Are you Joining the EF Programme?
Pieces of advice to get the most out of it
I joined the EF programme as part of the 3rd Paris cohort in September 2019. It was a great experience, and quite a journey that pushed me out of my comfort zone. Although, I didn’t end up creating my own company, I did learn a lot about entrepreneurship. In this article, I want to share with you
- Key aspects of the EF programme
- My own experience with EF
- Pieces of advice to get the most out of it
By now, you should have already browsed through the website of Entrepreneur First, or checked out their blog articles. If you haven’t done so, go ahead and get familiar with their specific terms. You probably have gone so far as to search for reviews or testimonies of former participants as well. No judging here. I did the same. There is not much out there, except two old articles here and here, a video review here, and a very recent one here.
Still here!?
OK. Right on! I mean… Read on!
What makes the EF programme so valuable?
You get …
- a clear roadmap for the entrepreneurial journey
- a pool of talented (and potential) co-founders
- the luxury to try, fail, learn — and repeat
- access to engaging mentors and advisors
- investors en mass wooing your startup
If you have ever tried to build a startup yourself, you might know very well how difficult it is to find a great co-founder, to come up with a good idea, and to worry about the administrative jungle of starting a business from scratch or about the fundraising process. You might have read countless books and immersed yourself in blog posts about the entrepreneurial journey, still, you feel you didn’t progress much. You might have even engaged in other startup programs already, but you still feel stuck in one way or another. If you have never been concerned with this topic, but somehow for some reason, you are interested to give it a thought, you might be overwhelmed with all the information out there and don’t quite know where to start.
In all cases, building a startup is no easy task, and the path is covered with obstacles, and some of them have such a high barrier so to prevent ambitious individuals to go until the end. That’s the part where EF comes in.
“Join as an individual, leave with a company.”
The EF programme is trying to help individuals overcoming the barriers of (1) finding a co-founder, (2) developing an idea, and (3) starting a company. The following key aspects are integral part of the success of the EF programme.
A clear roadmap
EF will set out a clear roadmap for leading you through these stages. The roadmap stretches across a three-month period (a.k.a. Form phase) and includes weekly workshops and talks on topics that will guide you through the entrepreneurial journey. They will also provide you with useful tools to structure your thinking and to make better strategic decisions along the way. The topics of these workshop modules will include — for example — how to navigate through the ideation maze, what is your primary Edge, how to find a great co-founder, what makes a great team, best practices for customer discovery and development, how to embrace hard conversations with your co-founder, market sizing, dealing with competition and defensibility, dealing with stress and burnout, early stage growth, unit economics, story telling, and the list goes on.
If you still haven’t had enough, the EF team will also provide you with a carefully curated reading lists in order for you to deepen your knowledge.
Cherry on top:
- The presentations on these topics are done by speakers who have been through the entrepreneurial journey themselves and who are therefore able to share their own experiences and learning. This makes the workshops much more convincing.
- Additionally, the talks are very insightful and fun to participate, as from time to time, mini-exercises will be done on the most, so to set the right mindset of the cohort members.
Grain of salt:
- The content is very useful, a very nice refresher, and especially useful for those who have never been exposed to it. However, don’t regard it as the only “truth”. It certainly is not. Don’t get stuck in believing that if you don’t do as the slides say, you will not advance. Instead, be inspired by it, and adapt it to your own way of doing. If it is not working for you. Adapt it.
A pool of potential co-founders
EF manages to put together a pool of talented and ambitious individuals, all with different backgrounds and diverse competences. The Paris cohort was composed of around 60 such individuals grouped into 3 categories. Tech Edges, Domain Edges, and Catalysts Doer/Talker. The first category, directly coming from academia (PhD graduates, Post-docs), the second one, directly from the industry backed with a long professional career. The third category is made up of experienced professionals, such as engineers, developers, entrepreneurs, sales and business people, all with years of experience under their belt.
What they all have in common is their maturity and years of experience in their particular fields. So, there are (almost) no immature youngsters that lack serious work experience. I think that makes a great difference compared to other programs.
