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After establishing its offices in the country, global nonprofit organization Endeavor is looking to identify and support high-impact entrepreneurs who are making a difference in society.

Here, Endeavor CEO and Co-founder Linda Rottenberg talks about the differences and similarities between entrepreneurs across the globe, as well as the new wave of disruption in emerging economies.

E: How different are Indian entrepreneurs from entrepreneurs operating elsewhere?
Linda Rottenberg (LR): One of the interesting things about emerging markets is that most entrepreneurs in these countries are already thinking internationally, as their domestic markets are not big enough. The exception is Brazil, where entrepreneurs want to grow within the country. But everywhere else that we have been, global models are put in place from the start.

How many Indian entrepreneurs are thinking globally? India is so large that you really do not need to go elsewhere. The question I have for Indian entrepreneurs is: How much of the context is just Indian, versus how much have you explored the world for the best models to know how cutting-edge they really are?

E: What brought Endeavor to India?
LR: Endeavor always dreamed of supporting high-impact entrepreneurship that would be global and in all emerging markets. And you cannot be global as well as be in an emerging market if you are not in India. A number of Endeavor entrepreneurs wanted to expand to India and also set up base here, so they could network and expand their business. This was part of the impetus for us to come here.

I am a big fan of microfinance, but I think they sometimes—inadvertently—create a ceiling for certain classes of people or certain sectors. The feeling of having to keep the business small or micro creeps in. In India, we want to open the spigot wider to not only IIT graduates or MIT returnees, but also to entrepreneurship, so that businesses can penetrate our society.

E: What differences do you see in the entrepreneurial spirit across the world?
LR: Entrepreneurs are the same everywhere, and wherever I am—be it Johannesburg, Sao Paulo, Istanbul or Mexico—what’s interesting is that you can tell by looking into their eyes whether they’ve got ‘it’ or not. The passion, persistence and belief that you can change an industry, create jobs and become the next iconic role model—these are some of the things that remain the same everywhere.

Having said that, different countries are in different stages of growth. In Latin America, Brazil, Egypt and Jordan (where we have recently expanded to), there were no words for ‘entrepreneur’; we had to introduce the word and plant it in their culture. There were no self-made role models in these countries.

In India, things are different. There are the Wipros, Tatas and Infosys that are embedded in the culture. So entrepreneurs in India have visible, clear role models.

E: Has it been a learning curve for Endeavor each time it has gone to a new country, in terms of how you operate?
LR: Someone had once called Endeavor a venture capital without the capital—but this describes almost everybody. Endeavor is more about bridging gaps and, in many of these markets, there is no venture capital. In such markets, we are doing everything from sourcing entrepreneurs to doing due diligence to helping them access funding and lending. Now, we’re getting involved in policy-making in these countries, too. We are definitely coming up on the learning curve in the existing Endeavor countries—Latin America, Africa and Middle East—because we have always envisioned creating role models.

In a place like India, we look at things slightly differently: we aim to fill gaps. We look at finding leaders in each company. There is not much of a perceived capital culture in the country, even though there is an embedded venture capital community. We are looking at companies that are serving the underserved population or those working in areas that will have a social impact, such as healthcare or education. We’re also looking at companies that are based in Mumbai, Delhi or Bangalore but are serving Tier II cities.

E: How important is the growth of a company for Endeavor?
LR: For us, the growth of a company is very important. We’re trying to find entrepreneurs with great potential, and we will help them through as inflection points to reach that growth rate. While there is a venture capital industry in the country, we are trying to find a niche for underserved communities and industries. At the same time, there is no use of high impact ideas if a company does not grow. Job creation, wealth creation and innovation are very central to our model.

E: What kinds of obstacles do entrepreneurs across countries face?
LR: In some countries, you are given up by your family for dead because if you fail as an entrepreneur, you disgrace your family. I am contrarian to this view. The World Bank’s Doing Business report talks about all the regulatory obstacles of starting businesses and the issue of legal titles. This may be true for certain segments in the informal sector, but I do not think starting a company is an issue in the formal sector. At the point where you have the pilot but need to build the team, also concentrate on building the product, professionalizing your business and raising money. It is during this period that you will find that companies have either found the resources and management they need to grow, or they have hit a roadblock. In our experience, starting up is not the real issue; problems surface at a certain point where the company really needs to take the first step.

E: What is the basic fundamental that drives an entrepreneur? Is it money?
LR: I don’t think entrepreneurs come in for money. Entrepreneurs want to change the world. Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google wanted to revolutionize the way information is distributed. Moreover, they want to change the industry with their best ideas.  It is all about returning to the fundamentals, where the entrepreneur is the heart and soul of the matter.
I think the person is more important than the idea, because it always comes down to execution. Good ideas abound; some work while others fail due to the people behind those ideas.

This year, an Endeavor entrepreneur’s company was associated with the Oscars for the Best Visual Effects in the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I now hope that we will soon have an Endeavor entrepreneur who bags the Nobel Prize.

THE ECOSYSTEM:
• Entrepreneurial activity grows three times faster than GDP growth in India
• India is almost 100 times cheaper to start up in, though starting up a company can take time
• Output by Indian small businesses grew over 100 percent in the last five years
• Small businesses employ over 60 million people
• Infrastructure still remains the pain point
• The education system needs to change to foster entrepreneurship to obtain finances for scaling up

©Entrepreneur October 2009

Tags:
Africa, Brazil, culture, Doing Business, Egypt, Endeavor, entrepreneurs, global, Google, IIT, India, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Jordan, Larry Page, Latin America, Linda Rottenberg, Mexico, microfinance, Middle East, MIT, nonprofit organization, Oscars, report, Sao Paulo, Sergey Brin, smetv, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, World Bank