Alice Bentinck

The daughter of Major Vivian Mark Bentinck, of the Royal Marines (a descendant of Admiral Sir Rudolph Bentinck, Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth, of the Barons Bentinck) and Dr Miranda Whitehead,[7] Bentinck grew up in the New Forest region of southern England.[8][9] She attended the Godolphin School in Salisbury, an all-girls boarding school.[10] There she enrolled in Young Enterprise, creating a business model for handmade purses.[11] She then attended the Nottingham University Business School, graduating with a bachelor of arts in management studies, with first class honours.[12]

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 Entrepreneur First in 2011.[14] Bentinck serves as CPO while Clifford is CEO.[15] The six-month, cohort-based program receives more than 1,500 applications per year and accepts 100.[12] In its first four years, Entrepreneur First helped establish 75 startups valued at $450 million.[16]

Entrepreneur First's first international office was opened in Singapore in 2016, bringing the same company building model to Asia.[17][18]

In 2017, it was announced that Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and Partner at Greylock, was leading a $12.4million investment into Entrepreneur First.[5] As part of his investment, Hoffman also joined the board of EF.[19]

Noticing that most individuals applying to Entrepreneur First were male,[12][20] Bentinck and Clifford founded Code First: Girls in 2012. This nonprofit initiative provides free web programming courses for female university students from arts backgrounds, giving them skills to switch to the tech sector.[12] In addition to courses, students are mentored by female industry professionals.[21] The program is offered at Oxford, Durham, St Andrews, and Bristol universities.[20] In its first year, Code First: Girls graduated 500 students.[11] According to Bentinck, 70 percent of enrollees switched their career tracks to tech as a result of the courses.[12] Since 2015, Bentinck has served on the board of Code First: Girls.[22]

In 2014 Bentinck was appointed one of the Prime Minister's advisors for the Northern Future Forum in Helsinki.[8]

She has been a member of the advisory board of Founders4Schools since April 2014, and a member of the Computer Science Department Industrial Liaison Board at Imperial College London since April 2015.[10] In September 2015 she became a mentor for Girls in Tech London.[23]

In 2015 she was named one of the Fifty Most Inspiring Women in European Tech by the Inspiring Fifty organisation.[13]

In 2014 she was named to several newspaper and magazine lists. She was named one of "The 1000 – London's Most Influential People" by the London Evening Standard,[24] one of the "35 Women Under 35" by Management Today,[25] and was cited as a "Rising Star" by Computer Weekly as part of their 2014 Most Influential Women in UK IT campaign.[26] Additionally, the British Interactive Media Association included her on its BIMA Hot 100 of 2014.[27]

In 2013 she was ranked No. 19 on The Drum's "30 Under 30 Women in Digital" list.[9] She was a Top 25 finalist in the Tech City Movers and Shakers 2013[28] and the Girls in Tech Ones to Watch 2013.[29]

Bentinck was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to business.[30]

In 2017, Bentinck was named by Computer Weekly as one of the most influential women in UK IT.[31] She was again named by the London Evening Standard as one of London's most influential people in the Progress 1000: Capitalisers/ Entrepreneurs category.[32]

Bentinck has participated in competitive carriage driving since her youth.[9]

• "Taking the Plunge". The Huffington Post. 22 September 2015.
• "Stop Doing Pointless Networking". Real Business. 16 September 2015.
• "How Can the UK Build More Deep Tech Startups?". Tech World. 21 July 2015.
• "You're Doing Lean Wrong". Tech World. 30 June 2015.
• "RIP Accelerators?". Tech World. 1 June 2015.
• "Build a Product, Not a Startup". Tech World. 27 April 2015.
• "Why Backing Technical Founders is the Way Forward". Tech World. 14 April 2015.
• "Style and Facebook: Promoting Women Role Models[33]"

• Alice Bentinck on Twitter
• "Be a Founder, Not a Follower" 27 September 2014 speech
• "Five Entrepreneurial Lessons From Alice Bentinck, The Founder Of Entrepreneur First" Career Girl Daily, 24 July 2015