Endeavor’s 500+ team members and worldwide network painstakingly probe all our markets to identify qualified entrepreneurs for Endeavor’s selection process.
Endeavor candidates operate in many industries — enterprise software and services, fintech, food & beverage, education, healthcare, agriculture, retail and consumer tech, and smart cities.
We look for entrepreneurs leading innovative companies that are solving real problems at significant scale. Endeavor provides a merit-based platform open to all entrepreneurs who dream big and create high-growth companies.
We meet some founders early and follow them through local scale-up programs to build our search & selection pipeline. We encounter others who have raised capital, and still others who are already “unicorns” (tech companies valued at US$1BN) yet still have room to grow.
In evaluating candidates for Endeavor, we are guided by the following questions:
1) Can these entrepreneurs scale their companies at least 10x beyond where they are today (or even more than 10x if the business is currently under US$5M in annual revenue)?
2) Do they possess the growth mindset and values of the global Endeavor community?
3) Will the entrepreneur(s) multiply their impact by learning how to be thought leaders and role models, and by using our platform to pay their success forward?
Endeavor views its selection process as a service, where transformational conversations with preeminent business leaders push candidates to reflect and answer tough questions about their business models, team strength, and future growth plans.
Our selection process begins in each local market and culminates in our world-renowned International Selection Panels (ISPs) — dynamic, invitation-only events held throughout the year in different cities around the world.
To qualify for an ISP, entrepreneurs must demonstrate that their company has reached a clear inflection point and shows real potential for regional, or global, scale and influence. Historically, fewer than 5% of candidates who enter the initial selection process move onto an ISP.
At each ISP, only those final candidates gaining unanimous approval from expert panelists become Endeavor Entrepreneurs. The Endeavor seal of approval carries significant weight with investors, partners, and other industry leaders.
Endeavor delivers demand-driven services locally, regionally, and globally; we further customize these to turbocharge our entrepreneurs’ individual scaleup journeys.
Endeavor Advisory Boards provide expert mentorship to founders on strategy and execution.
Endeavor Executive Education offers Endeavor Entrepreneurs and their senior managers uniquely designed programs focused on leadership, innovation, and techniques for scaling companies at the world’s top business schools, including Harvard, Stanford, and Insead.
Endeavor Investor Network facilitates access to capital for our entrepreneurs through road show preparation, “speed dating” sessions, and curated introductions to best-in-class investors.
Endeavor Market Access opens doors to new commercial opportunities and global expansion through network connections, deep-dive country visits, and specialized industry tours.
Endeavor OPEN is the tech platform that brings the entire Endeavor network — the people, the resources, the events — to members’ fingertips.
Endeavor Outliers is an intimate, peer-to-peer program organized for an annually selected class of Endeavor Entrepreneurs leading the fastest growing companies in our active portfolio, along with alumni of the most successfully exited Endeavor companies.
Endeavor Verticals unite the global portfolio of Endeavor Entrepreneurs under sector-specific communities, and connect them with a curated network of peers, investors, and mentors.
Endeavor Catalyst, our rules-based fund, co-invests in Endeavor Entrepreneurs raising rounds of minimum US$5M in equity capital led by qualified institutional investors. Our fund invests up to 10% of each qualifying round, currently capped at $2M per company. As of June 2019, Endeavor Catalyst has co-invested in over 115 companies across 25 markets with six full exits and four “unicorns” in its active portfolio.
We achieve broader ecosystem impact by sharing the aspirational stories, innovation strategies, and disruptive techniques of Endeavor Entrepreneurs.
Endeavor Experiences bring the successes and challenges of Endeavor Entrepreneurs to a larger stage, where country leaders and policy makers learn what it takes to retain the best home-grown talent and how to prepare their economies for technological advancement.
Endeavor Insight is the research arm of Endeavor that provides data-driven and visual research into what makes entrepreneurial ecosystems thrive.
Endeavor Scale-up Events disseminate lessons, best practices, and Day One stories of top entrepreneurs to a broader community of founders aiming to accelerate their own business and workers hoping to retool their skills for the jobs of the future.
Endeavor Entrepreneurs use our platform to give back and ensure that future generations have access to opportunities for self-fulfillment and community advancement.
Endeavor Founder-to-Funder programs educate Endeavor Entrepreneurs on how to become angel investors and venture capitalists themselves, further propelling entrepreneur-led growth.
Endeavor Pay-it-forward platforms allow our entrepreneurs to become Endeavor board members, panelists, investors in Endeavor Catalyst, and philanthropists in their home markets.
Endeavor Catalyst pioneered the 50/50 profit-sharing fund model that is now being replicated by other mission-driven institutions. Through our fund, investors gain access to a world-class, diversified pipeline of companies while also participating in meaningful profit-sharing with Endeavor. Returns from Endeavor Catalyst, combined with other market-driven revenue, will enable Endeavor to become a financially self-sustaining organization by 2030.