Alice Bentinck helps ambitious people find their co-founders and build tech startups from scratch. Her company Entrepreneur First (EF) has helped catalyze hundreds of startup companies around the world.

  • 1986

    Born (England)

  • 2011

    Co-founds Entrepreneur First

  • 2012

    Co-founds Code First: Girls

  • 2013

    Named to The Drum’s “30 Under 30 Women in Digital” list

  • 2016

    Appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to business

  • 2021

    Inducted into the Global Business Hall of Fame

To date, more than 2,500 people have been through the program, creating more than 300 companies with a combined valuation of over $3 billion.

Based in London, Paris, Berlin, Bangalore, Singapore, and Tortono, EF funds ambitious individuals based across Europe, Asia, and North America to create startups. In 2017, it was announced that Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and partner at Greylock Partners, was leading a $12.4 million investment into Entrepreneur First. 

EF has $240 million under management and has built more than 100 startups in London and Singapore. Significant exits include Magic Pony Technology ($150m to Twitter) and Represent ($100m to CustomInk).

Prior to founding EF, Alice interned in the office of Prime Minister Tony Blair, where she also assisted the Africa Governance Initiative. From 2009 to 2011, she was a management consultant in the London office of McKinsey & Company.

In 2014, she was appointed one of the Prime Minister’s advisors for the Northern Future Forum in Helsinki. She has been a member of the advisory board of Founders4Schools since 2014, and a member of the Computer Science Department Industrial Liaison Board at Imperial College London since 2015. In 2015, she became a mentor for Girls in Tech London. 

In addition to EF, Alice is the co-founder of Code First: Girls, an organization offering free coding courses for university women. As a result, Alice was named one of the Fifty Most Inspiring Women in European Tech by the Inspiring Fifty organization. 

Alice was twice named one of “The 1000—London’s Most Influential People” by the London Evening Standard (in 2014 and 2017), named one of the “35 Women Under 35” by Management Today in 2014, and cited twice as a “Rising Star” by Computer Weekly as part of their Most Influential Women in UK IT campaign (in 2014 and 2020).

The British Interactive Media Association included her on its BIMA Hot 100 of 2014. In 2013, she was ranked No. 19 on The Drum’s “30 Under 30 Women in Digital” list. She was a Top 25 finalist in the Tech City Movers and Shakers 2013 and the Girls in Tech Ones to Watch 2013. Alice was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2016 for services to business. 

Alice attended the Nottingham University Business School, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in management studies, with first-class honors.

“I think part of Entrepreneur First’s success has been that we were doing something that people didn’t think was possible. It was really challenging the status quo.”
— Alice Bentinck

A Global Force for Good

Alice has spoken broadly on the need to make gender diversity core to hiring with a core focus on empowering women and reducing inequality. Her organization Code First: Girls is dedicated to helping female university students of arts subjects learn skills to allow them to work in the technology sector by providing free coding courses.