Hey, Gabirel! Great Video! Also, the Musicians ideia sounds awesome! Have you considereded adding some Music Classes along with the Practice and rehearsal places? Maybe you could increase the value by solving related problems at once! And for that, you could help not only beginners, but also acctually musicians in those Music classes/Music Meetings: "Trying to form a band?", "Trying to find someplace to talk about music?" or "Trying to find someone more skilled to practice with?" (Just throwing some ideias up in the air here hahaha!) I am located in Brazil and Founders Institute is trying to place their course here, in Belo Horizonte - Minas Gerais State. If you don´t mind, i would like to ask you some qustions: - Are you enjoing the course so far? - Did you enter the course having an ideia or you came up with it during the course? - Is it really worth it or some times you think you could have persued your idea by yourself? - How effective and individual is the mentorship regarding to your business objectives? (Like, do they acctucally talk about your ideia specificly or is it more like General Information regarding overall business and best practices?) - Do you have a Mentor that is more responsible for helping you and your ideia from the begining and throughout the course? Thanks! Keep up with the Dream! Best Regards
Hello Ériko, Thank you. I can certainly keep those ideas nearby for the future, but one thing that FI stresses is keeping the initial idea focused at least to start. Otherwise it can just be overwhelming. Re FI: I'm thoroughly enjoying the course so far. I tried starting this business (at least a much larger, more expansive version of this idea) for a while before and I could figure out a lot of things but I often lost momentum, and because no one was setting deadlines for me (just myself) it was really easy to fall off the rails and stop working. Which means no business... Fortunately the course doesn't allow you to do that. Deadlines are very good, even if you're not always a fan of them... They can be hard to meet sometimes, but like how a business would work, you make it happen. I entered with a larger version of this idea. But I know plenty of people in my course who entered with one idea and changed during our "Vision and Validation" period. It really is worth it. I don't think I'd be anywhere near where I am now had I just continued myself. Every class, a large portion of my classmates and I get to pitch to 3-4 mentors (different each session) and very rarely is the feedback generalised. A lot of it is specific to the business you just pitched. It's especially helpful when the mentors have worked in your field at some point in their career. There's no real introduction to them, but you can see who they are ahead of time and do your own research. You don't have a mentor who is responsible for helping you. You can ask mentors who are particularly excited by your idea to be part of your advisory board. But mentors won't be there every week. However, there are directors, who run the course and organise the sessions. You are required to have meetings every couple weeks with some of your directors. They are the people who guide you through the course, help you with almost any problem that comes up, and you will form the strongest bonds with. And while they are extremely busy with their full time jobs, they somehow are able to make time to respond to requests at almost any time. My only major issues with FI right now would be the technology (the website is in the middle of a major overhaul so it's not the most functional thing in the world...) and the fact that when I was coming I expected there to be more focus on how to build the product, but there's less of that, and more of a focus on the administrative side of things. You learn how to build the infrastructure to support product development (understanding the idea, building the perfect team, laying the groundwork) and you kind of have to figure out the product development (tech) on your own. But maybe that's a later thing (I'm not even halfway through yet). The main resource and the reason I'd say it's so valuable is the people. Not only the mentors and directors you're introduced to and get access to, but your classmates. Having that many people to support you through your highs and lows is invaluable and not a resource you'll find if you try to go it alone. Without a question! TL;DR: Yes it's worth it!
Thanks a lot, Gabriel! Your insights were very helpful! I am definitely considering to join FI here in Brazil. If you want to add me on social midia so we can stay in touch to help each other out or just share some experiences about FI and entrepreneurship, please do! ") Instagram: @erikopcosta fb: erikopcosta (Ériko Costa) Best Regards!
It's not for everyone (I know plenty that did not enjoy the experience) but I really liked it. I'm really glad I did it - am still building the company I launched because of it. Two main benefits: 1. it taught me so much about starting a business in so little time; 2. it was a great external motivator (put a fire under my arse) which you sometimes lack when trying to build something for yourself.
