The inaugural East Coast semesters of Adeo Ressi’s startup incubator Founder Institute have graduated 25 new companies from the New York and Washington DC classes. Announced in March 2009, the Founder Institute offers entrepreneurs and very early stage startups an environment designed to help foster their growth and education. The program, which is now active in nine cities worldwide, holds two four-month long sessions annually in each location, which include mentorship sessions from experienced tech entrepreneurs. The program also has a unique structure that allocates some equity to each of the founders involved, so that they have an incentive to work together.
The two East Coast semesters had 48 Mentors and over 100 investors to help companies through the four month apprenticeship and training program. Mentors for the East Coast Program include Munjal Shah, Craig Kanarick, Scott Heiferman, Max Haot, and Pat Keane. Here are five of the 25 startups (the remainder are not ready for public launch at this time):
Heliograph provides a simple plug-in that speeds up your web site by as much as 80% by caching larger files, such as images, on servers close to your users around the world.
CouplesSpark aims to help couples resolve their conflicts through a neutral online voting platform.
Profitably’s web-based service connects to business applications, such as Quickbooks, and makes recommendations for small business owners to increase revenues and drive down costs.
Simple.PR allows businesses to distribute information and promotions beyond social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.
WhatsFun.com is an online and mobile event calendar that makes it easy to find, share, promote and remember local events.
The Bay Area semester is also accepting applications now; interested parties can apply here.