Entrepreneurs First

Found, don't follow | Entrepreneurs First

We turn exceptional individuals into funded founders. We back you first, then give you a bridge to Silicon Valley.

Entrepreneurs First

FOUND, DON'T FOLLOW

We turn exceptional individuals into funded founders. We back you first, then give you a bridge to Silicon Valley.

You might have an early idea, or be testing a cofounder. You might have nothing. What we’re most interested in is you and your potential.

\ Joining EF was a life-changing decision.

Joe Root , founder of Permutive, backed by SoftBank

We build unicorn cofounding teams from scratch.

We help you find your optimal cofounder through our unique matching process.

If you’re selected to join EF, you’ll:

Gain access to a pool of exceptional cofounders screened for their skills and behaviour

Attend our weekend residential retreat to kickstart your founding journey

Receive expert advice on who to pair with and how to test potential cofounders

Join a cohort of peers you’ll work alongside at one of our global offices

Participate in community talent events such as our Build Retreats and Hackathons, in partnership with the likes of Hugging Face, Lovable and Mistral

See more about who you could cofound with here .

\ Without Entrepreneurs First there would be no Sonantic, as I wouldn’t have met Zeena. Eternally grateful.

John Flynn , cofounder of Sonantic, exited to Spotify

We support you to go from emerging idea, to first revenue.

Individuals join us at the very start of their founding journey. Some may have an idea, others will be working out which idea to pursue.

We give you everything you need to move super fast and, by Demo Day, the top performing founders will be generating hundreds of thousands of revenue.

You’ll have a dedicated advisor on the ground to help you shape your idea—and a San Francisco-based partner to help you crack the U.S. market. With hands-on support from both sides of the Atlantic, we accelerate your path to building a world-class company.

You’ll also have access to our intimate, off the record, fireside chats.

Recent advisors and speakers include some of the world’s most prominent founders:

John Collison , founder of Stripe

Adam D’Angelo , founder of Quora, Board of OpenAI

Eric Schmidt , former CEO of Google

Demis Hassabis , founder of DeepMind and Head of Google AI

Kevin Hartz , founder of Eventbrite, founding GP of A*

Daniel Gross , founder of Safe Superintelligence

Nat Friedman , founder of NFDG, former CEO of Github

Rakesh Tondon , founder of Dr. Treat

Girish Mathrubootham , founder of Freshworks

Cyan Bannister , founder of Zivity, founding GP of Long Journey Ventures

We’re backed by Silicon Valley’s elite founders and investors. You will be too.

Our investors include some of the most successful founders and investors in the world, including Founders Fund, Greylock, John Collison (founder – Stripe), Patrick Collison (founder – Stripe), Reid Hoffman (founder – LinkedIn), Eric Schmidt (former CEO – Google), Demis Hassabis (founder – Google DeepMind ), Taavet Hinrikus (founder – Wise), Matt Mullenweg (founder – WordPress), Charlie Songhurst (Board member – Meta), Christa Davies (Board member – Stripe), Lachy Groom (founder – Physical Intelligence), Aidan Gomez (founder – Cohere), Mati Staniszewski (founder – ElevenLabs), Danny Rimer (Partner – Index Ventures), Matt Cohler (former General Partner – Benchmark).

From getting your visa to accessing venture capital, we help you break into the world’s top startup ecosystem, including:

Workshops on how to do customer development for the U.S. market

3 months of office space in central San Francisco

Hands-on support to prepare your fundraising materials, including your pitch and deck

The opportunity to pitch at our San Francisco Demo Day attended by 200+ partners from the world’s best VCs

Bespoke introductions to some of the world’s best investors

Delaware C Corp incorporation guidance and relocation support

Our companies typically raise between $1-7M within a couple of weeks of pitching at our SF Demo Day. Founders Fund, Sequoia, a16z, Index Ventures, Initialized, AI Grant, Emergence, Khosla Ventures, Susa Ventures, SignalFire, NfX, Abstract Ventures, Bessemer, Plural, Pear, Gradient and many more have invested in our companies after Demo Day.

We invest early, fast, and on founder-friendly terms.

Equity-free grant to support you while you’re still ideating

Up to $250K investment once you form a company

Up to $5M in follow-on funding through your future rounds — and continued support up to Series B

Over $600K in credits to help you move at warp speed: $350K in Azure credits; $250K+ from OpenAI, Anthropic, GitHub, PostHog, Datadog, ElevenLabs and more

Office space for nine months in central London, Bangalore and San Francisco

We’ve built companies that are now worth billions of dollars and are backed by the world’s best VCs.

EF’s portfolio of companies is now collectively valued at over $16B.

Examples include:

Aztec : the leading privacy layer for ethereum, backed by a16z

Cleo : AI financial management platform, backed by Sofina

Neptune Robotics : underwater robotics for ship cleaning, backed by Sequoia

Omnea : AI supply chain management platform, backed by First Round Capital

Magdrive : next generation satellite propulsion, backed by Founders Fund

Opply : AI powered supply chain management, backed by Index Ventures

You can see our full portfolio here .

Watch our recent San Francisco Demo Day pitches to see our latest companies:

April 2024 , opening fireside chat with Reid Hoffman , founder of LinkedIn

October 2024 , opening fireside chat with Patrick Collison , founder of Stripe

April 2025 , opening fireside chat with Vinod Khosla , founder of Khosla Ventures

October 2025 , opening fireside chat with Jack Clark , founder of Anthropic

January 2026 , opening fireside chat with Dwarkesh Patel

Interested?

We turn exceptional individuals into funded founders.

You might have an early idea, or be testing a cofounder. You might have nothing. What we’re most interested in is you and your potential.

EF is for individuals who have:

continuously outperformed their peer group

built products, organizations or startups in the past

the ambition to build a company in the U.S.

APPLY HERE

\ Entrepreneurs First completely reframed what I thought I could achieve so early on in my career… it put me on a different trajectory.

Barney Hussey-Yeo , founder of Cleo, backed by Sofina

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