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Endeavor was founded in 1997 on the belief that job creation, innovation, and overall prosperity flourish where there is robust support for high-impact entrepreneurs.

Endeavor defines ​high-impact entrepreneurs as those with the biggest ideas; the greatest potential to achieve meaningful scale; and the ability to inspire, mentor, and reinvest in the next generation. Today’s high-impact entrepreneurs often innovate through tech-enabled platforms, products, and services, thereby creating the jobs of the future.

For a carefully curated group of these entrepreneurs (“​Endeavor Entrepreneurs​”), Endeavor offers a best-in-class seal of approval, an unrivaled personal and professional network, frictionless co-investment capital, and peer-to-peer idea exchange in a truly global setting.

Endeavor also serves as a global thought leader, demonstrating why high-impact entrepreneurship matters and how important innovations can come from anywhere in the world.

Successful high-impact entrepreneurs generate a multiplier effect: Young people everywhere, regardless of birthplace or background, hear their stories and begin to believe that they too can dream big, scale up, and pay their success forward.

Endeavor’s ultimate aim is a more equitable and prosperous future for everyone.

Endeavor Catalyst​ is Endeavor’s rules-based, co-investment fund that invests in the companies of Endeavor Entrepreneurs. With $500M in Assets Under Management (AUM) across three funds, Endeavor Catalyst has made 250+ investments in 30+ markets and counts 49 $1B+ companies in its current portfolio as of June 2022. By investing in the companies of Endeavor Entrepreneurs via Endeavor Catalyst, we are not only providing a value-added service to our entrepreneurs, but we are also sharing diversified investment opportunities with our various stakeholders and setting Endeavor on a path to becoming a financially self-sustaining organization on both a Global and Local level. Learn more here.

Endeavor Entrepreneurs go through a rigorous selection process, which begins at the local level and culminates with an International Selection Panel (ISP), which is held either virtually or in-person in one of Endeavor’s global markets.

• To qualify for an International Selection Panel, entrepreneurs must demonstrate that their company has reached a clear inflection point and shows real potential for regional, or global, scale and influence. We typically work with entrepreneurs we feel have the ability to grow 10x from where they are today. Historically, fewer than 5% of candidates who enter the initial selection process move on to an ISP.
• At each ISP, only those final candidates gaining ​unanimous ​approval from expert panelists become Endeavor Entrepreneurs. While there is no quota for selection panels (all or none of the entrepreneurs could be selected), we find that on average 70% of the entrepreneurs who reach the ISP stage are selected into the Endeavor network. The ​Endeavor seal of approval carries significant weight with investors, partners, and other industry leaders.

Today, there are a myriad of organizations entrepreneurs can turn to to find support depending on the stage of their company’s growth or the challenges they look to solve. Network members can be affiliated with these organizations and Endeavor, and indeed many are.

Endeavor differentiates itself and complements other ecosystem initiatives in some of the following ways:

We focus on scale-ups, not startups

• Scaleups are companies with clear product-market fit that are entering their next phase of growth. Entrepreneurs must demonstrate that their company has reached a clear inflection point and shows real potential for regional, or global, scale and influence. We typically work with entrepreneurs we feel have the ability to grow 10x from where they are today.

We are about high-impact entrepreneurs, not social impact entrepreneurs

• Endeavor defines high-impact entrepreneurs as those with the biggest ideas; the greatest potential to achieve meaningful scale; and the ones who generate a multiplier effect by paying it forward, paving the way for future generations of founders and turbocharging ecosystem growth.
• We believe in the power of high-impact entrepreneurs to solve big societal problems at scale and build a better tomorrow; but our criteria for selection does not focus on social impact.

We are not an accelerator program with a graduation date

• We select Endeavor Entrepreneurs with a company
• We are demand-driven; and evolve our highly-curated services to reflect what Endeavor Entrepreneurs need to scale.

We are not a lifetime achievement award

• We challenge Endeavor Entrepreneurs to continue growing.
• We expect them to pay their success forward at the right time.

We are not just another fund

• We have a rules-based fund, Endeavor Catalyst, that remains entrepreneur-first in execution and values alignment.
• We are the one whom entrepreneurs turn to when there are issues with investors.
• We view our selection process as a service (vs. diligence process), in which all entrepreneurs who go through it receive valuable mentorship and perspectives to grow their businesses and themselves as leaders.

We are not a life raft for entrepreneurs

• We are there in the good and bad times for entrepreneurs to provide tailored support in an environment of trust.
• But we can’t be everything to everyone. EEs have to engage and use the network to get the most value out of it. And we aim to select entrepreneurs who can lead through crises on their own, using Endeavor as a trusted resource, but not a crutch.

Our model is truly of, by, and for entrepreneurs

• Our founder remains our CEO.
• Endeavor Entrepreneurs go on to sit on Endeavor boards, serve as international selection panelists, and invest in Endeavor Catalyst, guiding and adapting our model according to what entrepreneurs need.
• Endeavor Catalyst will fund and sustain our operations to support the next generation in new and existing ecosystems. Our aim is to be fully funded based on the success and reinvestment of the very EEs we support.

We are a global community

• Our 500+ staff in our local offices and our global headquarters in New York, San Francisco, and Singapore operate as a unified organization with a shared mission, values, and model. Network members can:
  • Find a home base in your local market
  • Know you have an Endeavor home in any market we operate in
  • Access global connections and services through our headquarters
• Our community’s identity is rooted in the concept of #OneEndeavor: We — staff, entrepreneurs, board members, mentors — are borderless, multidimensional, and unified by our commitment to help one another find opportunities wherever we live.

As metrics of success, we measure annual revenue, jobs and growth for our EEs, alongside their willingness to “pay it forward” by becoming mentors, investors, and even Endeavor board members. Today, hundreds of Endeavor Entrepreneurs serve as mentors in our network, and dozens as Board Members or investors in Endeavor Catalyst, our global rule-based fund.

In 12 of our markets the VERY FIRST unicorn (billion-dollar startup) was founded by an Endeavor Entrepreneur (in one case a former Endeavor Managing Director); in 14 of our markets, two thirds of the earliest unicorn cohort is composed of Endeavor Entrepreneurs. Our entrepreneurs are serving as aspirational role models and mentors for the next generation of founders as well as investing in the future scale-ups that will, in turn, produce jobs and innovation in their markets.

The 500+ staff in the Endeavor network operate as a unified organization with the same mission. The Endeavor network welcomes opportunities to work with one another across borders, and dedicates itself to facilitating valuable connections among our network. Once an Endeavor Entrepreneur is selected, they gain access to a dedicated and vibrant global network of peer and expert support that transcends borders, helping them reach scale, and multiplying their impact in their local ecosystems and beyond. Many of our former employees have gone onto work for Endeavor Entrepreneurs or become venture capitalists in their markets, furthering the Endeavor mission even beyond their full-time tours of duty.

Yes. We launch about two new markets a year on average. You can see all our local office locations here.