Our goal at Endeavor is to identify the fastest-growing founders with the greatest potential, invite them to participate in our renowned international selection process, and integrate them into a global community that is driving innovation-based economic development across borders.
If Endeavor sounds like a project you’d be interested to join, you may already be wondering: What is the value of the multiplier effect? What are the selection criteria? What are the profile types of entrepreneurs that we are looking for? And what are the steps of the process?
In this article, we will walk you through every stage of becoming an Endeavor Entrepreneur, from screening to the international selection panel. By the end, you’ll know exactly what it takes to be part of our community and you will gain a deeper understanding of how Endeavor’s multiplier effect will accelerate your scale-up journey.
ENDEAVOR’S MISSION
Endeavor is a mission-driven, global organization leading the high-impact entrepreneurship movement. The organization was founded on the belief that job creation, innovation, and overall prosperity flourish where there is robust support for high-impact entrepreneurs.
To that end, Endeavor creates a Multiplier Effect by inspiring high-growth founders to dream bigger, supporting and investing in them to scale faster, and providing a platform to pay it forward — thereby compounding their individual impact. In 1997, when Endeavor was launched in Latin America, emerging markets were technologically wastelands, unlikely to produce even a single startup with a valuation of $1 billion or more. Entrepreneurs in emerging and underserved markets faced multiple barriers to success: the high cost of failure, a lack of mentors and networks and limited access to talent and smart capital. What Endeavor did in the past 25 years was to systematically break down those barriers and unleash tremendous local talent, with the help of the multiplier effect.
The best way to visualize this phenomenon is on a social network map, illustrated below. Light-blue rings represent years. Blue Circles, or Bubbles, represent tech companies. Blue lines represent connections between and among tech founders — inspiration, mentoring, training, and investing.
ENDEAVOR CRITERIA
There is no magic number or formula for selecting great entrepreneurs. However, there are some aspects to which we pay special attention. We are looking for companies with an innovative business model and significant growth potential, willing to scale regionally or globally, and are at an inflection point for growth and could be turbo-charged by Endeavor’s network. Endeavor selects “scale-ups”. Most entrepreneurs in Endeavor’s selection process have between $500K-$10M in annual revenue. The average CAGR (3-year) for Endeavor Entrepreneurs is >100%.
AVERAGE NUMBERS OF SELECTED COMPANIES
3. THE SELECTION PROCESS
Through a rigorous, multi-step selection process, Endeavor Romania annually screens dozens of entrepreneurs to identify the best talent. Candidates with the most innovative, high-growth ventures and with the greatest promise to become future mentors, board members, and investors are selected as Endeavor Entrepreneurs. In a nutshell, the selection process, based on Endeavor criteria, consists of five sequential steps:
I. Screening
Endeavor Romania Office assesses entrepreneurs’ applications and conducts preliminary research to determine whether to interview the candidate.
II. First Opinion Review (FOR)
The FOR consists of an initial meeting that helps the Endeavor Romania Office decide whether the entrepreneur should continue to the next round. This is a great way to get to know each other- we learn more about your business and you learn more about Endeavor.
III. Second Opinion Review (SOR)
This meeting, attended by Endeavor candidates, Endeavor staff members and mentors, is meant as an educational experience for the entrepreneur. Mentors probe the business model and its scalability, growth potential and the entrepreneur’s personal qualities, in order to decide whether to move the company to the next stage.
As mentors are paired with companies with which their expertise aligns, even if the Second Opinion Reviewers decide that you are not a fit yet, you will have the chance to learn from their expertise and receive an in-depth analysis of your company.
You can find the list of Endeavor Romania Mentors here.
IV. Local Selection Panel (LSP)
A panel composed of 4-6 Endeavor Mentors and Board Members conduct group interviews to assess business scalability and entrepreneurial fit. They deliberate on whether you are ready to go to the next phase.
V. International Selection Panel (ISP)
The International Selection Panel is the culmination of this rigorous process in which candidates pass through a series of valuable reviews by local staff and mentors.
Over the course of each ISP, either in-person or virtual, Endeavor brings together high-potential entrepreneurs (‘Candidates’) and top-tier business leaders (‘Panelists’). As a candidate, you will receive key feedback and advice to help you improve your business. At the end of each ISP, Endeavor selects the next class of high-impact entrepreneurs who will become the epicenter of their local entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Given how challenging the selection process is, becoming an Endeavor Entrepreneur is a badge of honor for any company or entrepreneur. Being part of such a vetted community also carries a lot of weight with investors, business partners and other industry leaders and opens doors to the support networks that will help entrepreneurs scale and reach new heights.
We are pulling the future forward — not only through innovative technology that solves real-life problems and continues to shape and change the way we live everywhere, but through embodying and nurturing the values that bind us together as a global community, change cultures, and build ecosystems.
If you weren’t convinced before, hopefully, now you can see the power of being part of our global community of, by, and for High-Impact Entrepreneurs — those who dream bigger, scale faster, and pay it forward.
Join us and let’s soar together!
