Entrepreneur First: The talent investor that funds you before you have a team

Entrepreneurs First — EF — flips the venture model on its head. Instead of funding companies, the London-founded talent investor backs individuals before they have a company, a team, or even an idea, based purely on talent. Founded 2011 by Matt Clifford (Chairman) and Alice Bentinck (CEO), it has helped create 600+ companies with a collective portfolio value above $16B, per its official site.

Thesis and sweet spot

EF bets on talented outliers — people who have continuously outperformed their peer group and have the ambition to build a company in the US — and manufactures the co-founder relationship from scratch. Historically deep-tech-centric (AI, quantum, robotics, space, AR/VR, medical devices), its current portfolio spans AI, fintech, robotics and space, supply chain and crypto infra. What EF looks for: builders who have shipped products, organisations or startups before.

The deal

Per joinef.com's current terms: an equity-free grant during the ideation phase (amount not disclosed), then up to $250K once a company is formed, with up to $5M in follow-on funding through later rounds and support up to Series B. EF says its companies typically raise between $1M and $7M within weeks of pitching at its San Francisco Demo Day, in front of 200+ VC partners. One honest gap: the exact equity percentage EF takes for the $250K is not publicly disclosed. The programme has historically run in two phases once called Form (co-founder matching, ending in an Investment Committee decision) and Launch (building, then Demo Day) — though the current site no longer brands them that way.

Notable alumni

Magic Pony — sold to Twitter for a reported $150M, just 18 months after its founders met on EF. Sonantic exited to Spotify. Others include Cleo (AI finance), Permutive (backed by SoftBank), Aztec (privacy layer for Ethereum, backed by a16z), Neptune Robotics (Sequoia), Magdrive (satellite propulsion, Founders Fund), Omnea and Opply (Index Ventures) — with follow-on investors across the portfolio including Sequoia, a16z, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures and Bessemer.

The India story

EF launched in India on January 31, 2019, with Bengaluru as its sixth global location and Esha Tiwary as General Manager at launch. The first cohort selected 50 founders from 900 applicants, with $25M committed to Indian deep-tech startups. Early finalists included PakkaProfile (blue-collar workforce profiling, with Swiggy and Zomato as customers), AarogyaAI (AI diagnosis of drug-resistant TB), BrainSight.AI (AI psychiatry diagnosis), LightSpeedAI Labs, Kount and Opmagic.ai. Bengaluru remains an active office hub on joinef.com alongside London and San Francisco.

People and backers

EF's own backers read like a who's who: Founders Fund, Greylock, John and Patrick Collison (Stripe), Reid Hoffman, Eric Schmidt, Demis Hassabis (DeepMind), Taavet Hinrikus (Wise), Matt Mullenweg and Matt Cohler. Advisors and speakers have included Girish Mathrubootham of Freshworks — a deliberate India connection.

Programs and perks

The perks package is heavyweight: $600K+ in tech credits — $350K Azure plus $250K+ from OpenAI, Anthropic, GitHub, PostHog, Datadog and ElevenLabs — nine months of office space in London, Bangalore and San Francisco, Delaware C-Corp incorporation guidance, visa and relocation support, fireside chats with founders like John Collison and Demis Hassabis, and bespoke investor introductions.