Grad uate

From student to startup founder. Because great things come to those who won’t wait.

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WHO YOU’LL MEET

Often referred to as outliers, we select those that have already achieved exceptional outcomes relative to their peers. This could be by winning every hackathon you’ve attended, founding your university’s Rocketry Society, or earning six figures from online gaming. You’ll likely come from a technical background, and have been building and creating throughout your life.  

You’re ready to surpass your early achievements and the limits placed on you by others. You’re an optimist obsessed with shaping the future, and you want to have globally important impact through founding a technology startup.

We bring you together in a curated cohort, starting with an unforgettable Kick Off Summit. Where your beliefs and ambitions will be pushed further than ever before.

Who we invest in
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WHAT YOU’LL DO

See what you can build surrounded by a carefully selected group of ambitious peers. Each committed to finding a cofounder and building a startup from scratch. 

Right now, your ideas are likely constrained by the status quo, limited by your skills, and what you know. This new peer group will reframe what’s possible.

The first twelve weeks

Imagine what you can create by building with another exceptional individual. Spend your days immersed in co-creating beliefs about the future, supported by our experienced Talent Investors. You’ll get credits for OpenAI and AWS, plus access to over a hundred partnerships with leading tech products and services. You’ll build your startup from day one and be pushed to greatness by our global network of advisors.

The second twelve weeks

After twelve weeks you’ll pitch for pre-seed funding at our Investment Committee. 

Startups with the greatest potential are funded to join the next stage of the program. Here you’ll continue to build and prepare for seed funding. You’ll finish the program by networking with local and Silicon Valley investors at EF’s Demo Day.

Founders who do not receive funding finish the program and join our powerful global community of alumni. Many receive job offers from our portfolio companies, and all consider their time at EF a transformative period in their lives.

Meet our Advisors
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WHAT YOU’LL CREATE

Individuals who have joined EF have built some of the world’s most impactful early-stage technology startups. They are now worth more than $10B. 

Alex Dalyac joined EF after finishing his Computer Science degree at Imperial. He met and teamed up with Razvan Ranca, a Machine Learning masters graduate from the University of Cambridge, at our Kick Off Summit. With just six months of combined work experience, they created Tractable, an AI using computer vision that accelerates accident recovery by up to ten times.

Tractable was Europe’s first computer vision unicorn. Its customers include some of the world’s biggest insurers, like GEICO and Aviva.  They employ 280 people across Europe, Japan and the United States and closed a Series E round led by Softbank in 2023.    

To see what you could build on one of our programs, apply below. 

Apply Now
Barnaby Hussey-Yeo Headshot
Barney Hussey-Yeo
Founder & CEO, Cleo
“Entrepreneur First completely reframed what I thought I could achieve so early on in my career... it put me on a different trajectory.”

Graduate Process

The program has two stages: Form and Launch. You’ll join a carefully curated cohort of exceptional peers in a hub city and focus completely on founding.
01

Form

You’ll be pushed harder than ever before in this full-time period of team and idea formation. Dive deep into your unique advantages as a founder, identify the cofounder who enhances your abilities, and accelerate beyond imagination. You will test cofounder partnerships and ideas as you build from day one, supported by a team of Talent Investors who will challenge your ambitions and vision of success. 

When you join our community, you will receive a Talent Investment (amount variable per location). You can use this money towards your living costs or any company costs during Form. If you later don’t form a company or we choose not to invest further, we don’t take any equity and you don’t owe us anything. This Talent Investment is variable per location, but is always in addition to our pre-seed investment of $125,000. You can find more details about the Talent Investment and our broader investment terms in our location specific FAQs.

Around 80% of people will find a cofounder and hone in on an idea within eight weeks. You then start preparing to pitch to our Investment Committee with weekly support from your dedicated advisor. 

02

Launch

If your team is funded by our Investment Committee, you’ll spend the second stage of the program rapidly growing what you’ve built into an early stage company. This means something different for every startup, but typically involves releasing an MVP, onboarding customers, or accelerating research and development. The best founders on EF create $1M of value every single day. 

As you build you’ll be invited to relocate to San Francisco. Here, you’ll have the opportunity to continue your journey on Launch in San Francisco, growing what you’ve built into an early stage company while gaining access to the world’s most important startup ecosystem.

You’ll be matched with a Silicon Valley advisor, join regular Happy Hour events and attend weekly conversations with experienced founders, operators and investors. Last year, the founders of LinkedIn, Monzo, Front, and WordPress joined us to share their off-the-record experiences. 

This twelve week stage of building culminates in EF’s Demo Day, where we introduce you to Silicon Valley and local investors and support you to raise your seed round. For those in San Francisco, founders will pitch in-person to some of the best investors in the world. 

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Programs

Co Re

FOR
  • Early career professionals, academics and PhD graduates with two or more years of experience.
Core