Entrepreneurs First Talent Investing

Who should apply?

Our programs are most valuable for people in the early stages of their career, who can demonstrate that they’ve achieved exceptional outcomes relative to their peers. We call these people ‘outliers’, and look for two specific intrinsics that we believe enables founders to build globally significant companies:

1. Ambition; which amplifies an outlier’s talent, enabling them to build at a scale most can’t imagine. We know this because we’ve seen it. Our founders have an innate, determined urge to build, they are obsessed with big ideas, and bored by anything overly obvious. We look for those with the capacity to visualize how technology will shape the future, and the agency and skills to make it happen.
2. Founder Aptitude; which is the combination of intrinsic characteristics that transform an outlier into a founder. Those who have had others follow their actions and decisions, who have extreme bias to action, and who respond to new challenges by building. We’re for those with the intellectual excellence to anticipate, reimagine, and build the technologies of the future.

What does EF offer?

Cofounder matching

• A tried and tested, systematic cofounder matching process to help you find a compatible CEO/CTO.
• Exposure to a peer-group of exceptional like-minded talent. We curate our batches from leading academic institutions and tech communities around the world and bring people together to inspire and challenge each other.

Program

• A dedicated Talent Investor to help hold you accountable and guide you through your startup journey.
• Company building advice from some of the world’s best experts and founders to help accelerate your ideas and development including how to pitch, fundraise, iterate, and hire.
• Weekly hosted in-person events, pitch competitions, and meetups to facilitate cross learning and discovery.
• Access to prime location, shared office space for the duration of the 12 week Form program in your local hub and subsequent 12 week Launch program in San Francisco.

Funding

• An equity free Talent Investment (grant)*. This is part of our investment in you, designed to cover living costs so founders can fully commit, and does not need to be paid back.
• Up to $250,000 of equity investment* for all teams that pass our Investment Committee and move to San Francisco as part of our Launch program (visa assistance and relocation support provided).
• Exposure to the world’s best investors in the Bay Area and across Europe through our in-person Demo Days in San Francisco and online investor platform.
• Over $200,000 worth of free credits or exclusive partnerships with AWS, Stripe, Vercel, OpenAI, GCP, HSBC, Hubspot, and many more.
• Additional resources to help you build including compute, lab access, and hardware partners.

* Please see local program investment terms (USA, London, Paris, Bangalore) for specific details.

Community

• Exclusive access to the Bay Area startup ecosystem through our series of invite-only, fireside chats with world class founders and leading Silicon Valley investors.
• Access to the global EF community and alumni network stretching back over a decade.
• Internal hiring opportunities, either to build your own team or join another EF startup team as an early hire.