Entrepreneur First (EF), the company-builder which turns strangers into startup co-founders, is on the hunt for hackers. The London-based accelerator has announced that it will be launching a new program in Berlin this April.
Since securing $12.4 million (£8.9 million) in investment in 2017, including funding from Greylock Partners and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, EF has set its sights on international expansion. In 2016, EF launched in Singapore. Now, Berlin is the third program of its franchise.
"In London, we have lots of big tech people and Oxbridge types," says Matt Clifford, co-founder and CEO of EF. "They have been amazing, but it has been a very establishment type of ambition." Berlin, on the other hand, is almost as anti-establishment as it comes.
"Historically, what ambition looks like in London, looks very different in Berlin. And so, we are very excited about attracting a new kind of talent," Clifford says.
Berlin is a hub of cryptocurrency and other decentralised technologies, so EF is hoping to tap into the city's edgy subculture. "I am really interested in the effect that local culture has on the kind of companies that will be created," says Clifford.
"We have really seen some exciting stuff around decentralised applications there. In a way, that stuff has a very specific Berlin life to it. That's an example of the type of company that we think has more of an appetite in Berlin than in London."
Read more: Entrepreneur First turns strangers into startup founders
With this expansion comes a change of strategy. "We are not doing a copy and paste of our London or Singapore programs, instead the new program will be entirely focused on finding talent and helping founders find their teams," says Clifford.
EF Berlin will not be a standalone six month programme like London or Singapore. Instead, it will last only three months and will focus on the form of potential business partnerships, such as selection and team building. Candidates will have to find a co-founder from the EF cohort: if successful, the pair will then be eligible for investment from EF's London fund, which is being converted into a European fund.
The successfully paired startups will than have the opportunity to join the London program, which focuses on preparation for seed investment.
Since starting in 2012, EF has developed two cohorts in Singapore and 10 in London. "When we announced that we were expanding to Singapore, a lot of people said that there was something special about London that made EF work," say Clifford. Not so. "There are ambitious companies all over the world."
"The companies in Singapore were different, they centred around medTech and hardware, but they had a lot in common with our London companies," he adds. "This is what makes us confident that Berlin will work, but also that it will be distinctively Berlin flavour."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
