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Entrepreneurs First

Entrepreneurs First (EF) is a talent investor and startup accelerator that builds unicorn cofounding teams from scratch, matching exceptional individuals with cofounders before they have a company or even a fully formed idea. It supports founders from early ideation through first revenue and fundraising, offering residential retreats, advisors, office space, and access to top investors, primarily serving ambitious individuals seeking to build startups in the U.S. and other major startup ecosystems.
London, GB

Description

Entrepreneurs First helps individuals find optimal cofounders through a unique matching process, then supports them from an emerging idea through to first revenue and beyond. Selected participants attend a weekend residential retreat, receive expert advice on cofounder pairing, join a cohort of peers at one of EF's global offices, and participate in community events such as Build Retreats and Hackathons run in partnership with companies like Hugging Face, Lovable and Mistral. EF provides dedicated advisors, U.S. market access support via a San Francisco-based partner, fireside chats with prominent founders and investors (such as John Collison, Adam D'Angelo, Eric Schmidt, and Demis Hassabis), and hands-on help with visas, fundraising materials, and investor introductions culminating in a San Francisco Demo Day attended by 200+ VC partners. Financially, EF offers an equity-free grant during ideation, up to $250K investment once a company is formed, up to $5M in follow-on funding through to Series B, and over $600K in credits (from Azure, OpenAI, Anthropic, GitHub, PostHog, Datadog, ElevenLabs and more), plus nine months of office space in London, Bangalore and San Francisco. Its portfolio, valued collectively at over $16B, includes companies such as Aztec, Cleo, Neptune Robotics, Omnea, Magdrive and Opply, and it is backed by investors including Founders Fund, Greylock, and prominent individual founders like John Collison, Patrick Collison, Reid Hoffman, and Eric Schmidt.