Entrepreneur First
How to get into Entrepreneurs First according to the founders that did it
Our take
Best if you have no cofounder, a real technical edge, and can commit six months. A weak trade if you have traction and just want a check.
Acceptance
~5%
Equity
~10%
Funding
£120K
Duration
6 months
Stage
Pre-Seed
HQ
London
We asked the founders how Entrepreneur First really went.
Every interview behind this page is one we ran ourselves. The numbers and quotes come straight from founders who went through Entrepreneur First, in their own words.
Who Entrepreneur First is for, and who should skip it.
Best for
- You have no cofounder yet and want help finding the right one
- Your edge is deep tech, research, or a hard technical skill
- You are early, high agency, and ready to build from a standing start
- You can quit your job and commit full time for six months
Skip it if
- You already have a company with traction and only need capital
- You want funding without giving up around 10% of your equity
- You need hands-on help reaching product-market fit, not a blank page
- You cannot go full time for the full six months
What it's actually like at Entrepreneur First
Entrepreneur First asks for something most accelerators don't. You quit your job before you have a cofounder or even an idea. There is no part-time version. You arrive in one of EF's cohort cities with about fifty other people, a Slack channel, and an empty seat next to you where a cofounder is supposed to go, and the clock starts.
The six months run in three phases. The first is team formation, and EF runs it like speed dating. You sit across from stranger after stranger looking for someone whose strengths cover your gaps and whose values you can stand at close range. Prak Kodali, who came out of EF running pFIBRE in Singapore, put the bar where it belongs.
I spend more time with my co-founder than with my husband, so we'd better vibe even on the hard days.
Not everyone clicks on the first pass, and EF doesn't pretend otherwise. Dan Swygart cycled through the gauntlet harder than most before EasyIntro stuck.
I went through more co-founders and ideas than anyone in my cohort, around four or five co-founders and 15 different ideas.
What carries people through is the pace and the people in the room. Support comes from the Entrepreneurs in Residence, founders and investors who have done it before, on weekly calls and through their introductions. The access is not handed out evenly. The founders who got the most from EF said the same thing. They pushed for it, asked for the intro, chased the advice, and the program met them there.
What you give and what you get
Acceptance sits around 5%. The screen is less about your CV than how you think. A short online application, a get-to-know-you call, then a technical assessment and a behavioral interview built to read flexibility, risk tolerance, and whether you can tell a clear story about yourself. A lot of founders never applied at all. EF found them on LinkedIn first.
The money comes at the Investment Committee, around the three-month mark, and only part of the room walks away with it. The headline is £120,000. What lands in the company is closer to £80,000 in cash once the program fee comes out, structured as a convertible note that converts to roughly 10% of the company at your next round.
How founders actually got in
If there is one thing the founders agree on, it is that EF is buying conviction, not polish. Show leadership with real examples, lean into the niche you know better than anyone, and do not undersell yourself in the room. Side projects help. They read as a bias toward action, which is the trait EF is actually testing for.
Sophia Parvizi-Wayne almost missed the window entirely.
The application deadline was 12 hours away, so on a whim I applied, and the next morning EF was on the phone.
What the interviews actually probe, in the founders' own words.
- Leadership and execution, told through specific past results
- How you think under pressure, more than what you have already built
- Flexibility and how much risk you can carry
- Narrative clarity, whether you can explain yourself in one clean line
- Real depth in a niche you know cold
Their own shortcut was to read How to Be a Founder before you walk in, and to understand EF's culture well enough that the interview feels like a conversation, not an exam.
The founders we talked to.
Alumni include Tractable, Magic Pony (acq. Twitter), Cleo, Aztec Protocol, Permutive.
Want the mentorship without the accelerator?
An accelerator's real value is the people who have done it before. GrowthMentor gives you that on its own. Unlimited 1:1 calls with founders and operators, from $50 a month, no equity, no six-month lock-in.
RecommendedFormat
Live 1:1 calls, on demand- Entrepreneur First
- 6-month cohort program
Cost
$50-150/mo, no equity- Entrepreneur First
- £120K for ~10% equity
Time to value
Same day- Entrepreneur First
- 6 months, full-time
Commitment
None, cancel anytime- Entrepreneur First
- Quit your job, relocate
Selectivity
Open to every member- Entrepreneur First
- ~5% accepted
The network
750+ vetted operators- Entrepreneur First
- One cohort plus the EIRs
What you get
The right person for each problem- Entrepreneur First
- A cofounder and a check
From $50 a month · no equity.
Questions founders ask about Entrepreneur First.
Around 5%. EF screens less for your resume than for how you think, through a short application, an intro call, and technical plus behavioral interviews that test flexibility, risk tolerance, and narrative clarity.
Roughly 10%. The headline investment is £120,000, structured as a convertible note. After the program fee, about £80,000 lands in the company as cash, and the note converts to around 10% at your next round.
No. You join without one. The first phase of the program is cofounder matching, run like structured speed dating, though some founders end up finding their cofounder outside the cohort.
Six months, full time. You are expected to quit your job and commit completely, from team formation through the Investment Committee and demo day.
It depends on where you are. If you are early, technical, and have no cofounder, the matching and the standing start are hard to replicate. If you already have traction and just want capital, the six-month, full-time, give-up-10% shape is a poor trade.
