FounderFuel Launches Startup Accelerator

June 2, 2011 6:19 pm 5 comments

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FounderFuelToday, the startup accelerator FounderFuel officially launches. Their website just went live and they’re providing a lot of details on the program.

For starters, the program will be run by Ian Jeffrey (@ianmtl). Ian’s a Montrealer that spent a number of years in the Valley as founder of Tiny Pictures (Radar.net.) He and his partner sold the company (after raising $11 million) to Shutterfly. Ian returned to Montreal and connected with the guys at Real Ventures (who are the instigators behind FounderFuel.)

Starting today, FounderFuel will be accepting applications (until July 1st). They’ll be announcing the teams on July 15th during Startup Festival. People can apply from anywhere (and they do expect people will end up coming from a variety places), but they need to be in Montreal for the duration of the program. FounderFuel kicks off on August 15th and has a scheduled Demo Day on November 7th.

They provide $10k in funding + $5k/founder. For two founder teams that’s $20k, for three person teams that’s $25k. The program runs 12 weeks.

FounderFuel has put together a roster of 50+ mentors, with people from all over. This is an essential part of the program and where there’s going to be a lot of value add. Some of the mentors include:

  • Jason Bailey: Bootstrapped Super Rewards (virtual currency startup) from $0 to $100M in revenue and sold to AdKnowledge in 18 months. He’s now a Founder & Principal at GrowLab in Vancouver and an active angel investor.
  • David Cancel: CEO & Founder of Performable. Previously founded Ghostery, Lookery and Compete.
  • Perry Evans: Founder of Closely, and previously founded MapQuest, Jabber and Local Matters.
  • Howard Gwin: Managing Director at venture capital firm Bridgescale.
  • David Hauser: Founder of Grasshopper Group, Grasshopper Labs, Chargify, Spreadable and PackageFox.
  • David Hoffman: Co-founder and VP Product at Next Big Sound.
  • Patrick Lor: President of Fotolia North America. Previously co-founder of iStockPhoto.

There’s a strong contingent of local mentors as well including: Frederic Lalonde, Mitch Joel, Carl Mercier, Garner Bornstein, Sylvain Carle, Marc Gingras and more.

For now, FounderFuel is focused on its first iteration, but Ian hopes they’ll be running two cohorts a year going forward. In total, $2 million dollars has been committed to the program.

Related posts:

  1. Year One Labs, A New Seed Accelerator, Launches in Montréal
  2. George Favvas Plans to Leave Montreal for Silicon Valley, Joins Dave McClure’s 500 Startups Accelerator
  3. International Startup Festival Launches!
  4. Announcing the Canadian Technology Accelerator
  5. Stealth Startup Gush Takes On All Your Photos
  • http://nextmontreal.com/ian-jeffrey-founderfuel/ Ian Jeffrey Speaks About Coming Back to Montreal and Launching FounderFuel

    [...] NextMontrealTags:founderfuel ian jeffreyYesterday, the FounderFuel Accelerator officially launched. And today, Frederic Guarino spoke with FounderFuel’s General Manager, [...]

  • http://twitter.com/cafenoirdesign Shannon Smith

    Interesting news, but it’s shocking in 2011, that of a team of over 80 people including mentors, investors and executives, not a single woman was available to participate. There are a number of Montreal-based women who could have been contacted for this project. Why were they overlooked? Is this what we want the start-up scene to look like, a boys club? I would encourage FounderFuel to review how they choose team members and encourage a little more diversity.

  • http://twitter.com/DavidNault David Nault

    Amazing initiative that is helping put Montreal techno entrepreneurship on the North American map.  Lots of people talked about it but Real Ventures and a handful of people walked the talk.   

  • http://twitter.com/DavidNault David Nault

    Male or female has nothing to do with it I am sure. A matter of circumstance, availability, interest, presence, knowledge etc…we are in 2.011 girl….race, color, age and gender has nothing to do getting on board and making change. 

  • http://twitter.com/DavidNault David Nault

    Just read this  by @AdeleMcAlear ” Thrilled that my friend Naomi Goldapple was accepted as a mentor
    to @FounderFuel. She will be a great
    addition! “ 
    Naomi sounds like a female name female to me….just saying

  • http://www.cafenoirdesign.com Shannon Smith

    Yes, it’s very good news. FounderFuel now seems to be making a concerted effort to encourage women to participate and they are now up to 4 women. It’s still less than 5% of the total. But it is very promising.