Entrepreneurial ecosystems develop when companies scale up and founders pay it forward. The ecosystems are composed of actors operating within the same sector and market, such as entrepreneurs, support organizations, donors, philanthropies and investors. Understanding ecosystem dynamics also takes into account the broader economic and policy environment around those actors. The nature of entrepreneurial ecosystems can vary by sector or business purpose, meaning that the factors for success within them may also differ.
Decision makers who support entrepreneurs should nurture the growth of self-propelling ecosystems. Endeavor’s research team, Endeavor Insight, conducted research and stakeholder engagement about how to achieve this, resulting in a set of guides and tools for ecosystem actors. The project led to the distillation of six principles for self-propelling ecosystem development.
These principles draw on Endeavor Insight’s body of research studying entrepreneurial ecosystems around the world, including interviews with hundreds of entrepreneurs and dozens of experts such as investors, executives of support programs and program officers at major funding organizations. Organizations wishing to support founders and their local entrepreneurial communities can follow six principles to ensure self-propelling growth:
- Focus on scale and local capacities.
- Align action with goals.
- Increase support for evidence-based solutions.
- Tailor support for innovation.
- Encourage founder reinvestment.
- Enable self-propelling local development.
These principles not only encompass the services that support organizations can provide when supporting entrepreneurs, but also emphasize the importance of founders paying it forward to support other entrepreneurs. This approach enables each company’s success to have a lasting impact on its ecosystem.
To read the entire report and learn about the six principles to ensure self-propelling ecosystem development, please click here.
Endeavor is the world’s leading community of high-growth entrepreneurs. Founded in 1997, Endeavor unlocks the power of entrepreneurship by selecting, supporting and investing in the founders to help them achieve large-scale growth. Today, Endeavor’s network spans more than 40 countries and supports more than 2,300 entrepreneurs, whose companies generate combined revenues of over $42 billion. Learn more at endeavor.org.
