How to actually build startups with graduatesSilicon Valley Comes to Oxford 2013

@matthewclifford // @EntreFirst

What is EF?

In Year 1:33 individuals-> 11 startups-> $11m raised in seed

We start with recent grads, pre-team and pre-idea, and achieve top-tier accelerator-like funding outcomes for the companies they create

An uncontroversial premise...

More students should start startups when they graduate

It was hard to find people who disagreed with the premise…

… with some implementation “challenges”

Only two problems with students who want to start startups…

… with some implementation challenges

They don’t have teams and they have bad ideas1

… and hard to find people who thought it was possible

1 I’m going to focus on how we solve the first problem today, as it’s the harder one to solve

The existing infrastructure isn’t the answer

Accelerators don’t solve the problem

Find a good accelerator who will take you pre-team and pre-idea

The existing infrastructure isn’t the answer

(and actually accelerators are broken)

An accelerator for graduate startups wouldn’t be any good

How new accelerators imagine the market for teams1

The 10th best football player is a little bit worse than the best

Team at 100th percentile

Team at 90th percentile

Team quality

Exit value

1 Maybe they don’t imagine this is true, but they act as though they do

How it actually works

The 10th best startup is a LOT less successful than the best

Team at 100th percentile

Team at 90th percentile

Team quality

Exit value

The existing infrastructure isn’t the answer

Picking first matters a lot

This is true fractally. A massive proportion of YCombinator’s value is in two companies.

The existing infrastructure isn’t the answer

EF is YC for individuals

We want to pick first – e.g. before Google, Goldman Sachs, etc

How EF works

1. 6 months team building2. 3 months validation3. 3 months acceleration

Team building is part-time, starting in the February before people graduate. Validation and acceleration are full-time, starting in September.

How team building works

We treat teams the way Lean treats ideas

TEAM

People start with team “hunches”. We require them to test these hunches repeatedly by building real products in multiple team permutations over the summer. The idea is to fail the team fast.

Some case studies

Mobile and web app for mobile mechanics with real-time bookings and quote engine, drawing on massive dataset of repair times

Growing revenue 40% per month

Andy ManagementManchester

FelixCompSciImperial

Some case studies

Rashid CompSci Sussex

Models billions of desktop, mobile and tablet datapoints to create a single customer profile for mobile advertisers

Raised one of the largest seed rounds in Europe (£1.5m) earlier this year

EliaCompSciWarwick

Some case studies

ZefiEnglish, UCL

Version control for everyone and everything (First step: git running inside MS Office)

Funded by YCombinator

LeoHistory, St Andrews, self-taught hacker

Why it works

1. Everyone is awesome2. Everyone is determined3. Everyone commits a full year

These three conditions have to be in place – and it’s hard to put them in place for people other than recent grads. Who else can commit a year?

Apply now: entrepreneurfirst.org.uk

@matthewclifford // @entrefirst

Any questions?

We’re recruiting now for 2014