Entrepreneurs in the Midwest invited to international tech competition

Startup accelerator Founder Institute is hosting its next Founder Showcase on April 28th, from 10am to 1pm U.S. Pacific Time. The organization’s flagship international startup competition, entrepreneurs from the Midwest should visit here to register.

Tech startups with less than $250,000 USD in funding will pitch virtually to a panel of investors from around the world. Founded in 2009, Founder Showcase has become a seminal event in the startup ecosystem. Startups who’ve pitched at the event have gone on to raise over $1.5B in venture capital funding collectively, and earlier winners include Udemy and Thumbtack. The New York Times earlier likened the event to “American Idol” for startups.

Patrick Riley, CEO of GAN, will keynote the event. GAN is a highly-curated community of independent accelerators, corporates, and investors. Patrick is also Managing Partner of GAN Ventures, the VC fund associated with GAN.

The investor panel at the event will include:

• Sidney N. Nakahodo, Founder & General Partner of Seldor Capital
• Bob Crimmins, Founder of Startup Haven, Managing Director of Startup Haven Ventures
• Nancy Brito, Partner at Semeia Ventures, Managing Partner at BIBA Venture Partners
• Zecca Lehn, Angel Investor

Headquartered in Silicon Valley. Founder Institute is the world’s largest early-stage startup accelerator. Many of the world’s fastest-growing startups have used the accelerator to transition from employee to entrepreneur, test their startup ideas, build a team, get their first customers, and to raise funding.

According to the organization’s CEO Adeo Ressi in an earlier New York Times interview, “The Founder Institute takes people right when they are taking the first steps to launching a business. We help them launch the business and become full-time entrepreneurs.”

Disclosure: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company.