Entrepreneurs First

Entrepreneurs First is an international talent investor that supports individuals in building technology companies. Founded in 2011 by Matt Clifford and Alice Bentinck, the company has offices in London, Paris, Bangalore, New York, and San Francisco. Their approach involves finding and investing in individuals with the potential to become founders, often before they have a co-founder or idea. Entrepreneurs First has helped create more than 600 companies with a combined value of over $11 billion as of 2025. The company runs a 12-week program called 'FORM', which recruits talented individuals to meet co-founders and build technology companies from scratch. Over the course of the program, individuals are encouraged to test co-founding partnerships with other participants while developing and testing initial company ideas. At the end of this period, participants pitch their companies to Entrepreneurs First's 'Investment Committee' to receive a first 'pre-seed' investment in exchange for equity. If they accept this investment, founders move to the second part of the program called 'LAUNCH'. Entrepreneurs First's portfolio companies have been backed by leading investors, including Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, SoftBank, and GV (formerly Google Ventures). Among its successful startups are Tractable (valued at $1 billion as of July 2021), Cleo (named Europe's next billion-dollar startup), Omnipresent, Aztec, Hertzwell, Transcelestial, Airbank, and Magic Pony Technology, which sold to Twitter for a reported $150 million only 18 months after the founders met on the program.

Exceptional individuals with the potential to become founders, often before they have a co-founder or idea.