Career
Prior to founding EF, Bentinck interned in the office of Tony Blair in London, where she also assisted the Africa Governance Initiative.[10][12] From 2009 to 2011 she was a management consultant in the London office of McKinsey & Company.[12][13]
Bentinck and Clifford met in 2009 while working at McKinsey. After noticing that entrepreneurship was not seen as a viable career option for talented and ambitious individuals in Europe, unlike in Silicon Valley, they decided to found Entrepreneurs First in 2011.[14] Alice initially served as CPO at EF before taking over from Matt as CEO in 2023.[15]
Noticing that most individuals applying to Entrepreneurs First were male,[12][16] Bentinck and Clifford founded Code First Girls in 2012. The non-profit is the largest provider of free coding courses for women in the UK, delivering over £20 million worth of free technology education and teaching three times as many women to code as the entire UK university undergraduate system.[17] Code First Girls has now taught over 55,000 women to code for free at university level and has significantly impacted the technology landscape.[17] Since 2015, Bentinck has also served on their board[18] and helped raise £4.5M in Series A for them from leading VCs including Active Partners and Samos investments.
EF's first international office was opened in Singapore in 2016, bringing the same company building model to Asia.[19][20]
In 2017, it was announced that Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and Partner at Greylock, was leading a $12.4million investment into Entrepreneurs First.[5] As part of his investment, Hoffman also joined the board of EF.[21]
In December 2023, it was announced that Bentinck would take over as CEO of Entrepreneurs First after Matt Clifford stepped down from the role to concentrate on opportunities in artificial intelligence.[22]
As of 2025 Entrepreneurs First's combined portfolio is worth over $11b with global sites in London, Paris, Bangalore, New York and San Francisco.[23]
