My Experience at Entrepreneur First — The World’s Leading Talent Investor
The people you meet at coffee shops, imposter syndrome and co-founder speed dating.
What is EF?
Entrepreneur First (EF) is an early-stage startup accelerator. However, they are different from other accelerators in that they do not invest in ideas; they invest in people. They recruit people before the idea, put them in a room with 80 other high performing people and tell them to start something that will change the world. Think of it as cofounder speed dating with the most talented people you’ve ever met in your life. If they like the idea you build during the program, they give you funding and help you raise future funding rounds through their extensive network.
As per the EF website:
“[EF is] The best place in the world to meet your cofounder and build a technology startup from scratch”
Before EF
I was sitting at a coffee shop in Johannesburg doing some work when I saw a guys laptop with a coding editor open. The coder in me could not resist but look to see if I could work out what he was coding, I eventually started feeling quite creepy and thought just asking would be far less weird and more effective at satisfying my curious itch.
What started as a simple question of what are you coding turned into a 30-minute conversation that changed the trajectory of my entire life. He told me about the EF program in Singapore, and the more he told me about it, the more excited I became.
At the time I was working on another startup, and my biggest frustration was the lack of a cofounder, the lack of a thought partner that would push and motivate me further. Starting a startup is hard; starting a startup alone is even harder. The idea of having a pool of 80 high performing individuals I could pick from who all had the same goals as me was an opportunity to tempting not to pursue. So I applied.
The EF Program
After a rigorous interview process, I got the news that I was accepted and to put it lightly I was over the moon. However, the news was bittersweet because I got this news in March 2020 — the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, the program had to be remote, and the prospect of my moving to Singapore was put on hold. I considered rejecting the offer and re-applying when the world was a back to normal. In truth, I was not too optimistic at my chances of finding the right cofounder remotely at a 6 hour time difference.
However, a quick LinkedIn stalk of some of the members in my cohort and I quickly changed my mind. Every other person in my cohort had a PhD in advanced fields like chemical engineering, AI, quantum computing or nanorobotics. The rest were either seasoned domain experts in fields like banking and supply chain or successful startup founders who have exited a company before.
The program started on August 1st, 2020, but even before then, I started the dating process and tried speaking to as many people as possible. The distinct feeling I remember was imposter syndrome, how could I a recent university graduate with one startup in my belt ask a quantum computing PhD for 50% of a company we would start, how would I provide an equal amount of value?
Edge
EF has a phenomenal thesis about what makes a startup, and it’s team successful: Edge.
An individual’s edge is their unfair advantage in solving a problem, compared to other founders. Edge is what gives your startup the right to win amongst your competitors. There are three types of “Edge.”
- Technical: You have a PhD or are a part of a research team on the cutting edge of your field. There are only a handful of other people in the world that know as much as you do about a specific topic.
- Domain: You have 10+ years of experience in a particular industry; you know how it works, what the problems are and have a network of people in that domain that can help you.
- Catalyst
I did not even know the catalyst edge existed until EF, and after learning about it, it has fundamentally shifted my perspective on talent. A catalyst is someone who can enable (catalyse) another person edge. A catalyst is someone who knows how to build a product and sell it to people; they know how to take a startup from idea to product, from 0–1. This is important because a domain edge can sell their vision, but they likely can’t build it. A technical edge can develop a new scientific breakthrough, but they likely can’t convert it to a viable company. The catalyst acts as the bridge for these edges to bring a product to market.
Before EF I thought the only two valid edges were domain and technical, which severely knocked my confidence because I just had an undergraduate degree and maybe two years of experience at most.
However, I discovered I was a catalyst. I had experience in building and iterating products quickly and selling them to customers and investors. During the course of the program, I realised how valuable this edge was because the other edges in my cohort needed catalysts to turn their ideas into reality.
Choosing A Partner
EF pushed us to get into teams quickly, test our idea, test if we work well together, and if it wasn’t working break up and immediately repeat the process with someone else. The decision paralysis I felt of choosing a partner was beyond overwhelming.
I had a shortlist of people who all looked equally as incredible, all I had to go on to make my choice of who to partner with was a couple of hours of conversation (over zoom) and a vague idea of what we could build. Other teams were forming left right and centre throughout the rest of my cohort, and at any moment someone on my shortlist could partner with someone else. And if I chose someone that would be at the opportunity cost of all the other ideas and people I could work with.
Navigating this felt like needing to order from a menu with a million items in less than 30 seconds. However in the case of EF: I could be eating the dish I chose for the next ten years.
Sometimes the best thing to do when you can’t collect more data is just to choose, so that’s what I did I chose a partner and started building.
Breakups
I went through two breakups during my time in EF. These breakups were hard! Despite only knowing these people for a couple of weeks, they felt exactly like breaking up with a significant other. You work back-breaking days for weeks towards a shared vision; you begin fantasising about the impact you can make and all the things you’re both going to indulge in after you IPO. If this all suddenly ends, it can be emotionally jarring.
EF was a huge help in regards to making this breakup process easier. They push you to make strides of progress each week, and if you fail to do so they urge you to consider why and ask if this is the right team? At times they will insist on a breakup which means neither partner needs to take the brunt of responsibility.
Most importantly, they create an environment where this is the norm; the first three months of EF is cofounder speed dating. Like with regular dating you go on a lot of dates, except these dates have way more spreadsheets, and McKinsey reports. And once you find the person, you like you stop going on dates with others. Telling others, you do not want to work with them is still bloody hard! It was the most challenging part of my EF journey. However, there is a shared understanding that this is the very point of the program, which makes it a little easier.
In the end
My partner (Pulkit) and I graduated from the program and raised pre-seed funding from EF. We are working towards redefining math education globally by teaching math to school students through coding www.strivemath.com.
I have learned more through my three-month EF experience than my entire schooling career. I have never been in an environment with such an intense concentration of talent. I learned about my self-worth, how to have hard conversations and pushed my understanding of startups and entrepreneurship to another level.
I would strongly encourage anyone who resonated with my story and wants to start their own company to apply to EF. You can learn more from their website: https://www.joinef.com/
This post is part of a 30-day writing challenge I am doing. Every day for 30 days I am posting an article of at least 500 words. If you notice that I miss a day I will buy you lunch.
