Endeavor

// Endeavor Miami Impact Report 2019 Laura is founder and CEO of TheVentureCity, a new business acceleration and growth model that helps diverse founders achieve global impact. Mother of three children and a dog, she founded TheVentureCity in 2017, with campuses in Madrid and Miami, as well as offices in San Francisco, São Paulo and El Salvador, from where she connects European, Latin American and U.S. innovation centers. She spent more than eight years working at Facebook leading its international growth and business development. She was in charge of opening the way for Facebook in Spain when it was still a startup and became its first executive in southern Europe. She held different positions in Silicon Valley and Miami. Laura has recently been appointed as a member of the European Innovation Council, a selected group of 22 outstanding professionals to shape the future of Europe. She has spearheaded strategic initiatives such as the first Internet.org project in Latin America to connect Cuba to the rest of the world. In addition, she worked at eBay, Siemens and Ogilvy Group. She is co-founder of esplaya.com, the first digital platform for beach tourism in Spain. She is an active advocate for Women in Tech, a mentor at Babson College WINLab, mentor of Stanford's Latino Entrepreneurship Leadership Initiative, and advisory board member, mentor and panelist at Endeavor. Why did you decide to become a mentor with Endeavor Miami? "I fell in love with the mission of the organization and realized that I would love to work with the entrepreneurs of the Endeavor network and the staff. There are many entrepreneur organizations around the world, but Endeavor feels like a family; where entrepreneurs can be themselves and where mentors, board advisors and board members contribute to something bigger. And also, being a bit selfish now, because I wanted to learn from the community!" What is the best advice you would give to a company looking to scale? "Understand the markets first not only by the financial numbers or your intuition, but by the customer data available. Focusing on what the customer needs is key to succeed in new markets." What do you think is the direction the Miami entrepreneurial ecosystem will be following in the next year? And how do you see Endeavor as a player in this trajectory? "I think we will see many of the actual Miami entrepreneurs solidify their positions, mature. Due to the network effect we will see new entrepreneurs following the lead of the existing. We will also see entrepreneurs mentoring others and maybe even investing in others! Endeavor has been and will continue to be a key player in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Miami. We are all here for the long run." Founder & CEO of TheVenture.City Top 6 Mentors Laura González- Estéfani TheVenture.City A new business acceleration and growth model that helps diverse founders achieve global impact. "Endeavor has been and will continue to be a key player in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Miami."

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