging company building assignments, participants in the program make several years of progress in just 3.5 months.
The program starts in may, 2016 and 40 participants will be selected. The Founder Institute focuses on founders instead of ideas. In fact, the aplicants are not even required to tell their ideas to apply. If applicants are talented and motivated to do their work required to build an enduring tech or tech-enabled company, then Founder Institute wants to hear from them.
Some local and international talented specialists are involved in the program as mentors to help youth achieve their purposes and goals, such as Ruslan Cojocaru, founder of international coffee chain Tucano, Eugen Boico, CEO of Publicis Moldova, Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote.
