How to Be a Founder: How Entrepreneurs can Identify, Fund and Launch their Best Ideas

This new title aims to inspire the next generation to become founders and to equip them with the mindset and tools they need to take the leap to successful entrepreneurship. And that doesn’t necessarily mean ‘success’ in financial terms - but more often is about making a social impact or creating ways to improves people’s lives in the longer-term. But even if you have a great idea, what are the next steps? How do you find funding? What kind of culture do you want to create? And how can you build growth potential into a start-up?

Alice Bentinck and Matt Clifford are the cofounders of Entrepreneur First (EF). They invented ‘Talent Investing’, the controversial idea that you could invest in an individual, before they have a team or even an idea. Over the last decade, they have worked with more than 2,000 individuals across three continents, supporting them to realise their ambition to become founders. Those individuals have now built companies worth more than US$2bn and are taking on some of the world’s biggest challenges, including finding hard-to-spot cancers, improving financial literacy and developing space laser communication systems.

The authors will share key advice, insights and lessons from their decade of experience of working with individuals to become successful founders, as well as bringing in case studies from highly successful business launches around the world. In other words: what you need to do today to start your journey as a founder, and the exact advice you’ll need to maximise your chances of success.