In the last
few days the Coronavirus situation has taken a sharp turn, from the Philippines
designating it a health emergency, to Italy and Spain announcing countrywide
lockdowns, and the United States declaring a national emergency just today. The
reality is that each day new communities are affected. As we all meet this
evolving challenge, Endeavor continues to be guided by our “Entrepreneur-first”
philosophy, while prioritizing safety. Like many of you, we have had to adjust
the ways we work and meet. We wanted to take this opportunity to share with you
below an update that our CEO Linda Rottenberg wrote to our entrepreneurs,
staff, and board members. We encourage you all to stay safe, and please don't
hesitate to reach out with any questions.
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Warm greetings from Brooklyn. I want to
begin by sending love, strength and well wishes to each of you and your
loved ones as well as expressing gratitude for the many thoughts, prayers,
crazy ideas (we love those!) you’ve sent our way.
We are fortunate to be part of an extraordinary network of people and it’s
simply been amazing to watch all of the Endeavor team members, boards,
mentors and EEs who have rolled up their sleeves, jumped onto Zoom calls,
shared information and best practices, offered support, and otherwise
expressed willingness to move forward with our global mission, however we
individually can. To our Endeavor Entrepreneurs (EEs): We are
actively working with our teams around the world to understand how we can
best support you in this difficult time.
Below, I’ve shared some of the unique ways our network is responding to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Below these highlights of how our network is responding
to this worldwide crisis (please feel free to send me other
examples!) is a heartwarming exchange between the board chairs of
Endeavor Egypt and Endeavor Italy, followed by a copy of our Endeavor
Values, which we finalized last year.
The spirit of our core values — #EntrepreneurFirst,
#NetworkOfTrust, #GoingBig, #PayingItForward, #OneEndeavor — have
never been more relevant. While there are many extremely urgent, front-line
issues to confront at this hour (healthcare, food and medical supplies,
schools, elderly care, hourly workers), I fervently believe that it is
fearless groups like Endeavor that will pave the path for a better
tomorrow.
Thanks for bearing with us as we focus hard on testing and making new
virtual Endeavor events as successful and value-added as possible, before
returning to our full-fledged live gatherings with the real
Endeavor magic!
As Endeavor President Adrian Garcia-Aranyos said: We will be first to
press “GO” as soon as it is feasible to host everyone back in NY for a live
International Selection Panel and begin to resume our full schedule of
events. (Note: we will be in touch on the status of future
Endeavor events as we continue to gather information but please assume all
global convening events at least through April will NOT be held live).
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me via email, WhatsApp or text, and
we will continue to update you on best practices and relevant happenings
within our network.
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Here are just a few brief examples from
our network:
In Spain, we held a
Virtual 'Meet the Companies' (MTC) event this week: 11 Endeavor
Entrepreneurs and 10 Corporations held a total of 66 1:1 online meetings to
explore commercial opportunities during a 4-hour virtual event. MTC was
pioneered by Endeavor Argentina and designed to be in person.
In Peru, Endeavor Managing
Director Debbie Jaffe, who spent years at Google working and managing
teams remotely, shared her best practices guide with other MDs who are
adapting it to their own offices.
In the Philippines, Endeavor
Entrepreneurs, connected via WhatsApp, are sharing best practices and
learnings with their peers as they develop strategies to manage teams
through this situation. One Healthcare entrepreneur, whose company works in
50 ICUs and medical institutions around the Philippines, has been providing
her fellow EEs up-to-the-minute updates from the front lines.
In California, our global
team led by Jamie Hankins spent several months planning a tour for the
Enterprise Software & Services portfolio in San Francisco, to
complement the annual SaaStr Conference many were already attending. When
SaaStr canceled 4 days prior to the start date, we continued forward,
navigating San Francisco’s no-convening guidelines to find creative ways to
bring in several speakers virtually, and canceling non-essential portions
of the agenda such as a happy hour that could have put the group at risk.
In the end, we welcomed 17 EEs and key staff from around the world.
Worldwide, our EEs are
offering their services free to support impacted groups: from providing
free visualization software for organizations fighting COVID-19 to offering
online educational content after school closures to serving as the national
hotline for Coronavirus response!
ZOOM (founded by honorary EE Eric Yuan,
whose lead investors from Emergence Capital are founding Endeavor Global
board member Jason Green and founder-to-funder EE Santi Subotovsky) not
only generously offered its virtual meeting services free to schools, community
organizations and certain small businesses around the world, but Santi
personally had Zoom’s top product heads walk our Entrepreneur
Selection team through a special “Zoom Breakout Room” feature to
enable the a beta test of a virtual International Selection Panel (ISP),
the signature event we hold eight times per year where we select our
newest class of Endeavor Entrepreneurs.
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