Having access to such a diverse talent pool is an incredible opportunity for each cohort member in order to find a potential co-founder, and eventually to form a strong co-founding team. That’s probably the biggest advantage of the EF programme, being exposed to so many great talents, and all being 100% committed, having the same goal in mind, being eager to take action, and being motivated to embark on this journey together.
Cherry on top
- You will agree that it is rare to be exposed to such a diverse group of people all having the same goal in mind and being fully committed. During your studies at the university, that’s probably the last time when you have been surrounded by such a large peer group where you had the greatest chance to find a fitting co-founder and to get a business started. Once you enter the corporate world, the exposure to potential co-founders is radically minimized, as most of your colleagues might be occupied with family or simply don’t share the same mindset. Your former fellow students might have embarked on different journeys and are scattered all over the world. So, this might be the last opportunity ever, where you have the chance to be with like-minded people (and potential co-founders) at one place.
- The more you exchange with your fellow cohort members, the more you learn about new domains, new technologies and new perspectives. You will receive rich and diverse feedback on your ideas, that otherwise, is also rare to get.
Grain of salt
- Pressure. Since the sole purpose of the Form phase is to find a co-founder and to team up, you might feel some sort of pressure at some point, especially in moments when you haven’t yet found a co-founder. This will create some sense of urgency and will make you hazzle to team up quickly, no matter what.
Try, fail, learn — repeat!
There are many reasons why startups don’t succeed. The most critical factor is the founding team itself, followed by the market, and last, the idea itself. The EF programme allows you to experiment with different co-founders, until you find your binôme.
It’s incredibly difficult to find a great co-founder. The ideal story goes like that: during your time at the university, teaming up with your friends, or other fellow students who happen to all have still no obligations and time to commit, then working together on a business idea. Outside of the university, you are not anymore part of a cohort of like-minded, ambitious people. You might be already a few years in the corporate world, and your peers from the university have already moved on, taking on responsibility with family or in the corporate world. You see, it’s even less likely that you can convince somebody to engage with you in a risky venture. It’s not impossible, but definitely harder. Once you do team up with one of your friends, you are mid-way through, and then you find out, the chemistry isn’t right. To replace a co-founder is even harder. Where would you find a new one quickly!? If you don’t, you might lose motivation to continue alone. As a consequence, you might force yourself to stick with the one you have, even though your gut tells you differently. Or, you take on the venture as a solo entrepreneur, but it might be really difficult to come up with an idea yourself, and to stay motivated as you move forward. You might blind yourself, and follow through an idea that doesn’t address a real problem, or the market is not there. You see, it is risky business.
“Test different co-founding teams!”
EF provides a unique sandbox environment where you can try, fail, learn, and repeat the entire process. You have nothing to lose, but only to gain. Failing doesn’t matter. It’s a rare opportunity that you might never have again, being surrounded by an abundance of smart people, and having all the resources available at one place. You can try out different ideas, make the experience working together with different kinds of co-founders, and pivot your idea as you wish.
Cherry on top:
- Once you teamed up, you will go through the so-called Ideation Maze. It’s a concept that illustrates the typical entrepreneurial journey of developing an idea. The more you engage in conversation with potential clients, the more valuable insights you will gain, which either validates your idea, or not, and in case not, might allow you to pivot your idea in a different direction, one that is more traction among potential clients.
Grain of salt
- It takes energy! If you are wholeheartedly engaged in an idea, put all your energy in it, just to find out it’s not what you were hoping for. It’s hard to start again from scratch.
Mentorship
EF will assign to each team an Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR), who will accompany your journey and advise you along the way. You will engage in weekly group check-ins that allow you and your co-founder to share with your advisor (a.k.a. EiR) your experience, progress, or any issues encountered. The advisors have their own fair share of experience building startups and understand the hardships about entrepreneurship and will try in those meeting to guide you through difficult situations as much as possible, providing you with new perspectives on things.
