[liangzan]

There're accelerators that take in applicants pre-idea, pre-team pioneered by Entrepreneur First(https://www.joinef.com/) from the UK. The cohort size is about 100, and the founders come from diverse industries and backgrounds. It vastly increases the odds of finding a co-founder - a person who has complementary skills, is committed, and wants to start the company at the same time. Though the thought of starting a company with a stranger can be hard to fathom, you have 3 months to test out the working relationship with different people before committing.

Disclaimer: I found my co-founder from the EF program and completed the program.

[thicknavyrain]

I'm currently in the process of applying for EF and have an interview in two weeks. How would you say you've found the process and would you say it was overall a positive experience?

[liangzan]

Overall it is positive. Be mentally prepared, the percentage that eventually make it to demo day is not high. I came to EF to look for my co-founder. The quality of the cohort is phenomenal(on paper that is), albeit most are first time founders. There are researchers, engineers and domain experts all coming from diverse industries/fields. As the cohort size is so big, there are many possibilities. They will not so gently nudge you towards forming a team with complementary strengths and great fit to the problem. The scary part - when you look at teams that present on demo day, they look like a team tailor-made for the problem. What is the probability of that happening organically in the wild? Go for it, just the friendships cultivated with the cohort of great people is worth it.

[tixocloud]

Second this. Would be good to know as I’m interested in applying as well.