Entrepreneur First

www.joinef.com

VCMatch tracks Entrepreneur First as an investor focused on AI/ML, Enterprise SaaS, and Data Infrastructure companies, Pre-Seed and Seed rounds, United States, San Francisco, and Europe markets, and $1m to $7m check sizes. Upload your deck to compare your startup against the full private matching profile.

Check Size

$1m to $7m

Stages

Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth

Focus Areas

AI/ML, Enterprise SaaS, Data Infrastructure

Geography

United States, San Francisco, and Europe

Investment Thesis

Entrepreneurs First’s investment philosophy is to “create supply” of exceptional startups by finding, enabling and funding founders at the very earliest possible moment — often before there is a team, idea or traction (their repeated phrase: “Day minus 100”). Rather than competing to “dig for gold” in existing dealflow, EF focuses on talent-first, data-driven creation: recruiting extraordinary people, putting them through an iterative methodology, and studying what inputs and interventions turn outliers into founder-led companies.

They combine hands-on operator support, a global network and commit capital and infrastructure to accelerate founder progress into the world’s top startup ecosystem (San Francisco), aiming to turn nascent founder potential into high-growth, VC-backable companies quickly (their claim that companies “typically raise between $1-7M within a couple of weeks of pitching at our SF Demo Day”).

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Investment Focus

Who should take a closer look

Entrepreneur First is most relevant for founders raising Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A rounds in AI/ML, Enterprise SaaS, Data Infrastructure, and Cybersecurity, especially across United States, San Francisco, and Europe, with public check-size signals around $1m to $7m.

Focus statement

EF focuses on sourcing and backing exceptional individuals at the pre-team, pre-idea stage ("before there’s even a team or an idea" / "Day minus 100"), building curated cohorts and providing capital, peer groups and infrastructure to accelerate company creation — with particular appetite for frontier technology and research-oriented deep tech (AI, life sciences, climate tech, space, robotics, hardware) and a strong emphasis on helping founders access the San Francisco VC ecosystem (visa, incorporation, 3 months SF office, Demo Day).

Value Add

Talent Investing model: "Talent Investing is unique because it creates the supply of startups for that ecosystem" — EF invests in people and potential, not just decks or traction.
Pre‑founder approach / Day minus 100: they recruit individuals before there is a team or idea and run an iterative, measured program to create companies from scratch.
Data-driven creation: "putting them through an iterative, data driven methodology" and "studying outliers from before they even know they’re outliers... right through to the day they prove it."
Operational end-to-end support into SF: immigration, Delaware C‑corp guidance, 3 months office in central San Francisco, pitch/deck prep, and a Demo Day attended by "200+ partners from the world’s best VCs."
Deep network and high-profile backers: investor base and advisors include Founders Fund, Greylock, Reid Hoffman, Patrick & John Collison, Demis Hassabis, Eric Schmidt and others — used to open investor doors post-Demo Day.
Philosophical shift from competition to creation: explicit positioning against traditional VC 'arms race' — aim to "own the supply of a scarce resource" by manufacturing founders rather than just competing for existing ones.