I’m in New York at the moment attending the Endeavor Annual Gala event. I have the benefit of attending talks by Barry Diller (IAC CEO), Scott Meyers (About.com CEO) and a host of other great speakers. It’s a 3 day conference – hence my time for other things, like blogging, is very restricted!
The Endeavor network is really a great network for entrepreneurs from “Emerging Markets”, although arguably, some of these markets have already emerged! I can only highly recommend the support we’ve received from Endeavor, which is a non-profit organisation.
Synthasite was fortunate enough to be one of the companies selected by MIT (Massachusetts Institute for Technology) to host a team of MBA interns who will work closely with us for the next 3 months and fly down to Cape Town in January to assist us with post-Beta testing. I had dinner with the team on Monday night, and I can honestly say that I’m thoroughly impressed by the calibre – but would you expect any less from MIT? I might add that there were more companies applying than interns available – so getting selected was seriously something special!
I was also privileged to speak to a class of students at MIT in Boston as well – and it was great to be able to share my experiences as an entrepreneur with them.
Also, through Endeavor, we also received an eMBA from Harvard who spent 3 months with us earlier this year, and he did a great job! Now I get 4 MBA’s – it’s going to be great having some extra resources – we’re very excited!
The bottom line is:
I can really encourage any and all emerging market entrepreneurs to at least apply to join Endeavor – the benefits are fantastic and it’s great being part of a support network. You need to be operating primarily in an emerging market – but check their website for more details.
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Comments On This Post
November 13, 2007 at 2:18 am
Vinny,
I missed you this year at CJU. Had to sit it out. I’ll holler at you in 2008. I’m getting my gUaP right…:-)
November 13, 2007 at 12:18 am
Vinny,
I missed you this year at CJU. Had to sit it out. I’ll holler at you in 2008. I’m getting my gUaP right…:-)
January 24, 2008 at 11:11 am
i wonder wethere we could get a south african network going
January 24, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Do you mean a CJU network in South Africa?
http://www.Drewryonline.net
January 24, 2008 at 9:11 am
i wonder wethere we could get a south african network going
January 24, 2008 at 11:51 am
Do you mean a CJU network in South Africa?
http://www.Drewryonline.net
February 7, 2008 at 7:39 am
Sounds like becoming an Endeavor member has plenty of benefits and educational opportunities. Unfortunately, my industry is well established.
What are some of the requirements?
February 7, 2008 at 7:42 am
Hey Jason. It’s only for emerging markets – where are you based? Check out http://www.endeavor.org
February 7, 2008 at 7:45 am
Thanks Vinny – I’ll check it out
February 7, 2008 at 5:39 am
Sounds like becoming an Endeavor member has plenty of benefits and educational opportunities. Unfortunately, my industry is well established.
What are some of the requirements?
February 7, 2008 at 5:42 am
Hey Jason. It’s only for emerging markets – where are you based? Check out http://www.endeavor.org
February 7, 2008 at 5:45 am
Thanks Vinny – I’ll check it out
February 23, 2008 at 10:59 pm
Hi Vinny,
Do you think we could develop a similar initiative for SA MBA students? I’d be interested in finding out if you think there is potential to find such high-calibre MBA talent in SA. The reason I ask is that we’ve just launched http://www.MBAconnect.net, a community website for MBAs from all business schools around SA. We facilitate a whole lot of fantastic features for the MBA community and I thought this might be an interesting initiative to add.
Thanks,
Colette Symanowitz
info@mbaconnect.co.za
February 23, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Hi Vinny,
Do you think we could develop a similar initiative for SA MBA students? I’d be interested in finding out if you think there is potential to find such high-calibre MBA talent in SA. The reason I ask is that we’ve just launched http://www.MBAconnect.net, a community website for MBAs from all business schools around SA. We facilitate a whole lot of fantastic features for the MBA community and I thought this might be an interesting initiative to add.
Thanks,
Colette Symanowitz
info@mbaconnect.co.za
March 25, 2008 at 8:27 pm
@ Colette Symanowitz
I think it could be. But the website MBA connect is really worth a lot of money. Keep up the good work!
March 25, 2008 at 6:27 pm
@ Colette Symanowitz
I think it could be. But the website MBA connect is really worth a lot of money. Keep up the good work!
February 25, 2009 at 1:04 am
Vinny, I know it's been a long time since you posted this, but have you had further experiences with Endeavor since then? Do you still think the benefits to entrepreneurs in emerging markets are as valuable, or have other organizations since taken the lead?
February 26, 2009 at 4:14 am
Hey BE – I'm still very much involved with Endeavor – great organization – exceptionally valuable. I've really enjoyed being a part of it!
July 5, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Great blog man! You're really convinced me to join them.
In fact, I'll sign up right now
Thanks for the article
July 28, 2009 at 3:35 am
I can really encourage any and all emerging market entrepreneurs to at least apply to join Endeavor – the benefits are fantastic and it’s great being part of a support network.
August 16, 2009 at 10:32 pm
thank you for sharing
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