Stay up to date on our entrepreneurs, events, research and more. Read our December newsletter here.
People told us we were crazy. We took it as a compliment.
In 1997, Linda Rottenberg and Peter Kellner sat down and, like many entrepreneurs before and after, sketched their vision on the back of a napkin. Peter had just returned from a Harvard Business School trip to China, where he had witnessed first-hand the boom in entrepreneurship that would transform that country.
For Linda, the light bulb moment for Endeavor came in the back of a taxi cab in Buenos Aires. She struck up a conversation with the driver and was shocked to learn he had a PhD in Engineering. She asked if he hadn’t considered becoming an entrepreneur instead of driving a taxi. “An empresario?” he said dismissively, using the Spanish word for a big businessman. It suddenly occurred to her that there was no Spanish word for “entrepreneur.”
Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when barriers to entrepreneurship were nearly insurmountable outside a few limited areas — most notably Silicon Valley — Endeavor focused on stimulating global entrepreneurial activity by providing mentorship to innovative founders based in emerging markets.
Today, Endeavor has established a presence in nearly 40 markets across Latin America, Asia, Africa, Middle East, and underserved areas of Europe and the United States, and has evolved over two decades to reflect new realities and new opportunities. Learn more about our model here.
in the midst of an emerging market currency crisis brought on by the collapse of the Thai bhat.
as a “Top 100 Innovator for the 21st Century.”
despite the Latin American currency crisis.
marking the first office in the African region.
to support Endeavor’s sustainability goals.
becoming the first Endeavor Entrepreneur to do so.
becoming the first Endeavor Entrepreneur to serve as a country board chairman.
to study entrepreneurship ecosystems around the world.
among the uprisings and economic changes of the “Arab Spring”.
to connect entrepreneurs with international venture capital and investment firms.
with the latter two marking the first entries into Europe and Asia.
taking the organization’s focus beyond emerging markets.
marking Endeavor Catalyst’s first investment to go public.
an honor akin to a Nobel Prize for the nonprofit sector.
marking Endeavor Catalyst’s second investment to have an exit.
demonstrating the potential for entrepreneurs to become influencers.
Endeavor is thrilled to announce that Shu Nyatta, a Managing Partner at SoftBank, has joined the Endeavor Global …
Endeavor selected 12 entrepreneurs leading seven companies at the tenth — and final — Virtual International Selection Panel …
To view Endeavor’s December newsletter, a recap of all the top news stories from the past month, please CLICK …
The 2020 Virtual Endeavor Gala, held November 19, 2020 via livestream, convened nearly 500 Endeavor network members and …