The EF team will also engage with you in weekly individual check-ins, and push you to make sure that you fully understand your Edge, and that you are willing to take advantage of it. They also challenge your team, and will cross-check whether you have the same vision, or pulling on the same string. The EF team will challenge your idea and business plan, trying to engage in discussions and to see whether you are able to defend your startup idea, and to convince the other party. The EF team also provide you with honest and direct feedback, pointing out parts that might not work. By challenging you, they prepare you at the same time any encounter with investors that you might have in the future.
Building your own company is no easy task, and accompanied by a lot of self-doubt and dead ends. However, the EF team does a great job in providing you with good mentorship along the way. However, in the end, it is you and your co-founder who have to take action and to progress. The EF team only provides guidance and advice if needed, but can’t build the company for you. If you feel stuck in the process, the EF team will try to help you to overcome them, by showing up different perspectives, looking at the problem in a different way.
Cherry on top
- Honest and direct feedback
- Advise when you feel stuck
Grain of salt
- Sometimes, you might get the feeling that your adviser is pushing you towards different ideas or areas. Depending on how you take it, you might appreciate it, or not so much.
Exposure to investors
EF has built in the last few years a vast network of partners, investors, and venture capitalists. Through this network, the EF team has the possibility to organize the Demo Day which allows each co-founding team to be exposed in front of up to 500 investors.
Before that however, you first have to pass the Investment Committee (IC) that will happen at the end of the Form phase. Here you will pitch your idea, in order to receive a pre-seed funding of around 100.000€ and to continue the EF programme entering the Launch phase.
The EF team will prepare you for those encounters with investors by weekly group pitches as well as typical questions asked by investors. At the end of every week, the CEO of the co-founding team will pitch his/her idea in front of the entire cohort. It will be recorded and you will receive feedback, so to improve your pitch every week. That’s a great way to build up your confidence and to refine your pitch.
The EF team will give you insight into the mindset of investors, allowing you to better understand what drives their decisions to fund a startup or not.
Cherry on top
- Looking for investors, and engaging with them, takes a long time, and it’s an endeavor in itself. With the EF programme, investors are practically served on a silver platter, and will woo your startup.
Grain of salt
- You have a timeline to keep, with Demo day.
Office space and payment
In Paris, you will have all the resources available in order to get started from day one. You will have an office space at Station F. There is an area reserved for cohort members. If you come from outside of Paris, at least through Station F, you will have easy access to an apartment (living community) near by, for cheap money. Oh, and did I mention the financial support that you will receive!? About 2000€ per month, for 3 months.
How is the On-Boarding Experience?
My journey began on LinkedIn. There, I received a message from one of the EF staff members, encouraging me to take a closer look at their outlined programme. I was intrigued immediately, especially reading key words like “talent investor”, “find a co-founder”, “build your own company”, “we pay a monthly sum”, “true outliers”, “drive”, “talent”.
Shortly after, I scheduled a meeting with one of the EF staff members here in Paris in order to clarify some other questions and to be more ensured about the seriousness of the programme. The meeting went very well.
I weighed my options and concluded that joining the EF programme is exactly what would push me forward on my journey. So, I submitted my application right after the coffee, scheduled an interview session a few days later, until down the road, when I received a phone call of acceptance in August.
Kick-off Day (KOD)
The Kick-off Day was organized almost one month before the actual start of the EF programme. It gathered all cohort members at one place, and allowed everyone to have first encounters with each other. The day included first talks, some ice breaking games (like the Stupid Idea Hackathon), and speed dating sessions, just so to make everyone comfortable in that new environment. It was very well organized, and offered the perfect framework to get a first impression about the cohort.
“Team Building has already started.”
The overarching theme throughout the entire kick-off day is very clear, it basically is to interact and to find your co-founder. The given talks not only introduce the EF programme, but also infuse a sense of urgency into the cohort members, so to not lose much time in finding a potential co-founder, and to form a team as soon as possible. The pressure was on ;) The more the day passed, the more it was clear that it is quite impossible to meet all cohort members at one single day. Between the talks and the games, cohort members started mingling among each other, trying to meet and greet. As for me, I actively tried to meet as many as possible, but only managed to talk to 15–20 people, and even then, it was only brief encounters of 3–5 minutes. Just enough time to get a first impression, but surely not enough to choose your dream co-founder.
