Build the future of the decentralised web

We’re primarily looking for talented, ambitious people in the first few years of their career. Entrepreneur First has a strong track record of helping individuals with relatively little work experience become venture backed founders.

You could be someone who has contributed to web3 projects already, or you could have a technical or commercial background in a related field and a clear conviction to make the jump to web3.  Expert technical support and mentoring will be provided throughout the programme. You can find a more detailed description of the abilities and behaviours EF looks for here.

This will be run in-person in London at our Entrepreneur First co-working space. We provide office space, meeting rooms, WiFi, and caffeine. We want you to focus on forming your teams and building something awesome, and not sweat the other stuff.

By taking part in one of our cohorts, you’ll join a pool of like-minded people who want to co-found a startup right now. Amongst this talented cohort, you are likely to find a brilliant co-founder with a complimentary skillset to your own. You’ll be supported by a global network of founders, advisors and investors. You will learn at a breakneck pace. We will give you a grant to cover your living costs for the first three months, and you’ll never have to pay us back. You will also get the opportunity to pitch for funding after three months, and then again after six. Regardless of whether your project succeeds or not, you will take away a host of transferable skills and a powerful network.

Before the programme starts, we will send you a bunch of reading materials. Over the following couple of months, we will hold optional pre-programme drop-in sessions, meet-ups and discussions. We encourage you to be learning, meeting other cohort members and beginning to form ideas in this time.

The programme begins with an in-person Kick-Off Weekend, and then runs for 6 months for successful founders. This is made up of two phases: Form and Launch. Form runs for the first three months. During this period, you will test out ideas and working relationships with multiple co-founders, develop a project, and present it to an Investment Committee. Successful team will win grant funding, or investment from EF. If you are one of the teams that is successful in receiving backing after Form, you will continue to build out your project for a further three months on Launch. During this time we will continue to support your project, and help prepare you to get further capital for your business, either through the web3 community or from institutional investors.

Yes, at least initially. The first month will be fully in-person in our London office; from month two onwards, you have the option to work remote if you wish, although we imagine most people will prefer to remain in-person. This benefits you because you can take advantage of the learning opportunities, networking, mentorship and coaching that we provide. The amount of serendipity, unannounced drop-in mentors, and camaraderie that is developed during this period is staggering.

Yes – we will pay you an upfront grant of £6k for your living costs in the first three months. After this, if you are successful in receiving funding or grants for your project, you will support yourself with that capital.

Not at all – Entrepreneur First is a Talent Investor. We invest in you before you have a co-founder, project or incorporated company. We choose people based on their potential and their desire to make an impact, and our team spends thousands of hours screening individuals to give you the best shot at finding the right co-founder. If you do have a co-founder or team already we ask that each of you apply individually outlining your team status. We have had success working with pre-formed teams in the past, but our programme is designed to be the best place to find a co-founder if you don’t have one.

No – you don’t need an idea to apply. Insights, strong convictions and beliefs about the future are encouraged, though. If you do have an idea, that’s great, but its strength and weaknesses won’t affect how we assess your application. We care most about the size of your ambition.

We’re excited about the potential impact of web3 across every sphere of human activity. You are welcome to build projects in any layer of the ecosystem, with any potential use – we want you to think big.

Whereas the general EF programme encourages participants to start companies in any domain, this programme is ideal for founders who already have a clear conviction to build using decentralised technologies. If you can make it to London and are clear that you want to build a web3 project, then this is likely the best EF programme for you.