About us
At Founder Institute New York: Startup Founder 101, aspiring and early-stage startup founders meet once a month to hear candid talks by successful local entrepreneurs brought to you by Founder Institute New York, a New York City Startup Accelerator. Learn the best practices, strategies, and mistakes to avoid from those who have been there, done that. Then, if you’d like, you can share your ideas and plans in a relaxed setting to get personal and professional feedback.
The next Meetup will be announced shortly - join our group to get updated!
Upcoming events
7
New York Founders Night Out with Finta
Daintree, 25 W 38th St 29th Floor, New York, NY, NY, USKevin Siskar, former MD of Founder Institute New York and current founder of Finta, is in town and we're marking the occasion with a casual happy hour for founders, builders, and operators. Join us to connect with others in the NYC startup ecosystem, swap ideas, and have real conversations without the usual event formalities. Whether you're actively building or just exploring your next move, this is a chance to meet sharp, like-minded people in a relaxed setting. No panels, no pitches. Just good people and good conversations.
❯ Featuring:
- Kevin Siskar (CEO & Cofounder, Finta)
- Reid Hamilton (Managing Director, Founder Institute and Toronto Stock Exchange)
❯❯ This is an in-person event, so be sure to RSVP at https://fi.co/e/381888/meetup to secure your spot and receive further details.
1 attendee
How Multiple Pivots positioned Checkbox as the Legal Front Door for Corporations
·OnlineOnlineSome startups fail because they pivot too late. Others fail because they pivot too often. The rare ones survive long enough to pivot intelligently and catch a market wave at exactly the right moment. Join us for a candid fireside chat with Evan Wong (Co-Founder & CEO of Checkbox) on how multiple pivots — plus years of bootstrapping and persistence — positioned Checkbox at the forefront of the fast-growing legal AI industry. Checkbox recently raised $23MM in funding from top investors, and counts top corporates as customers, like Hitachi, SAP, PepsiCo, and more.
❯ You’ll leave with:
- A framework for evaluating pivots
- Real examples of what didn’t work
- How positioning unlocked enterprise traction
- Lessons from bootstrapping before raising capital
❯❯ RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23325 to get your link and join us live!
❯ Featured Speaker:
- Evan Wong - Co-founder & CEO @ Checkbox: Evan began building companies at 17 and co-founded Checkbox nearly a decade ago to help non-technical teams automate complex workflows. Today, Checkbox is used by global legal teams at companies like SAP, Hitachi, and Elastic, delivering 50–80% fewer low-value requests and up to 85% faster turnaround times. Evan is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and LegalTech CEO of the Year, and recently led Checkbox’s $23M Series A to scale its product, AI, and global team. Evan began his company-building journey at seventeen and has been recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and LegalTech CEO of the Year. As CEO, Evan leads Checkbox’s strategy and execution, guiding the development of its legal intake, automation, and reporting platform used by in-house teams globally.
❯ About Checkbox:
Checkbox is the AI-powered Legal Front Door for in-house legal teams. Its no-code platform centralizes legal requests from every channel, enables AI-driven self-service for routine work, and gives teams visibility into all legal activity—helping legal operate faster, smarter, and with more confidence. Named in Gartner’s 2025 Hype Cycle™, Checkbox highlights how modern legal teams can drive efficiency and strategic value through intelligent intake, triage, and AI legal chatbots. Checkbox is also a graduate of the Australia-NZ Founder Institute. Learn more at www.checkbox.ai.❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23325 to get your link and join us live!
3 attendees
Real Startup Lessons From FI Alumni Across the World
·OnlineOnlineIf you're building a startup, it's hard to know which advice actually matters — and which mistakes will cost you months (or years). This live, interactive Q&A brings together Founder Institute alumni from different regions who started exactly where you are today. They'll share what worked, what didn't, and what they would do differently if they were starting again. You'll hear honest perspectives on the FI accelerator experience, early traction, fundraising realities, and common founder traps — and you'll have the chance to ask your own questions.
❯ What You'll Learn:
- The different types of startup companies that go through Founder Institute
- The experience of being part of an accelerator program
- Success metrics that investors want to see
- The tactics required to build a strong startup
❯❯ RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23170 to get your link and join us live!
❯ Featured Speakers:
- Mario Edoardo Simmaco (FI Alumni) - CEO @ GreenAnt: Mario brings deep expertise in climate risk, governance, and entrepreneurship — holding an honours degree in Governance, Economics and Development from Leiden University College.
- GreenAnt is a climate risk platform that uses AI and radar satellite data to forecast floods, monitor crops, and deliver anticipatory insurance solutions to vulnerable communities worldwide.
- Maria Sucgang (FI Philippines Alumni) - CEO @ Remotify: Maria brings 20 years of leadership across APAC and EMEA — including roles supporting Apple, Tesla, and Netflix.
- Remotify is the Employer of Record platform built for the Philippines — handling hiring, payroll, and compliance so global companies can access top Filipino talent without setting up a local entity.
- Mustafa Al Momin (FI South Asia Alumni) - CEO @ Palki Motors: Mustafa is a second-time founder and Electrical Engineering graduate from Montana State University who sold his house to build his first EV prototype.
- Palki Motors is Bangladesh's first homegrown electric vehicle company, building affordable EVs purpose-built for commercial drivers.
❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/startupwebinar/23170 to get your link and join us live!
3 attendees
How to Go From Raw Idea to Polished Pitch using AI
·OnlineOnlineThe solo founder revolution is here. AI has eliminated the traditional barriers: no technical co-founder required, no months to MVP, no team of marketers. What once took months and $100K can now be done by one person in weeks. Join Jonathan Greechan, Co-Founder and CEO of Founder Institute, who has helped over 8,900 founders make this leap across 100+ countries. In this live session, he'll share the exact AI tools FI built (free for every attendee) so you can start building the same day. Register now and claim your spot.
❯❯ RSVP now at https://fi.co/e/394315/meetup to get your link and join us live!
❯ What You'll Learn:
- How to use FI's free AI tools to replace the functions of a co-founder, marketer, and product team
- A step-by-step framework to go from idea to validated concept without writing a single line of code
- How to access and use FI's AI agents, built specifically to take solo founders from zero to first check
- How to identify and leverage your professional experience as an unfair advantage
- The three most common mistakes first-time solo founders make and how to skip them entirely
❯ Featured Host:
- Jonathan Greechan - Co-Founder & CEO of the Founder Institute - Jonathan Greechan is the Co-Founder & CEO of the Founder Institute, the world's largest pre-seed startup accelerator. Since 2009, he has grown and scaled the organization to chapters in over 200 cities and over 100 countries, producing over 8,900 portfolio companies with nearly $[total funding] in venture funding. In his long career in tech and marketing, Jonathan has advised thousands of startups on marketing, growth, and product strategy and has spoken at startup conferences on four continents.
❯ Who Should Attend?
- Experienced professionals who have been thinking "someday I'll start something" and are ready to act
- First-time solo founders with an idea but no clear process for moving forward with confidence
- AI-curious professionals who want to build a startup using AI, not just use AI at work
- Employees who see their industry being disrupted by AI and want to be on the right side of that shift
❯❯ Don’t miss this live, interactive online event packed with valuable insights! RSVP now at https://fi.co/e/394315/meetup to get your link and join us live!
3 attendees
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