Company builder Entrepreneur First has helped to create highly successful startups like AI startup Magic Pony Technologies and bike light creator Blaze since it was founded in London in 2011but things don't always go to plan.Each year, Entrepreneur First looks to find high-flying individuals that could start and scale a tech business.It then pairs them up with another person on its cohort and asks them to come up with an idea for a new tech startup. Typically, a technically skilled founder will be paired with someone who will be able to run a business and crunch the numbers.However, the founders don't always gel in the right way once they're paired."We always have problems with teams who are really good friends and they love going to the pub together," Alice Bentinck, Entrepreneur First cofounder, told Business Insider last month, adding that just because you get on with someone doesn't mean that you're going to be good at running a company with them.When this happens, Entrepreneur First will step in and break teams up."We speak with them [the founders] individually about next steps," said Bentinck. "We try to create an environment where its perfectly fine to say: 'It's been really great working with you but we're not being productive and the opportunity cost for us is too high so let's go and find you someone else. And that's totally fine."About 50% of people on the Entrepreneur First cohort find their cofounder in the first two weeks and the other 50% take up to 10 weeks, Bentinck said.Entrepreneur First provides founders in its cohort with 17,000 in pre-seed funding, mentoring, and workspace. In return, it takes an 8% equity stake in the company that is created. The startup factory raised a 40 million venture capital fund last year to invest in its alumni when they graduate and when they raise subsequent funding rounds. So far, it's backed approximately 30 companies with this fund.The shift towards older foundersBentinck and her cofounder Matt Clifford, the CEO, started out accepting only graduates onto Entrepreneur First, often choosing to take computer science coming out of from Oxbridge. But that's changed in recent years."One of the big shifts over the last year has been really cementing a move away from graduates," said Bentinck. "So graduates used to make up 100% for [cohorts] 1-3, then it moved down to about 40%. It's now moving down to 5%."She added: "If you've just come out of uniit's not impossible, it is still true for some peoplebut it's relatively rare that you have the depth experience or the depth of skills that mean you can compete with other founders."Join the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: Here's the gorgeous trailer for 'Super Mario Odyssey' 'the first Mario game for Nintendo Switch
Click here to read full news..
