Last Monday, I started a program with the Founder Institute here in Seattle. I was the LAST person to sign up. And I am glad I did.
Here is a writeup about Founder Institute from another founder (Richard Luck of @bluyah ) attending the institute.
The Founder Institute creates a pool from 3.5% of each company formed as a part of the program and redistrbutes the proceeds from the pool back to each of the institute(local and central), the mentors and the founders. The institute offers content, mentors (contacts), very smart and driven peer groups, pitch practice and meetings with VCs towards the end of the program. And with any program, what we do with what the institute offers is largely up to us, the founders. Adeo Ressi, said something like that – and if I was in his place, I’d have said the same thing.
You can read a lot about what the program is on the website. But let me tell you what I have as a result of the program in this past week.
1. Day 1 with 3 wonderful mentors. I have not had any further communication with any of the mentors from day 1, but we had fantastic content + inspiration from these three gentlemen. Yes, ongoing conversation and value is up to me, but considering I have a startup WAY close to open beta, I believe I could use their feedback and help!
- Glenn Kelman, CEO at Redfin
- Dave Parker, CEO at 9Spaces
- Jordan Weisman
2. A super smart peer group – We work in groups at the program. Adeo said we all did incredibly well on the admission tests 
Regardless, I have a super smart working group that I have already met with once. They are a great set of people that I can finally go into the details of my startup with.
3. 1 and 2 while I raise my kids and my startup - I am a mom. People think I am crazy to have given up a very comfortable and growing job at American Chemical Society to pursue a start-up, but what can I say …. I do a LOT while I bring up my kids and work on my company, all thanks to Pree (my husband), but in the last week, I have had 1 and 2 while he has been away in Europe (for 2 weeks!).
So 1, 2 and 3 are a big deal for me already, but I am excited about what the future holds. I hope I can make the most of these people and the content going forward.
Is it all worth $600 + 3.5 % of my company?
Ahh, if you know me, you know that I will MAKE IT worth it. There. I rest my case.
AND THEN, WHAT ABOUT MEMETALES?
Okay, let me come clean. I am guessing Memetales has evolved since the last time I blogged about what it exactly is. It has evolved in it’s value proposition, features and so on. I hear that such kind of evolution and refinement is a good thing though – especially since the core passion or vision remains to be the same – ” To unlock the best in every children’s picture book”. At Memetales, we continue to believe in the richness of picture books and understand that EACH and EVERY BOOK is a door to a whole new magical world – of creativity, imagination, sharing and excitement. The book itself, is the start and not the end of the creative process.
Memetales has a collaboration space to help people get together and build picture books. This collaboration space is a wonderful community where a bunch (>8) of books are close to completion. It took me less than a couple of months, however, to realize that if these books were to be truly celebrated + marketed, what Memetales needs to be is a Marketing platform unlike any other out there. And so, Memetales evolved into the concept it is today. The Collaboration Space will continue to thrive, but I am immersed in building the Marketplace – a much broader PLATFORM, meant to grow, scale and support the marketing of a gazzillion books, complementary content and merchandise around them.
So, here is the essence of Memetales -
Memetales puts the power of Disney-like media and marketing platform in the hands of every writer, illustrator and small publisher of children’s picture books. Memetales is a children’s picture book platform that enables every single writer, illustrator and publisher work like Disney – by easily publishing their book online and creating rich media and products around their books and characters.
I tweeted this just a couple of hours ago -
I do believe that VERY very soon, everyone is going to put their children’s books online. Now that Disney and Sesame Street are using the channel, how can the others not? Memetales will be THE platform for EVERYONE else – and I hope people see the possibilities and value add provided by Memetales as a platform with community and tools.
As I talk to some smaller publishers these days, some of them do wonder what value is there in it? I answer that in 2 parts – well, I do think they will lose out by not going online and secondly, how can there NOT be value in putting your book amongst book lovers and letting them talk about it (for a very low cost – even free until Memetales builds the charter library of 500 books!).
So, here is a quick video of Memetales -