Entrepreneur in Residence

Entrepreneurs First

4d•Onsite

About The Position

At Entrepreneurs First (EF) we have pioneered a new stage of venture capital: talent investing. We believe that a small number of exceptional people will have an extraordinary impact by creating the companies which shape the future in ways we cannot yet imagine. We exist to identify, and amplify the impact of, these individuals. In traditional venture capital, your job is to win deals in a zero sum game; at EF our investors make great companies happen that otherwise wouldn’t exist. We do this via our unique approach to company creation, which sees us identify and work with outliers before they even know they’re outliers, right through to the day they prove it [https://www.alexcrompton.com/blog/2017/05/12/21st-century-alchemy]. For over a decade we have built the best global track record in identifying early career founder talent and supporting them to build breakout companies - whether that’s via our company-building programmes in London or Bangalore, investing directly in individuals in the US, or through new formats like The Bridge [https://www.join-thebridge.com/]. We’re backed by some of the most successful founders and investors in Silicon Valley and beyond. They include Founders Fund, John & Patrick Collison (founders of Stripe), Demis Hassabis (founder of DeepMind & Head of GoogleAI), Mustafa Suleyman (founder of DeepMind & head of MicrosoftAI), Reid Hoffman (founder of Linkedin), Charlie Songhurst (Board member at Meta), Lachy Groom (Founder of Physical Intelligence). They’ve built the biggest companies in the world, and are helping us back the next wave of companies that will shape the next decades of technology. The companies built at EF are now worth over $15bn. They include Cleo [https://web.meetcleo.com/] (an AI consumer fintech unicorn), Aztec Network [https://aztec.network/] (the leading privacy layer for ethereum, backed by a16z), Gensyn [https://www.gensyn.ai/] (a distributed compute platform unicorn), PolyAI [https://poly.ai/] (AI voice agents backed by Khosla), Neptune Robotics [https://neptune-robotics.com/](underwater robotics for ship cleaning, backed by Sequoia [https://www.sequoiacap.com/]) and Magdrive [https://magdrive.space/] (next generation satellite propulsion, backed by Founders Fund [https://foundersfund.com/]). The Role We are looking for an Entrepreneur-in-Residence who will deliver the EF process of helping build startups from scratch. You will be on the ground floor, helping create these companies alongside the founders. We have flexibility to accommodate anything from 1 day per week up to full-time. In San Francisco, across both EF’s US team and The Bridge [https://www.join-thebridge.com/], we provide a platform for the world’s highest potential people to achieve the impact they are capable of. This means turning groups of talented individuals into world class startups, helping them build a team, ideate, and form the early stages of their company. After EF invests, we help accelerate and prepare them for external funding.

Requirements

Demonstrated experience as a founder in one or more startups
Demonstrated knowledge of early-stage startup development and funding of technology companies.
Demonstrated ability to ramp up quickly in understanding the key attributes of technologies, products, markets and teams that lead to successful startups.
Possess a high EQ and enjoy mentoring and developing entrepreneurs
Are driven to solve problems and create real, tangible impact
Have a ‘Hands-on’ work ethic - we are looking for people who just get things done and actively seek ownership

Responsibilities

Team building - Crack the code for building teams from scratch.
Work with sole founders to help them progress into teams.
Provide deep and nuanced advice to teams and individuals.
Actively manage team breakups and formation.
Develop and refine EF's team-building frameworks.
Use EF's historical data to create optimal co-founding teams.
Ideation - Ensure the teams work on high-potential ideas
Work with EF founders to develop their ideas. Raise ambitions.
Develop and refine EF's frameworks on ideation.
Mentor the teams through the early stages of idea validation and customer development.
Company building - Advise teams on how to execute at maximum speed
Deliver tactical advice on how to execute at pace.
Hold teams accountable to milestones - help benchmark what top tier progress looks like.
Use your network to accelerate where relevant.