Endeavor

1 8 LESSON 1 THE NUMBER OF ANGEL INVESTMENT AND MENTORSHIP CONNECTIONS BETWEEN ENTREPRENEURS IS LOW. When entrepreneurs connect to each other through mentorship and angel investment, they have a beneficial multiplier effect on economic growth of their communities as they share resources and knowledge. In particular, mentorship and angel investment from a founder at scale makes a measurable difference in a founder's ability to overcome challenges and achieve scale with their own company. These types of connections are extremely uncommon among fintech entrepreneurs, investors, and support organization leaders in Milan - only 3 percent of companies benefited from this type of relationship. Among 113 entrepreneurial fintech companies in the area, only 4 were connected to each other through mentorships or angel investment, which might be a major challenge in the sector's ability to foster companies that scale in the future. There are a few possible explanations for the low number of productive connections. The sector is very young, and there are other sources of seed investment available to new entrepreneurs. The table below helps to provide benchmarks for the Milan fintech community from three other cities where fintech entrepreneurship is prominent: Nairobi, Istanbul, and New York. Importantly, the quantity of connections in itself is not enough to help a community grow; connections to qualified entrepreneurs who have successfully grown a company have a more focused impact on company performance. In Milan, accomplished founders are strongly connected to each other through network membership in organizations like Fintech District, Italia Fintech, and Endeavor. With time, these connections may pave the way for more angel investment and mentorship among founders. MILAN NAIROBI ISTANBUL NEW YORK* Estimated Age of Sector 15 years 20 years 30 years 30 years Interviewed Founders 64 278 220 700 Total # of Entrepreneurial Companies in Sample 113 660 800 2600 Number of Connections 101 494 758 1949 % Mentorship or Angel Investment 7% 21% 25% 60% % Angel Investment 3.80% 2.80% 15% 44% Total Jobs Created by Companies in Sample ~1,400 ~7,300 ~25,000 ~53,000 Source: Endeavor Insight. *The New York Tech Map was conducted using a previous methodology that was limited to mapping connections between founders only, excluding other stakeholders.

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