Alice Bentinck

How @join_ef now works: 1. We find you in Europe, India or the US. 2. We select you based on your founder potential. 3. You join one of our programmes in London, Paris, Bangalore or SF. 4. If not already in SF, we help you re-locate to San Francisco to raise your seed round

The best part of the raise announcement has been hearing from our alumni. People who came to EF with ambition, restlessness, and a sense that they were capable of more. People who found a cofounder, navigated the idea maze, and went on to build companies backed by the world’s best VCs. It’s been a privilege to back them before the world knows their names. Now it’s time to double down.

Congrats to @amaankahmad and Sid on their raise! An incredible team building a super important product

We're excited to announce Pathfinder's $4M seed funding led by Gradient and Reach Capital to put education back into the hands of parents  - pathfindercard.com/seed

Episode here shows.acast.com/dannyinthevall…

What does it really take to find the next generation of Zucks, Collisons and Perkins? I spoke to @dannyfortson and Katie Prescott about this on the @thetimes Tech podcast. Link in the comments

We had the fabulous Alice Bentinck of Entrepreneurs First on the pod last week, just after they raised $200m in fresh capital to back people - often before they even have a company. So what do they look for in tech founders? Megalomania. Listen here: pod.fo/e/3a7b2b

What if 10 weeks could shape the next 10 years of your life? That’s the idea behind EF: giving ambitious people the chance to test who they want to build with, what they want to build, and what might actually be worth a decade of their life. Alice and Matt have worked with 3,000+ early-career individuals, helping them build companies from scratch. Charlie Songhurst has invested in 600+ companies and worked alongside founders like John and Patrick Collison and Mark Zuckerberg. Together, they share career advice for young, ambitious people trying to find their life’s work. joinef.substack.com/p/why-your-20s…

Customers move faster in the US. This means startups can move faster. This is something I previously massively underrated. @jonnyclifford on @ScalingEurope

If I were raising a seed round and could choose just one person to be involved, it would be Charlie Songhurst. Charlie is the smartest advisor out there and at @join_ef, @Alicebentinck and I have been lucky to have him on our board for many years (though these days we have to share him with Zuck…) Alice and I sat down with Charlie to talk about what he’s learned about backing exceptional people - and why your 20s are more important than you think…

CAA scouts the next Hollywood stars. EF identifies the next generation of founders. > Before the company. > Before the idea. > Before the world knows their name. That’s our model.

We hosted a big party in London to bring together the people who made @join_ef what it is today; founders, team past and present, and everyone who believed in EF when it wasn't obvious. An enormous thank you for your support, challenge and many, many contributions! Matt Clifford and I are so grateful. This new $200m of capital means we can do even more of what we do best - finding and working with exceptional individuals at the very start of their founding journey. If this was a demo day pitch it would be remiss of me not to throw in... And we're just getting started. 😆

Competition makes founders better. That’s why we relocate the @join_EF companies to the Bay Area. The result? Valuations more than doubled. Fundraising has been compressed from weeks to days. By being part of the most competitive ecosystem in the world, you get pushed to your peak. Thanks to @NYSE for hosting me to talk about our recent fundraise.

@benfielding @gensynai @join_ef Thanks Ben!

@gensynai wouldn’t exist without @join_ef they take more risk than anyone in the venture space and it’s awesome to see that play out clearly remember our days in the biscuit factory nearly 7 years ago and highly recommend to aspiring founders proud to be an alumni

@benfielding @gensynai @matthewclifford @join_ef @ali_susskind Ali is the best!

ali interviewed me for EF 7 years ago and for some reason she let me through she has supported @gensynai alongside @matthewclifford, @Alicebentinck, and the rest of the @join_ef team ever since if you’re thinking of founding something, you should talk to @ali_susskind

Great to chat to @amyrlewin at @Siftedeu about our most recent fundraise: + $200m of new capital to back the next generation of great founders + Entrepreneurs First now valued at $1.3bn + The companies built through @join_ef are now worth $16bn, up from $3bn in 2021 when we last raised Link in the comments for the full write up.

@marialuquea2 @join_ef We're so lucky to have you on the team!

@Alicebentinck @join_ef Congrats 💜 so proud to be part of the EF family!

Today, we're announcing @join_EF's Series D: $200M of fresh capital, at a unicorn+ valuation. We're in a golden age of entrepreneurship. More individuals than ever before are taking the leap, with the world's most transformative technology at their fingertips. For over a decade, we've backed extraordinary people without asking what idea they're working on. We call this Talent Investing; believing in someone from Day 1 and giving them the peer group, environment, and capital to find their life's work. And it works! Companies built through EF are now worth $16bn, up from $3bn at our last raise in 2021. Thank you to our investors for their continued belief, the EF team for bringing this vision to life, and the founders who rejected the status quo to build globally important companies with us. And, of course, a huge thank you to @matthewclifford, my exceptional cofounder.

@sharpshoot Thanks for your support Sumon!

EF is creating net new entrepreneurs in the world. Pay attention to their impact.