The Wednesday Night Club
What is it?
Building on the success of our previous Wednesday Night Club meetups, we're excited to announce our 6th session.
The Wednesday Night Club is a structured meet up and co-working session for exceptional people who are in a full-time job but want to found a startup. Its purpose is to introduce people to potential co-founders, launch part-time projects, and fund people so they can go from part-time to full-time.
The Wednesday Night Club is only for people who are serious. It’s not a talking shop; we screen for commitment, and only continue to invite and support people if they demonstrate sincerity and progress on the task of starting a company. We are highly selective; only people we think could be exceptional founders are invited.
Who is it for?
You are an early career person who is in a full-time job. You are probably technical - you are either an engineer/scientist with a technical academic background or you have demonstrated intellectual curiosity for technical topics. You already have conviction that you want to start your own company; you’re likely feeling constrained within your current job, and you want more. You’re action-oriented, and you’ve been looking for opportunities to meet potential co-founders and push towards this goal. You are willing to commit 10+ hours of your time per week to building on the side; you will certainly drop out of your full time job if your startup gets funding.
Why are we doing this?
EF exists to make great companies happen that otherwise wouldn’t. We think that the most urgent way to build a company is to be full-time from the beginning, and this is how our core product is structured. But we recognise that this doesn’t work for some people - for example, people who have financial obligations that make it hard to live off our stipend, or others who don’t want to make the leap without finding a co-founder first. Our bet is that there are exceptional people who won’t drop out of their jobs immediately, but could build great companies by finding the right co-founder and making progress initially on the side.
What will EF offer you?
We will offer you a curated group of exceptional people who could be your co-founder. We will give you office space every Wednesday, and we will initially structure the meetups to maximise your chances of finding someone to work with (e.g., by running ‘co-founder carousels’ so you talk to everyone, providing frameworks for how to introduce yourself, and offering you advice on your starting points). One of our team members will be there to discuss your idea and next steps with you, should you wish. You will also get dinner and drinks. If you show meaningful progress on your idea, we will introduce you to an EF advisor for regular check-ins. If you want to raise money and go full-time, we will offer you an investment committee and decision within days, on EF’s standard terms ($250k in pre-seed, and the opportunity to go to San Francisco, work out of our office there as you prepare to raise seed, and participate in an EF demo day).
How do you apply?
Click the link and fill in the very brief application form.
Next Steps
The next session is taking place on September 11th. We will accept applications until September 4th and invite shortlisted people for a 15-minute screening call.