Alice Bentinck, co-founder and CEO of Entrepreneurs First, joins to discuss the company’s unique approach to backing founders. Unlike traditional investors who focus on ideas, Entrepreneurs First bets on individuals first, supporting talented technologists before they even start a company. Alice explains that the next generation of transformative startups will emerge from the passions and insights of these young entrepreneurs, often building in their bedrooms and exploring new trends before anyone else sees them. The program runs across Europe, India, and the U.S., with all founders now relocating to the Bay Area to accelerate growth, gain access to investors and customers faster, and thrive in one of the world’s most competitive startup environments. Alice also shares how her team scouts talent globally, akin to a Hollywood-style talent agency, identifying individuals with rare traits such as exceptional drive, intelligence, and a belief in their own potential. By investing in people rather than ideas, Entrepreneurs First positions itself uniquely in the market, providing founders the tools, environment, and guidance to create the next generation of high-impact companies.
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And Alice Bentinck joins us now via Zoom.
Alice is the co-founder and CEO of Entrepreneurs First.
Alice, it's really nice to have you joining taking stock today.
Thanks for taking the time.
Why is this specific group of investors betting on individuals over ideas right now?
Well, we're delighted to be backed now by some of the world's most influential both founders and investors, and the reason why they're interested in backing the next generation of talent, i.e., individuals, before they necessarily have a company, is that one of our strong beliefs is that the next generation of outstanding companies will come from whatever that wave of entrepreneurs is most interested in.
We don't have a thesis on a particular technology.
Our thesis is on the individual, on the talent.
And if you think about tracking trends, we believe the people who know the trends best are those 22 year old technologists that are building in their bedrooms, obsessively diving through different parts of the internet.
Those are the ones that we want to back, and that's what our investors are excited to be part of.
Alice, please correct me if I have this wrong.
Are, are you requiring all EF founders to relocate physically to the Bay Area?
And what do you see as really being the draw for that particular part of California?
So we run our program across Europe, India, and also the US, but we do believe there is something particularly special about the Bay Area.
You know this is the the most fertile ground in the entire world for building early stage startups, and so we do now relocate all of our companies to the Bay Area and we see this transforms a couple of things.
Firstly, It transforms their speed and velocity.
They're able to get to customers faster, they're able to get to investors faster, and secondly, we do find it transforms their ambition.
And this is one of the most exciting and competitive locations in the world to build a company, but that competition actually makes the founders better.
It pushes them to be at the very top of their game.
Um, so since we've started moving our companies here, we've seen average evaluations for our startups more than double, um, and the speed to raise be cut to a matter of days rather than a number of weeks.
Talk to me about the recruitment process, leveraging college campuses, not just here in the United States but really all around the world.
So we really see ourselves as akin to CAA, you know, the big talent agency for Hollywood stars.
I have a team of investors that go out to the world's best college campuses into different communities, and their job is to identify individuals who haven't even yet founded a company, but who we believe have the behaviors and the mindsets to be one of the world's most impactful and exceptional founders.
So they're going out talent spotting, and this really is a craft rather than a science, you know, understanding the sort of behaviors we're looking for, some of which are obvious, which are, you know, biased to action, speed, intelligence, but some of which are really hard to identify, hidden megalomania, um, high personal exceptionalism, a strong belief that the world is conspiring in their favor.
And that's what my team is spending the majority of their time doing across three continents.
Alice, I apologize, I didn't mean to cut off your previous answer.
What does it look like to compete with other top tech firms for talent?
So competing with other top tech firms, the thing I would say is that the status quo is still really strong.
You know, when you're in the Bay Area, it feels like everyone is still, you know, everyone is trying to found a startup.
You don't have to go very far out of, you know, this small part of the world to realize that the status quo of staying in academia.
Staying in an existing job is still very strong.
So yes, we do compete with other employers, but it's very rare we compete with other investors.
Pretty much all of the other world's venture capitalists are investing in teams and companies that have an idea, whereas we're going that one stage earlier and just investing in the individual.
Alice Bentinck, co-founder, CEO of Entrepreneurs First, thanks a lot for being on the show.
Great to have you.