No. As talent investors, we invest in you before you have a co-founder or incorporated company. We choose founders to take part based on your behaviours, ability, and potential to build a company with global impact. 

For every cohort, our team spends thousands of hours screening applications and selecting the very best to create the perfect environment for you to find a co-founder. You don’t need an idea – but insights, convictions and strong beliefs about the future are encouraged.

Yes. People we select relocate to join us from all over the world. 

There’s no commitment to stay in Toronto

after the platform, though most of our alumni do.  For any company, the most important thing is to be close to its customers and sometimes this means relocating to where these customers are. We have companies based in the US, South Africa, Netherlands and China as well as many other locations.

We recognize that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected people’s ability to travel, and that travel restrictions to and from Canada are in place. We take this into consideration and are able to make temporary exceptions while large parts of the course are running remotely. However, we would expect you to relocate once these restrictions are lifted.

Currently, all applicants must be Canadian, have Permanent Resident Status, an Open Work Permit, or a Study Permit. If you wish to apply for our Toronto platform and do not have the right to work or study in Canada, it will be your responsibility to apply for and procure a visa.

No. Building a successful company requires full-time commitment from day 1 and is almost impossible to do if you’re simultaneously working on something else. We fund you in order to enable everyone to be able to focus on Entrepreneur First without the need to work elsewhere.