My experience with FutureFounder

Introduction

FutureFounder is a social impact venture missioned to ensure that anyone, anywhere, can become an innovator. At the end of May, I interviewed to participate in the selection process, in which I was selected from over 100 people, and to be very honest, I didn't expect to be chosen, but luckily I went, along with seven other fellows, Giovanna, Arthur, Diana, Lucas, Nayane, Gustavo and Thalysson. The program lasted four weeks, and all with a lot of learning and new experiences. Below we will talk a little about each of the weeks that we went through during the program.

StartupReadiness Training

It took four intense weeks of training during StartupReadiness to reach a goal: what it's like to work at a startup.

Week 1:

For me, the first week was the hardest. I had no professional experience, so I thought I would get all lost in the program, but it was ultimately the opposite. We learned from 0 all the concepts covered during this month. From then on, I stayed calmer. But why was this first week harder? Besides the adaptation period, the first concept covered in the program was also introduced right away: Organizational Framework, where I had to do some in-depth research on a startup chosen by ourselves. Within this Framework, STEEPLE and SWOT analysis were addressed, and soon after that, we had to develop a strategic analysis for this startup.

The biggest challenge this week and the others were the deadlines for the delivery of tasks. We also introduced the digital portfolio to complement the first week, where other blog posts and a little more about our personal life were posted. You can take a look at my Organizational Framework and Strategic Analysis by clicking here.

Week 2:

The second week had a lot of content. We started with Personal Branding, where we learned about presenting ourselves online as professionals, creating LinkedIn, and even improving our digital portfolio developed with Wix.

And right after we introduced the Design Thinking process. In week two, I learned more than I thought I would. All five parts of design thinking were presented in a fantastic way, where we started working as a group to reach a single goal, Demo Day. This week, I developed several skills and improved some I already had, such as teamwork, collaboration, and communication in English.

Week 3:

To start week three, we continued our design thinking process and started our hackathon week, where our main goal was to develop a product through all parts of design thinking. My fellows and I chose the Mental Health theme during covid 19, and on top of that, we developed the idea of the MOM app, a virtual assistant that will help with anxiety, depression, and other mental problems. On Friday of the same week, we presented our product in pitch format, the great Demo Day, with international judges, where we received a lot of positive and constructive feedback. It was perfect to have feedback on the entire process that we developed throughout the week with the concepts learned. Clicking here, you can take a look at our design thinking process.

Week 4:

For week four, we had perhaps one of the most important days of the program, Match Day, where we innovators meet with very experienced prominent founders and have their startups. Earlier this week, we had two days to prepare for this meeting, and I believe my teammates and I did very well. We were all very well prepared and excited!

Key Takeaways

I have to thank FutureFounder for this fantastic experience, and I believe I would never have found something like that if it weren't for them. FutureFounder has opened up many opportunities for me to work in different areas. I also want to thank all my FutureFounder fellows for being so unique. We are from so far away, but the connection we created made us closer, and I will bring them to life.