Endeavor (EF, Thursday, Week 9)
entrepreneurial-financeyear-twoHow do you actually define "high impact entrepreneurship?" After listening to the founder, I'm still not sure...
Selecting Endeavor Entrepreneurs = balance between potential to blow up, economic progress, and social progress
Endeavor has basically targeted returns (potential to blow up).
Sort of like a VC firm, except they appear to make much safer bets (high % of successful ventures) and only pick 10-20 entrepreneurs per country. So they clearly can't take the same risks as VCs, for whom most bets fail.
Endeavor seems to be doing a lot of good in places where there is no culture of entrepreneurship. And I am impressed. But Brazil was booming before Endeavor --- are they just riding the wave?
I am not sure how I feel about this, or even whether I think Endeavor is achieving something meaningful (versus anointing destined-for-success firms in developing countries and serving as a summer employment option for former consultants in business school who don't land anything "better"). Endeavor summer hires I have met are not that impressive, aside from having resumes including experience at a bulge-bracket bank/big-3 consulting firm. I am a bit skeptical.