Coffee to-meet!
Now, this might not be so obvious. However, probably the most important part of the programme is the period between the Kick-off Day (KOD) and the beginning of the Form phase. There is almost 1 month in between that you can either do nothing or use the time effectively meeting up with as many cohort members as possible. I strongly advise to go and meet your cohort members.
“Let’s meet and have a coffee!”
What then follows is a series of coffee meetings for the weeks to come, before the actual start of the EF programme. It really is in the responsibility of the cohort members themselves to get active and to meet up with the others in order to get to know each other on a deeper level, to find your first potential co-founder, and to team up as soon as possible.
Luckily, the EF team makes it very easy to have the contact information of all participants available. Either through a special EF Dashboard, or through a dedicated Slack channel, that allows you to get in contact with your fellows quickly.
Don’t neglect this part!
If you miss the opportunity to get in contact with your fellow cohort members before the programme starts, then you will start the programme with a lot of strangers. Most cohort members will have met each other already, and when the programme starts, they will know each other already, maybe even have already formed some little circles, some might have already teamed up. I’ve seen cohort members who didn’t meet up with its fellows ahead of time, surely because of good reasons. However, on the first day of the programme, it might be harder for them to catch up on getting to know everybody, might even struggle to team up quickly, and in the worst scenario feeling alienated.
As for me, I did reach out to almost everybody, and arranged a meetup over a coffee. My approach for evaluating my potential co-founder was less to find an idea right away, but a bit different. Two aspects were important for me:
- Communication. I wanted to see if the simple act of talking to each other, whether it feels at ease, or whether it’s taking all my energy (e.g. if somebody talks all the time, or in such an unclear manner, so that I have a hard time understanding, etc.). It might sound miniscule, however, I believe there is no point to create a team with somebody if the communication alone “drags you down” and takes away all your energy. It cannot work in the long run.
- Brainstorming. There is no point to expect to come up with a perfect idea right away, at just one single meeting. So, I was not looking to find an idea right away, as that alone is a process. However, during the meetings, I always tried to see how easy it was to talk about ideas in general, and whether we are able to build up on each others ideas, instead of destroying them. I experienced cohort members, who didn’t engage in active brainstorming ideas, but were either fixated on their own single idea, or just lacked the imagination to think outside the box.
My advice:
I have to admit, I was a bit too analytical at the very beginning. Took extensive notes of everybody, and try to evaluate at the details who would be the best co-founder. In hindsight, I would strongly advise against that approach, because the longer you wait, the higher the chance that your preferred co-founders team up with others. You can also expect that the one “dream co-founder” that you have sourced, that 20 other cohort members think the same, and try to team up with that person. So, be realistic about that you might have to compete. My advice is to follow your gut feeling, and to team up with the first co-founder with whom you have a very good gut feeling, and fun to talk. Don’t worry too much, whether you made “the good choice”, or whether you “miss out on another co-founder”. You will very likely break up anyway, and will have the chance to team up with others.
Kick-off Week (KOW)
The kick-off week really just kicks off the Form phase.
Form phase
- Starts with a Kick-off Week (KOW).
- Ends with pitching in front of Investment Committee (IC)
The Form phase is the official start of the EF programme and lasts for 3 months. The first 2 months are solely dedicated to finding your co-founder, which implies that you find yourself in a co-founding team. Within these two months, your highest goal will be to team up with a potential co-founder, to develop together a business idea, to talk to potential customers in order to validate the idea, and to generate traction, meaning proven interest from potential customers. And if the team doesn’t work out, to break up with your co-founder, and to repeat the entire process. It is the moment of the programme where you can really experiment with different co-founders, and pivot your business idea as you receive feedback from the potential customers. During this process, you will break up with your co-founder, and team up again with another one, several times. It is the perfect environment where you can experience how it “feels” to work with the “wrong” co-founder. You will become more clear in your mind with what type of person who can work together and actually be productive together. After these two months, cohort members that don’t find themselves in teams will depart the programme, whereas the teams continue with the last month of the Form phase.
