Entrepreneur First doesn't find startups, it builds them

In a converted biscuit factory in Bermondsey, South London, 100 would-be entrepreneurs are searching for their perfect match. It's afternoon on the second day of Entrepreneur First (EF), the six-month accelerator programme that takes technically talented strangers and moulds them into co-founders. Yet although the people in the room have left jobs at Google, Credit Suisse and the University of Cambridge to be here, all the skill and will in the world are no substitute for chemistry, and between workshops on creativity and customer acquisition, the would-be entrepreneurs talk intensely and sketch out plans on MacBooks, working out if they are right for each other. "It's X Factor without the tears," says Alice Bentinck, co-founder of EF. EF is the tech accelerator that's also a training school for entrepreneurs.