FOUND, DON'T FOLLOW

We turn exceptional individuals into funded founders. We back you first, then give you a bridge to Silicon Valley.

You might have an early idea, or be testing a cofounder. You might have nothing. What we’re most interested in is you and your potential.

Joining EF was a life-changing decision.

— Joe Root, founder of Permutive, backed by SoftBank

 

APPLY HERE

We build unicorn cofounding teams from scratch.

We help you find your optimal cofounder through our unique matching process.

If you’re selected to join EF, you’ll:

  • Gain access to a pool of exceptional cofounders screened for their skills and behaviour
  • Attend our weekend residential retreat to kickstart your founding journey
  • Receive expert advice on who to pair with and how to test potential cofounders
  • Join a cohort of peers you’ll work alongside at one of our global offices
  • Participate in community talent events such as our Build Retreats and Hackathons, in partnership with the likes of Hugging Face, Lovable and Mistral

See more about who you could cofound with here.

 

Without Entrepreneurs First there would be no Sonantic, as I wouldn’t have met Zeena. Eternally grateful.

— John Flynn, cofounder of Sonantic, exited to Spotify

 

We support you to go from emerging idea, to first revenue.

Individuals join us at the very start of their founding journey. Some may have an idea, others will be working out which idea to pursue.

We give you everything you need to move super fast and, by Demo Day, the top performing founders will be generating hundreds of thousands of revenue.

You’ll have a dedicated advisor on the ground to help you shape your idea—and a San Francisco-based partner to help you crack the U.S. market. With hands-on support from both sides of the Atlantic, we accelerate your path to building a world-class company.

You’ll also have access to our intimate, off the record, fireside chats.

Recent advisors and speakers include some of the world’s most prominent founders:

 

We’re backed by Silicon Valley’s elite founders and investors. You will be too.

Our investors include some of the most successful founders and investors in the world, including Founders Fund, Greylock, John Collison (founder – Stripe), Patrick Collison (founder – Stripe), Reid Hoffman (founder – LinkedIn), Demis Hassabis (founder – DeepMind, Head of Google AI), Mustafa Suleyman (founder – DeepMind, Head of Microsoft AI), Taavet Hinrikus (founder – Wise), Matt Mullenweg (founder – WordPress), Charlie Songhurst (Board member – Meta), Christa Davies (Board member – Stripe), Lachy Groom (Founder – Physical Intelligence).

From getting your visa to accessing venture capital, we help you break into the world’s top startup ecosystem, including:

  • Workshops on how to do customer development for the U.S. market
  • 3 months of office space in central San Francisco
  • Hands-on support to prepare your fundraising materials, including your pitch and deck
  • The opportunity to pitch at our San Francisco Demo Day attended by 200+ partners from the world’s best VCs
  • Bespoke introductions to some of the world’s best investors
  • Delaware C Corp incorporation guidance and relocation support

Our companies typically raise between $1-7M within a couple of weeks of pitching at our SF Demo Day. Founders Fund, Sequoia, a16z, Index Ventures, Initialized, AI Grant, Emergence, Khosla Ventures, Susa Ventures, SignalFire, NfX, Abstract Ventures, Bessemer, Plural, Pear, Gradient and many more have invested in our companies after Demo Day.

 

We invest early, fast, and on founder-friendly terms.

  • Equity-free grant to support you while you’re still ideating
  • Up to $250K investment once you form a company
  • Up to $3M in follow-on funding through your future rounds — and continued support up to Series B
  • Over $600,000 in credits to help you move at warp speed: $350K in Azure credits; $250K+ from OpenAI, Anthropic, GitHub, PostHog, Datadog, ElevenLabs and more
  • Office space for nine months in central London, Paris, Bangalore and San Francisco

 

We’ve built companies that are now worth billions of dollars and are backed by the world’s best VCs.

Companies built through EF are now worth >$11B. Examples include:

You can see our full portfolio here.

Watch our recent San Francisco Demo Day pitches to see our latest companies: 

 

Interested?

We turn exceptional individuals into funded founders.

You might have an early idea, or be testing a cofounder. You might have nothing. What we’re most interested in is you and your potential.

EF is for individuals who have:

  • continuously outperformed their peer group
  • built products, organizations or startups in the past
  • the ambition to build a company in the U.S.
APPLY HERE

Entrepreneurs First completely reframed what I thought I could achieve so early on in my career… it put me on a different trajectory.

— Barney Hussey-Yeo, founder of Cleo, backed by Sofina

 

Want to work at EF?

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