Make no mistake, although it is great to experiment with different co-founders, I would strongly advise to do so very early on in the program. If you team-up at the very last end of these 2 months, it will be very difficult to catch up with the entire customer discovery/development process, and to present a strong case in front of the IC, potentially not being able to show traction.
The last month is to refine your business idea and to prepare your pitch for IC. The IC will then decide whether to invest a pre-seed funding round in your company or not.
You will receive a stipend of around 2000€ per month for 3 months, and will have the chance to get additional pre-seed funding of around 100.000€, if you have passed IC. If the latter comes to fruition, then you will continue the EF programme within the Launch phase.
Launch phase
Starts with the incorporation of your company.
The Launch phase basically kicks-off with the official incorporation of your startup company, and will last for 6 months. This period is dedicated to implement and further develop your business idea, eventually to build your first MVP, to engage in pilot projects, to meet potential investors.
Mid-way, there will be a demo day in London, where you pitch in front of 500 investors your idea. That’s the opportunity where you can sell your vision, and have investors compete instead of you reaching out to them one by one.
How do you get out the most of the EF programme?
In hindsight, there are a few things that I would have done differently so to get even more out of the program. I put together my two cents of advice here below.
1. Know your Edge
Ask yourself what your Edge is. What exactly is it that you can bring to the table, your biggest asset. If you don’t know yet, make a list, and note down your thoughts, and be clear on what you are good at.
As domain expert, ask yourself:
“What insights do I have in my industry?”
You have worked for many years in your particular domain, and therefore must have rare insights on things that are otherwise not easy to see from the outside. You know exactly where in your industry the roof is on fire, and know which problems urgently require innovative solutions. In the course of your professional career, you might have also accumulated valuable contacts.
Here, the domain expert has the biggest leverage. Your biggest assets within the EF programme. Having those will give you a head start to reach out to potential clients (a.k.a. your former colleagues from the industry) and to validate your idea quickly. You wouldn’t lose time in finding contacts from zero. Especially traditional industries are more closed towards “outsiders”, and it is notoriously difficult to get a foot in the doorstep and to extract their problems. If you have no contacts whatsoever.
If you have no real insights, then it might defeat the whole purpose of you doing the EF programme. If you have no sense of what big problems your industry is facing, then you might not bring much to the table, and should reconsider applying for the programme.
As tech expert, ask yourself:
“What aspects of a technology do I know best?”
You have been in research for quite some time, you are a PhD doctorate, and you therefore have an in-depth knowledge about a certain technology, either through your academic work, or gained through other professional projects.
Here, the tech expert has the biggest leverage. It gives you an edge on the technology in question, and further down the road, an unfair advantage if applied to any business case. Of course, the success might depend on to what extent a tech expert can adapt his technology/knowledge, so that it would fit a business case.
If you have no interest whatsoever to work with your expertise, if you just want to escape your own research, then it might defeat the whole purpose of you doing the EF programme. If you don’t want to bring your research topic to the table, then you have to ask yourself what other competence do you want to bring to the table. The competence of “just doing research” might not be enough, or at least, for that short timeline of the EF programme, not realistic to apply. You risk not being able to bring that “unfair advantage” to your co-founding team.
Is it stand-alone enough so that you could apply it?
As an engineer, or young professional, ask yourself:
“What’s the one thing I am very good at?”
You come from a different professional area, such as sales, business strategy, consultancy, engineering, or entrepreneurship. You now how to take action and drive things forward. You are able to talk to customers and communicate a complex idea. You are a doers and talkers, able to source new business opportunities or applications where a particular technology can create value.
You job will be to find unexplored commercial applications, and to leverage the technology at hand. Depending on with whom you team up, most likely a tech expert. You will need to dedicate time, to understand the technology, and then to find business cases. As a catalysts doer/talker, you might struggle a bit more to find a domain expert, or tech expert.
