MSC Client Spotlight: Endeavor

Endeavor is a high-impact entrepreneurship community: they help existing startups get the connections, funding, and talent they need to scale up and move from surviving to thriving. Endeavor focuses on building sustainable business communities in local areas across the globe by providing resources where they’re needed most. Founded in 1997 by Linda Rottenberg and Peter Kellner, as of 2017, Endeavor has recruited over 3,000 established mentors, created over 700,000 jobs, and helped strengthen international 60 cities. Needless to say, their services and assistance basically define “world-class”.

Source: Endeavor 2017 Impact Report

Endeavor boosts scaling startups by providing entrepreneurs with three key resources: a strong network, smart capital, and empowered talent. They carefully research startups with the highest potential for a positive impact, and after a six- to eight-month selection process, hook them up with customized advisory boards, pitch counseling, investor networks, Harvard or Stanford executive education programs, exclusive conferences, and just about any other support the selected entrepreneurs might need.

In 2015, Endeavor searched for a new business community to help flourish. They noticed that Southeast Michigan was already overflowing with creativity and entrepreneurship. The startups in our area had the potential to make a massive, positive, and sustainable impact—they just didn’t quite have the access to resources to get to the next step. Endeavor, like many other newcomers to Detroit, decided that it was the perfect place to be.

“Michigan is in an exciting period of reinvention and growth, driven by a rise in entrepreneurship,” said Cynthia Pasky, President and CEO of Strategic Staffing Solutions, and Chair of Endeavor Detroit. “The result is the creation of more new jobs. Endeavor’s unparalleled global network equips the state’s best entrepreneurs with the resources they need to usher Michigan into a new era.”

Source: Endeavor 2017 Impact Report

As soon as they opened their doors in the Mitten, Endeavor Detroit began helping Michigan boost what are now some of our most recognizable brands. For example, Kyle Hoff and Alex O’Dell, founders of the FLOYD furniture company, made valuable connections at an Endeavor-exclusive Retail and Consumer Tech Industry Tour where they showed their now-famous bed. Endeavor connected them to students at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, who took the company on as a Multidisciplinary Act Project sponsor and recommended a European expansion method. FLOYD received tailored investments from the Endeavor Catalyst and hit the ground running, disrupting the furniture industry as they went.

Source: FLOYD

Companies throughout the area, such as Algal Tech, McClure’s, DROUGHT, Vectorform, and many others have benefitted from Endeavor in similar but customized ways, bringing jobs to the area and bringing the Michigan business community together in ways that it hadn’t been before. At Marketing Supply Company, we’re excited and honored to empower Endeavor to empower others through awesome content solutions. Check them out as @endeavorDET on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or at endeavordetroit.org.