Entrepreneur First: How to build unicorns with Alice Bentinck - a podcast by Dan Murray-Serter, Rich Martell

In this episode you will learn;

Where the idea for Entrepreneur First came from originally, and how

that’s evolved through the years

How to start a business with no

business model whatsoever

The best and worst company ideas she’s ever

been pitched.

What they look for in individuals that gives them the

confidence to just give them cash and help them to develop valuable

ideas

And lots more of course...
Key Quotes

As an entrepreneur - where do you stop and the company start?

I want

people to eventually see me as the greatest AI leader globally (and

fun fact she is pretty certain EF is currently the biggest investor

in AI technology in Europe)

“We look for megalomania in our founders - this crazy belief that if everything else goes wrong, we’ll be ok - that’s pretty important for resilience.

Entrepreneurs always come up

with the same ideas - so what we enjoy is trying to push people to

think a bit more uniquely. But I’ve heard probably every single

dating and food delivery concept you’ve ever thought of.

Top Advice:

Get a mentor or professional coach - it creates huge value for

founders - so much so they use a bunch of them for their founders, to

make sure they’re mentally balanced.

How important a ‘growth mindset’

is for resilience and how she tries to embed that within her teams.

Strong beliefs, weakly held.

What makes you special? Think about that

before thinking about what you want to do. And then think big.

Other Fun Facts:

Magic Pony Technology was 18 months old from Entrepreneur First and sold for £150m to Twitter, with only 15 people - the founders had never met each other before they started.

In one University they work with, more people join EF than join the financial services sector now!

Further episodes of Secret Leaders with Dan Murray-Serter

Further podcasts by Dan Murray-Serter, Rich Martell

Website of Dan Murray-Serter, Rich Martell