2. Loosen-up
Don’t persist on your own idea only. You might face difficulties in finding a co-founder, if you don’t allow him/her to shape the idea as well. If you do succeed to convince someone, it will be hard to keep this poor soul on your side, if you treat him merely as human resource. Allow him/her to actively shape and co-create the idea. Take your (or any) idea as a starting point that leverages the competences of you and your co-founder, and go from there.
“Everybody has fucking ideas”
Don’t judge too quickly. If a potential co-founder approaches you with an idea as a starting point, try to understand the idea and focus on upside potential. Think of how could you contribute. Don’t block it off too quickly, just because it’s not yet the perfect idea. The point is to be open to ideas, and to build upon it.
Ideas will circulate. As you will have the chance to grab a coffee with many cohort members, naturally, discussed ideas will start circulating as they get re-discussed, and re-discussed as you meet up with people. Don’t be surprised if another team announces to work on an idea that sounds very similar to the one that you “invented” (or got from someone else). I have seen many ideas popping up in one team, and then in another. Ideas also tend to be continued once a team broke up and teamed up with other co-founders. In the end, it’s just an idea, and as long as it is not executed upon it, it will not thrive. So, your little precious idea is still in your hands.
3. Team-up
Don’t waste time. Team up as soon as you have a good feeling with somebody. Don’t wait, don’t prioritize, don’t analyze too much. At the very beginning, I was taking stock of potential co-founders very carefully, writing down their aspirations, their competences, etc. Trying to team up with the brightest and smartest person. I totally neglected the fact that once you have your chosen one, that you also need to convince him as well, and that that person probably got already approached by 20 other people. In the end, cohort members tend to put others on the waiting list, until the first teams start to officially team up. Well, this leads to a panic reaction, and all of the sudden, you might find yourself in a situation where there are no more preferred candidates available, and you don’t get to choose. In the end, teams will form, and if you didn’t go with your gut feeling before, you will find yourself in a situation with a pool of potential co-founders, much smaller than before.
4. Break-up
As soon as you don’t have that good feeling anymore. Don’t wait for too long, if the communication becomes a drain, if you avoid each other, if there is any sort of pressure felt that slightly relates to the other, break-up, if it’s not working now, it will not work for the next 7–10 years.
5. Speed-up
Go fast, don’t lose time. Even within a team, do an initial brainstorming, write down a number of ideas, vote on the one that you are most enthusiastic about, and then start right away to validate it, meaning to call potential customers, and run The Mom Test. Don’t lose time doing too much research in order to “understand” the topic 100%, you will not. Better, reach out, and talk to people, until you reach a point, of whether “yeah, there is a hair-on-fire problem”, or “nah, nobody gives a crap”. In the later case, drop the idea, and pivot to another one.
“Get shit done.”
Spend 95% of the time with customers, and prove the need. At this point, having an MVP is not important at all.
Departing Thoughts
The EF team is great, and will challenge your idea and your team all the way through the Form. Sometimes, the feedback you receive will be harsh, other times, it will give you motivation and a boost.
Remember that it is your job as an entrepreneur to advance your entrepreneurial journey. EF cannot do it for you, but rather provide a very supportive framework that lowers the barriers. The EF team do have genuine interest to see you succeed. So, don’t give up, be honest in check-ins and consider their advice!
Keep in mind that the EF programme will repeat one mantra over and over, which is
“Follow the money!”
The message is clear. Follow the money and aim for a multi billion dollar market. This might discourage some fellows who would prefer to put the focus on the positive social and/or environmental impact. However, finding a business idea, leveraging your deep tech skills, and having a positive impact, might not address a market big enough so that it can turn out positive for EF in the long term. Having an environmental impact is rather seen as a nice side-effect of your venture.
Finally, I want to thank the entire EF team for their great job, and support. It was an invaluable experience, and it was such a pleasure to have spent 3 months together with 65 other bright individuals in that programme. I can warmly recommend this programme.
All the best of luck to future EF cohort members.
