For the first time ever, Endeavor brought Endeavor Entrepreneurs, Mentors and Board Members together from across the United States and Ireland for a virtual ScaleUp Summit on September 25 to share their views on entrepreneurship, and inspire others to think bigger and scale their businesses, even through the current global pandemic. The half-day event highlighted entrepreneurs and business leaders who have mastered “The Art of Pivoting” and quickly adapted to our new normal.
Attendees heard from an incredible line up of special guests including Endeavor Founding Board Chairman (Ireland) and U2’s The Edge, Techstars’ Brad Feld, Rise of the Rest Seed Fund’s Anna Mason, Lightship Capital’s Brian Brackeen, and many more!
Those tuning in not only heard from these speakers on how they’ve overcome adversity during these trying times, but also had the opportunity to directly connect with other Endeavor Entrepreneurs and Mentors from the different U.S. affiliates (Atlanta, Colorado, Detroit, Louisville, Miami, North Western Arkansas, Western New York, Puerto Rico) and the Dublin-based office.
Opening Remarks and the Entrepreneur Journey
Endeavor Miami Managing Director, Claudia Duran kicked things off, introducing the virtual event as an opportunity for the Endeavor community to come together, share perspectives, success stories and lessons learned, while celebrating the entrepreneurs that have gone through a regional ScaleUp program.
“As you all know, 2020 has been a challenging year for everyone,” Duran said. “However, despite these uncertain times, entrepreneurs across the world have found ways not just to survive, but to thrive in crisis.”
After opening remarks, Endeavor President Adrian-Garcia Aranyos jumped in to lead a conversation with Endeavor Entrepreneur and founder of Paga, Tayo Oviosu, about the entrepreneur journey, the importance of teamwork and the value the Endeavor network provides.
“The other Endeavor Entrepreneurs I’ve been privileged to meet have been very helpful on my journey and my personal learning as a leader, even helping me think about some of the issues in the company, and how they’ve gone about it,” Oviosu said. “These are Entrepreneurs as far as Argentina, Indonesia, people who I would not have ordinarily come across.”
Fireside Chat led by U2’s The Edge
We then headed across the pond (virtually) to Ireland for a fireside chat with Endeavor Ireland Founding Board Chairman and U2’s The Edge, and Elevation Partners co-founder Roger McNamee, where they discussed the opportunity available to tech companies outside of Silicon Valley.
“If you live in Detroit, if you live in Miami, if you live in Louisville or any other city in the U.S., your greatest barrier right now is market dominance,” McNamee said. “You do not have trouble attracting interesting technology resources. There is capital. And God knows, if we can change the economic structure, even just a little bit, it’s going to open up whole classes of opportunity.”
The Human Side of Being a Founder with Brad Feld
Scott Miller, the Managing Director of one of Endeavor’s newest offices, Endeavor Colorado, introduced the next discussion moderated by Endeavor Catalyst Managing Director, Allen Taylor, and featuring Endeavor Board Member, The Foundry Group Managing Director, and Techstars co-founder, Brad Feld. The two discussed the behind-the-scenes approach to business, and the importance of understanding yourself to be a great business leader.
“If you’re going to be an effective leader you have to take care of yourself first. And this is an extraordinary moment in time to go deep on you, and to learn what you need,” Feld said.
Founder to Funder Panel
Shifting the conversation from founder to funder, Endeavor Louisville Managing Director, Jackson M. Andrews introduced the next panel of guests who’ve made the transition themselves.
Endeavor Miami Board Member Maurice R. Ferré MD moderated a discussion between Endeavor Louisville Board Member and Lightship Capital General Partner, Brian Brackeen, Endeavor Atlanta Board Member and Partner at Atlanta Ventures, David Cummings, and Rise of The Rest Seed Fund Partner Anna Mason, as they talked about how their journeys has entrepreneurs has influenced their current roles as funders, mentors and more.
“We feel very strongly in our work that the peer to peer mentorship is transformational. Though it’s been a while since we were that “Day 1 Founder”, when we as mentors talk to founders, it’s the feedback that is fresh and actionable,” Brain said. “My wife started a meetup group that later went on to raise over $100M over the next few years. This speaks to the power of what you can do with a tribe.”
ScaleUp Program Demo Day
The virtual event was complimented by a ScaleUp program Demo Day, where 16 companies from Endeavor ScaleUp programs in Louisville, Birmingham and Miami had the opportunity to pitch their business model to panelists from prominent venture capital firms, as well as other Summit attendees tuning in.
Endeavor Louisville ScaleUp companies, The Home Team (Labor Tech, Cincinnati), Level Up (Education Tech, Louisville) and Selfless.ly (CSR Tech, Indianapolis) represented our region during the event and pitched to Revolution Ventures Vice President Alex Shtarkman and Anthos Capital Investor Sam Teden.
Learn more about each panelist and company that participated here.
Watch all of the insightful discussions, panels and pitches from the 2020 ScaleUp Summit here:
