EF Team

Matt Clifford

CEO

Matt Clifford is co-founder and CEO of Entrepreneur First, which he started with Alice Bentinck in 2011. Over the last decade, he has supported thousands of founders to create companies worth billions.

With Alice, Matt is also the co-author of ‘How to be a Founder’, the essential guide on how entrepreneurs can identify, fund, and launch their best ideas.

In addition to his role at EF, Matt is the Chair of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), and sits on the board of Code First Girls, which he co-founded in 2013 to teach young women how to code.

Matt started his career at McKinsey & Co. and holds degrees from Cambridge and MIT, where he was a Kennedy Scholar. He was awarded an MBE for services to business in the 2016 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

EF Team

Rahul Samat

Partner and General Manager, Bangalore
Leads EF India, prior leadership experience at a decacorn. Founder, Angel Investor & UPenn graduate

Gina Yoo

Head of Ventures, Toronto
Previous co-founder and COO of Mannr with investor networks in Canada and NYC

Kano Takebayashi

Programme Lead, Singapore
Investor across early-stage, growth & private equity.

Julia Lee

Program Associate, Toronto
Experience building communities and scaling growth, passionate about supporting entrepreneurs

Derek Jouppi

Programme Lead, Toronto
Ex-COO & co-founder of Suncayr, established voice in the entrepreneurship and tech communities

Lucie Simco

Talent Associate, Toronto
Supported corporate and startup clients to build commercial and technical teams

Maja Vujic

Talent Manager, Toronto
Leads out Talent team to find the world's most ambitious people, former top 5 Canadian tennis player

Natasha Ivison

Talent Associate, Singapore
Ex-talent at Zilingo, helped corporate and startup clients build commercial and technical teams

Tejas Parikh

Talent Manager, Singapore
Recruited top talent for firms including McKinsey and Monetary Authority of Singapore

Didier Vermeiren

Entrepreneur in Residence, Singapore
Ex-director at Founder Institute, founded two European property startups

Hou Sheng Poh

Programme Associate, Entrepreneur First Singapore
Part of founding Singapore team of Tokenomy, helped run Indonesia's largest cryptocurrency exchange

Shiu Lun Tsang

Entrepreneur in Residence, Singapore
Worked with 200+ entrepreneurs, experience across corporate, academia and startups

Jessica Cheung

Head of Programme, Singapore
First employee Nest VC, built and launched equity crowdfunding platform

Prajwal Bhat

Entrepreneur in Residence
Entrepreneur, co-founder of Cerenode and computational biologist

Yi Ning Lim

Head of Global Marketing, Entrepreneur First
Leads on EF's brand and content, angel investor and growth strategy mentor

Thomas Poitrineau

Venture Partner, Entrepreneur First
Previous Principal at Entrepreneur First, focused on company building. Now an investor at a VC fund

Vivek Kumar

Funding Manager
Founder with extensive experience supporting and scaling early tech startups in India

Lena Berghaus

Talent Manager, EF Berlin
Expertise at the intersection of global talent and entrepreneurship

Alice Bentinck

CPO
Co-founder of Entrepreneur First, passionate about helping the world's best potential founders

Jonny Clifford

Partner and General Manager, London
Leads EF London, supported companies to raise over $100m in seed funding

Coralie Chaufour

Partner and General Manager, Paris
Engagement Manager at McKinsey and corporate lawyer, graduated from Harvard and Sciences Po

Tom Shinner

COO
Experienced board director & co-founder bringing experience from government & management consultancy

Bernadette Cho

Partner and General Manager, Singapore
Angel investor with high-level experience from across the startup, technology and non-profit sectors

Ashutosh Vikram

Form Manager
Serial entrepreneur, co-founded India's largest tech-driven supply chain platform

Ashwin Chandra

Entrepreneur in Residence
Two-time founder supporting teams to ideate and build backable companies

Philipp Herkelmann

Partner and General Manager, Berlin
Leads EF Germany, experience global leading tech companies in Europe and the Valley, Angel Investor

Rachel Zimmer

Partner and General Manager, Toronto
Exited founder and startup mentor, passionate about accelerating Canadian entrepreneurship

Bogdan Knezevic

Form Manager, Toronto
Mentor to founders throughout their EF journey, experience both investment and startup side

Matt Clifford articles