The second semester of Adeo Ressi’s Founder Institute San Diego semester has graduated 12 startups this week. We covered the inaugural San Diego session here. 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 13 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.

Mentors for the Spring 2010 San Diego, include Alex Bard, CEO of Assistly.com; Jon Carder, CEO of MojoPages; and Dan Shapiro, Founder of Ontela. The startups launching this week from the class are:

TouristWay: TouristWay is a web application that allows independent operators to easily build their own travel portal and sell their own travel packages directly. Presented at the Founder Showcase.

FatPencil: FatPencil is a web-based and mobile flight-logging platform that drastically reduces the time and cost required to maintain government-mandated flight logs. Presented at the Founder Showcase.

InstantIMPACT: InstantIMPACT is a platform that empowers you to impact critical legislation by recommending issues relevant to you, and then enabling communication to appropriate parties.

Kimerit: Kimerit is a knowledge platform that facilitates rapid scientific research through collaboration and funding-based rewards.

The Founders Institute is currently taking applications in San Diego, Washington D.C., New York, Paris, Berlin, Brussels and Houston.

Crunchbase

• FOUNDER INSTITUTE

Company: Founder Institute

Website: fi.co

Launch Date: April 16, 2009

The Founder Institute is a global network of startups and mentors that helps entrepreneurs launch meaningful and enduring technology companies. Through a four month pre-seed incubator program, you can launch your dream company with expert training, feedback, and support from experienced startup CEOs, while not being required to quit your day job. Their unique Bonus Pool also shares equity upside with all participants, creating local, teamwork-based ecosystems where great startups can flourish. Since 2009 the Founder Institute has helped...

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