Entrepreneurs First

Entrepreneurs First was founded in 2011 by Matt Clifford and Alice Bentinck, who had worked as management consultants at McKinsey & Company since 2009. According to Clifford, the model was inspired by a McKinsey project to develop a technology cluster in East London using university graduates to create startups. Clifford and Bentinck subsequently left McKinsey to establish the program independently.^[5] Clifford originally served as CEO while Bentinck was the CPO.^[6] In 2023 Alice took over as CEO and Matt become chair.

McKinsey & Company provided seed funding, and KPMG, Microsoft, and Sky were early corporate sponsors.^[7]

Bentinck founded Code First: Girls in late 2012, an initiative aimed at increasing the representation of women in the technology and digital workforce.^[8]

In 2016, after four years of operating exclusively in London, Entrepreneurs First announced its expansion to Singapore.^[9][10]

Clifford and Bentinck were awarded MBEs in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to business.^[11] In 2017, it was announced that Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and Partner at Greylock, was leading a $12.4 million investment into Entrepreneurs First.^[12] As part of his investment, Hoffman joined the board.^[13]

In 2018, Entrepreneurs First expanded to four additional capitals: Berlin, Hong Kong, Paris and Bangalore.^[14] The company closed its Hong Kong office in 2019,^[3] and opened a Toronto office in 2020.^[15][16] The Berlin, Canadian, and Singaporean office closed in Spring 2023 ^[17]

In 2021, it announced a partnership with Tezos Foundation to launch a platform for building Web3 startups in London, which will begin in October 2022.^[18]

In July 2022, Entrepreneurs First announced the raise of a $158 million Series C.^[19][20] Investors in the round included John Collison; Patrick Collison; Taavet Hinrikus; Reid Hoffman; Matt Mullenweg; Tom Blomfield; Nat Friedman; Demis Hassabis; Mustafa Suleyman; Elad Gil and Lachy Groom.^[19]

In October 2023, Entrepreneurs First opened a San Francisco office and held its first startup demo day there in April 2024. Following this, startups from London, Bangalore, Paris, and New York were required to relocate to San Francisco and incorporate in the United States.^[21]

The portfolio of startups cofounded through the program includes over 600 companies with a combined valuation of over $11 billion as of 2025.^[22] These range from early-stage businesses to companies that have achieved unicorn status or been acquired.

Entrepreneurs First's portfolio companies have been backed by leading investors, including Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Softbank and GV (formerly Google Ventures).

Companies founded through the program include Tractable, Cleo, Omnipresent, Aztec, Hertzwell, Transcelestial, Airbank, and Magic Pony Technology, which was acquired by Twitter for a reported $150 million in 2016.^[23]

Investors in Entrepreneurs First include: Reid Hoffman (cofounder of LinkedIn), John and Patrick Collison (cofounders of Stripe), Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman (cofounders of Deepmind), Taavet Hinrikus (cofounder of Wise), Matt Mullenweg, Tom Blomfield (cofounder of Monzo and GoCardless), Nat Friedman (former CEO of GitHub), Sara Clemens (former COO of WHATNOT and Twitch), Matt Robinson (cofounder of Nested and GoCardless), Patrick O’Shaughnessy (Positive Sum), Sten Tamkivi, Elad Gil, and Lachy Groom.

Summarize Fact Check

Entrepreneurs First runs a 12-week program called 'FORM', which brings individuals together to establish cofounding partnerships and develop business concepts.^[24] Participants test partnership dynamics and iterate initial corporate ideas. During this time, participants are paid a stipend to cover their living costs.

At the end of this 3-month period, participants pitch their companies to Entrepreneurs First's 'Investment Committee' to receive a first 'pre-seed' investment in exchange for equity.^[25] If they accept this investment then founders move to the second part of the program called 'LAUNCH'.

During the second 12-week phase, called 'LAUNCH', participants typically move to San Francisco. The program concludes with a Demo Day at the San Francisco office, which has featured presentations attended by investors such as Reid Hoffman and Patrick Collison.

Following Demo Day, founders continue to gain exposure to hundreds of top Seed VCs and angels across the US, Europe and Asia through the EF Demo Day online platform.

Application process

The application process evaluates candidates individually rather than requiring an existing business plan or corporate team.^[7] The program looks for candidates who have either recently graduated, or have a few years of industry experience.^[26]

The program receives a large number of applications per cohort but is highly selective, taking only a small percentage of these people per cohort.^[27] Many applicants are graduates from University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, University of Edinburgh, University College London, and the University of St Andrews.^[28] The organization recruits university graduates directly, presenting the program as an alternative to corporate employment or postgraduate academic research.^[29]

Entrepreneurs First differs from other accelerators such as Y Combinator and Wayra in that it works with individuals rather than companies.^[30] However, its successful startups have gone on to receive investor funding from Y Combinator, as well as from Balderton Capital, Index Ventures, Notion Capital, and Octopus Investments.^[29]

In July 2015, Entrepreneurs First announced the establishment of an £8.5 million fund, backed by Encore Capital Infocomm Investments, and angel investors such as Robin Klein and Alex Chesterman, which will enable it to accept 200 participants per year for the next three years.^[29]

The San Francisco office serves as the company's central location for assisting participants with startup development and fundraising.