Endeavor aims to reshape how startup success is measured with the ‘Multiplier Effect’

New York, NY, April 11, 2023 –  Entrepreneurs are often narrowly judged by simple indicators like growth, profit, and valuation, but stats like these ignore the bigger economic picture. Endeavor is setting out to change that and redefine what it means to succeed as an entrepreneur.

In its 25 years as a nonprofit, Endeavor developed and nurtured entrepreneurial ecosystems around the world, helping 65+ companies become unicorns. Amongst its key lessons is that when the high-growth entrepreneurs of today help the high-growth entrepreneurs of tomorrow, their impact compounds exponentially. Together, founders can build the next Silicon Valleys—thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems that drive broad, sustained economic growth.

We call this the Multiplier Effect: the compound impact a founder has when they mentor, inspire, and invest in the next generation of entrepreneurs. To shed light on this phenomenon, Endeavor is launching an exclusive worldwide Multiplier Effect map that visualizes the compound influence that 25 Endeavor Entrepreneurs from 14 countries have had in their underserved communities. Endeavor’s community helped many of these founders scale into $1+ billion unicorns, and gave them a platform to pay it forward.

The Power of the Multiplier Effect

Our new interactive map uses data provided by Endeavor Entrepreneurs and their companies, along with supplemental information from Pitchbook and LinkedIn. The map shows every entrepreneur they have mentored, directly invested in, or previously employed. It proves that a single founder can affect more than 500 other companies. Below are three examples from the map:

• Rappi’s Multiplier Effect: In Colombia, Endeavor helped scale on-demand delivery app Rappi into the country’s first unicorn. Its alumni have gone on to found or lead more than 130 businesses and its founders have mentored or invested in 20 other entrepreneurs.
• Globant’s Multiplier Effect: Endeavor Argentina selected Globant in 2004. Its four founders have mentored 201 startups and helped inspire 435 former employees to become entrepreneurs.
• Careem’s Multiplier Effect: Middle East ride-hailing company Careem joined Endeavor’s network in 2018. More than 120 founders worked and trained at the company and its three founders have mentored 30 more.

Reshaping the Global Entrepreneurial Narrative

In the United States, you can see the Multiplier Effect by looking at PayPal’s influence on Silicon Valley. PayPal alumni (sometimes called the “PayPal Mafia”) have gone on to found companies including Tesla, LinkedIn, Palantir, SpaceX, Affirm, and Yelp.

Endeavor is a global nonprofit organization that has spent 25 years developing entrepreneurial ecosystems in emerging and underserved markets around the world. We’ve done this by building communities for entrepreneurs and helping them compound their impact by harnessing the Multiplier Effect.

Back in 1997, when we launched our first Endeavor office in Latin America, emerging markets were overlooked, unlikely to produce a single startup worth $1 billion. Today, there are more than 50 unicorns in Latin America and 45 in the Middle East and North Africa, thanks to the Multiplier Effect. Endeavor has grown right along with them. We now have 42 offices that connect 2,400+ Endeavor Entrepreneurs from about 1,500 companies.

“Valuation has never been the goal. Impact has been the goal,” says Endeavor co-founder and CEO Linda Rottenberg. “And that impact depends on catalyzing networks of trust, mentorship, and celebration. A unicorn that doesn’t breed even more unicorns is just an endangered species.”

More Resources

Endeavor’s Insight team regularly conducts and publishes research. It has many studies that discuss the multiplier effect, like our climate tech growth challenges study, Top 10 Entrepreneurship Findings, Lessons on Fostering Entrepreneurship Communities, and 2022 Endeavor Impact Report.

About Endeavor Global

Endeavor is the leading global community of, by, and for High-Impact Entrepreneurs—those who dream bigger, scale faster, and pay it forward. Driven by our belief that High-Impact Entrepreneurs transform economies, Endeavor is on a mission to build entrepreneurial ecosystems in emerging and underserved markets around the world.

Endeavor has local offices in 42 markets around the world. We support about 2,400 entrepreneurs from 1,500 companies. 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.

For more information about Endeavor, visit our website.