Startup-Hunting at the End of the Earth

I’m sitting in Buenos Aires now, but last week I was in Puyuehue. Yeah, I had no clue where that was either when I got talked into embarking on a 20-something-hour day of travel to get there. If you look at a map of South America and trace your finger to the very bottom of Chile, that’s roughly where I was.

I sighed getting on the plane just four days after I got home from India. Having already traveled to Rwanda, Israel, China and India this year in search of the world’s best entrepreneurs, the journey was now quite literally taking me to the end of the earth.

The organization that did the arm-twisting is called Endeavor and thanks to the trip they have the not-too-uncommon distinction of having proved me wrong. For a long time, I didn’t believe any government or non-profit could really help develop clusters of high-impact entrepreneurs. But Endeavor has in very tangible ways, especially here in Latin America and South America.

It started ten years ago to find and help the most promising high-growth companies in emerging markets. It doesn’t actually invest in the 270 or so companies it has selected to be “Endeavor companies,” and a lot of that “help” is hard to quantify—free consulting, coaching and mentoring, and introductions to potential investors.

Indeed, a few entrepreneurs are dubious of how much Endeavor can really do at first blush. But here are a few stats: Endeavor companies have generated some $3.15 billion in revenues, generated nearly 100,000 jobs, and 93% of them are still business. If nothing else, Endeavor has a good eye for talent. (Although you can argue that success rate means they don’t back the riskiest bets that may need them most.)

A more tangible sign Endeavor has made a difference: Nearly 30 of these entrepreneurs have helped develop startup ecosystems by starting venture funds in emerging countries and a whopping 81% of them have donated cash or equity to support Endeavor.

Endeavor pores through hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and makes its selections at one of five annual International Selection Panels held in far-flung places around the world. I traveled thousands of miles to this one to see the newest collection of South American candidates and also to see up close how the whole process works. The biggest surprise: It does actually work. Well, that and all the Brazilians were nice to me. (Disclosure: I paid all travel expenses and the regular conference fees.)

The real strength of the Endeavor model is the local teams. They’re staffed by young energetic—and frequently emotional—locals who scour their markets for the best entrepreneurs and nominate them for selection. I’m not quite sure how they find them all.

Read more . . .

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Tags: emerging market, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, investors, IP, jobs, startup, Startups, TechCrunch, venture

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 13th, 2009 at 3:05 pm and is filed under IP, Innovation, Startups, TechCrunch, Worth Repeating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.