Alice Bentinck
Bentinck in 2016
Born (1986-07-23) 23 July 1986
New Forest, England
OccupationEntrepreneur
Years active2011 to present
Known forCEO, Entrepreneur First
co-founder, Code First: Girls

Alice Yvonne Bentinck[1] MBE (born 23 July 1986)[2][3] is a British entrepreneur. Along with Matt Clifford, she is the co-founder of Entrepreneur First, a London-based company builder and startup accelerator. Based in London and Singapore, EF funds ambitious individuals based across Europe and Asia to create startups.[4] 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]

Bentinck and Clifford are also the founders of Code First: Girls, an organisation offering free web programming courses for women in university.[6] An advocate for the entry of more women to the tech field, Bentinck was named one of the Fifty Most Inspiring Women in European Tech by the Inspiring Fifty organisation in 2015.

Early life and education

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]

Career

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] As of 2022, Entrepreneur First's combined portfolio is worth over $6b.[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. The non-profit is the largest provider of free coding courses for women in the UK, delivering over £20 million worth of free technology education and teaching three times as many women to code as the entire UK university undergraduate system.[21] Code First Girls has now taught over 25,000 women to code.[21] Since 2015, Bentinck has also served on their board.[22]

In February 2022, Bentinck was announced as a member of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Business Council, a group of industry leaders working in partnership with the government to deliver high productivity and growth in the UK.[23]

In December 2023, it was announced that Bentinck would take over as CEO of Entrepreneur First after Matt Clifford stepped down from the role to concentrate on opportunities in artificial intelligence.[24]

Other activities

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.[25]

Honours and awards

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,[26] one of the "35 Women Under 35" by Management Today,[27] and was cited as a "Rising Star" by Computer Weekly as part of their 2014 Most Influential Women in UK IT campaign.[28] Additionally, the British Interactive Media Association included her on its BIMA Hot 100 of 2014.[29]

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[30] and the Girls in Tech Ones to Watch 2013.[31]

Bentinck was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to business.[32]

In 2017, Bentinck was named by Computer Weekly as one of the most influential women in UK IT.[33] She was again named by the London Evening Standard as one of London's most influential people in the Progress 1000: Capitalisers/Entrepreneurs category.[34]

Personal

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

Selected articles

  • "Taking the Plunge". The Huffington Post. 22 September 2015.
  • "Stop Doing Pointless Networking". Real Business. 16 September 2015. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 30 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[35]"

References

  1. ↑ "Alice Yvonne BENTINCK - Personal Appointments (Free information from Companies House)".
  2. ↑ Companies House
  3. ↑ "Entrepreneur First Founder Gp Limited RHU". bizstats.co.uk. 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  4. ↑ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  5. 1 2 Editor, James Hurley, Enterprise (12 September 2017). "Start-up business puts entrepreneurs first". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 21 November 2017. {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ "The Team". Code First: Girls. Archived from the original on 7 April 2020. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  7. ↑ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage 2003, vol. 3, p. 3183
  8. 1 2 "Women Entrepreneurs under 30 / Alice Bentinck". The Magic Elephant. 2015. Archived from the original on 1 October 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 "The Drum 30 under 30 #19: Alice Bentinck, co-founder, Entrepreneur First". The Drum. 11 October 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  10. 1 2 3 "Alice Bentinck". LinkedIn. 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  11. ↑ "An Interview with Alice Bentinck". Business Cloud Magazine. 2 October 2014. Archived from the original on 1 October 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "Ms Alice Bentinck – Co-founder EF & Code First: Girls". Northern Future Forum. 2014. Archived from the original on 1 October 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  13. 1 2 "Meet the Fifty Most Inspiring Women in European Tech". Inspiring Fifty. 2015. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  14. ↑ Manthorpe, Rowland. "Entrepreneur First turns strangers into startup founders". Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  15. ↑ "Our Team - Entrepreneur First". www.joinef.com. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  16. ↑ "About Us - Entrepreneur First". Entrepreneur First. 20 September 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  17. ↑ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  18. ↑ "There has never been a better time to build a startup in Singapore". e27. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  19. ↑ "Linkedin's co-founder investing in a London startup hub". The Independent. 11 September 2017. Archived from the original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  20. ↑ "Cracking the Code: An Interview with Alice Bentinck". The Gryphon. September 2014. Archived from the original on 5 October 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  21. 1 2 Porter, Alice (3 August 2021). "Learn how to code: everything you need to know to get started". Stylist. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  22. ↑ "Amali de Alwis joins Code First: Girls as CEO". Code First: Girls. Archived from the original on 7 April 2020. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  23. ↑ "PM assembles new cohort of business leaders to turbocharge UK economy". GOV.UK. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  24. ↑ Scammell, Robert (5 December 2023). "Matt Clifford steps down as Entrepreneur First CEO to focus on AI". UKTN.
  25. ↑ Shead, Sam (9 September 2015). "Girls in Tech London launches exclusive mentoring programme backed by Google, Amazon and Spotify execs". Tech World. Archived from the original on 2 October 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  26. ↑ "The 1000 – London's most influential people 2014: Tech stars". London Evening Standard. 16 October 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  27. ↑ "'I Was Told People Like Me Didn't Go To Oxford". Management Today. 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  28. ↑ Bateman, Kayleigh (7 July 2014). "Alice Bentinck, co-founder Entrepreneur First". Computer Weekly. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  29. ↑ "The BIMA Hot 100, 2014". British Interactive Media Association. 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  30. ↑ "Announcing the Tech City Top 25". Tech City News. 2015. Archived from the original on 9 June 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  31. ↑ "Alice Bentinck, co-Founder, Entrepreneur First". Digital Entrepreneur Awards. Archived from the original on 4 October 2015. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  32. ↑ "No. 61608". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 June 2016. p. B16.
  33. ↑ "Computer Weekly announces the Most Influential Women in UK IT 2017". ComputerWeekly.com. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  34. ↑ "Progress 1000: Entrepreneurs". Evening Standard. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  35. ↑ Britten, Fleur. "Style and Facebook: Promoting Women Role Models". The Times.
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