Louisville, KY / Indianapolis, IN / Cincinnati, OH (December 15, 2021) – After two cohorts that supported entrepreneurs from across the region, Endeavor has completed its 2021 Scale Up program. Each program cohort included 5 months of strategic mentorship and curated resources for scaling a business. The first cohort of Scale Up 2021 included Kare Mobile (Louisville, KY), Nymbl Systems (Lexington, KY), Hopewell (Columbus, OH), and Spiritless (Louisville, KY), and the second cohort included Native (Cincinnati, OH), GoodMaps (Louisville, KY), and Annex Capital (Louisville, KY). 

 

 

About Endeavor’s Scale Up Program

 

In partnership with EY, Scale Up is a non-dilutive growth accelerator that supports high-potential, fast-growth entrepreneurs by giving access to the resources, successful founders, and mentors in Endeavor’s regional network to scale to the next level. In 2021, there were two cohorts of Scale Up Entrepreneurs: from February to June, and from August to December.

 

In the Scale Up 2021 program, entrepreneurs received curated, direct mentorship from current Endeavor Entrepreneurs and successful mentors from Endeavor’s regional network. Each cohort launched with a workshop from nationally-recognized venture capital firm, GrowthX, and included an in-depth financial review from Endeavor partner, EY. Scale Up Entrepreneurs also had access to EY’s 7 Drivers of Growth assessment framework, a partnership package with discounts from companies like Hubspot, WeWork, AWS, and Zoom, and workshops with Endeavor partners like Innovatemap and Dell.

 

“Through Scale Up, early-stage entrepreneurs in our region get access to incredible resources from EY, GrowthX, and Endeavor Entrepreneurs – becoming part of Endeavor’s strong regional network,” explained Jackson Andrews, Endeavor’s Managing Director. “We are so excited to have supported these seven fantastic companies in Scale Up programs this year.”

 

Program Closes with Scale Up Acceleration Panel

 

On Thursday, December 9th, the Scale Up Acceleration Panel served as the concluding event of the second cohort of Scale Up 2021 entrepreneurs. Endeavor Entrepreneurs and Mentors spent a day interviewing the Scale Up Entrepreneurs in an effort to provide strategic feedback from different perspectives, challenge the entrepreneurs to think bigger, and build each entrepreneur’s regional network. 

 

The Acceleration Panel was hosted at Hopewell’s Louisville Lab, and brought together founders and mentors from Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Louisville. Following the panel, the day concluded with Endeavor’s annual High Impact Entrepreneur Celebration. Over 60 regional entrepreneurs, supporters, and stakeholders coalesced to celebrate high-impact entrepreneurship across the region. 

 

Endeavor’s global president, Adrian Aranyos-Garcia, attended the event and was featured in KY Inno, sharing that “local entrepreneurs [in Endeavor’s network] are nothing short of amazing. We’ve always been about high-quality entrepreneurship outside of the normal San Francisco, Boston, New York, London — innovation can come from anywhere.”

 

Endeavor’s Scale Up 2022 Program

Applications will open in late December for Endeavor’s Scale Up 2022 cohorts – which will run from February to June and August to December of 2022 – for founders of high-potential, fast-growth companies across Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio.

 

Endeavor will select companies based on their global selection criteria:

 

• Entrepreneur: founder(s) willing to listen, learn, and grow from feedback. Entrepreneur(s) committed to both going big, paying it forward, and giving back.
• Business: high-growth companies based in Indiana, Kentucky, or Ohio with the potential to be the next regional scale-up success story with an exponential impact. 
• Timing: post-revenue companies across any industry. Seed to Series A stage (for venture-backed companies) with ideally over $1M in annual revenues.

 

Ideal Scale Up companies also have many of the following indicators:

 

• First-time founders or founders without a strong personal network seeking to tap into a regional entrepreneurial network
• A team with 5-20 employees, including the founders
• Companies that have raised over $500k in early capital and/or are raising $1M+ in institutional capital
• Annual growth rates of 50-100%+
• Entrepreneurs with a massive vision and bold goals
• Founders who value connection to later-stage entrepreneurs and a strong regional network across Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio (the Endeavor team is located in Louisville, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati)

 

The cost of the program is $3,000 per company (a 501(c)3 deductible donation) and 50% of Scale Up slots are prioritized for companies with a female or minority founder.

 

About Endeavor

Endeavor is the world’s leading community of high-impact entrepreneurs. Founded in 1997, Endeavor unlocks the transformational power of entrepreneurship by selecting, supporting, and investing in the world’s top founders of tech-enabled startups to help them achieve large-scale impact. Today, Endeavor’s network spans nearly 40 countries and supports more than 2,000 entrepreneurs, whose companies generate combined revenues of over $28 billion, have created more than 3.9 million jobs, and, in 2020, raised over $4 billion in capital. Endeavor’s unique entrepreneur-first model, peer-to-peer community, and trust-based network provides a platform for founders to dream big, scale up, and pay it forward to the next generation.