Issue link: http://endeavor.uberflip.com/i/1493964
4 This Impact Report marks Endeavor's Silver Jubilee, and milestones like this are a time for celebration and reflection. Twenty-five years ago, my co-founder Peter Kellner and I sat at my parents' kitchen table in Boston and sketched out a plan for Endeavor on the back of a napkin. Yes, an actual napkin. We had this crazy idea that entrepreneurs could come from anywhere and that, with a little help, they could unleash the tremendous talent and potential that already existed in emerging and underserved markets. By our teen years, we recognized that the peer community of carefully screened and rigorously selected Endeavor Entrepreneurs was doing a lot more than just generating revenues and creating jobs. We noticed that the entrepreneurs who achieved breakout success were also starting to inspire, mentor, train, and invest in other founders. In our earliest markets, the individual contributions of a handful of Endeavor Entrepreneurs had made a profound impact on the local tech ecosystem. We didn't have a name for it yet, but this was the genesis of what we at Endeavor have come to call the Multiplier Effect. We decided to measure and visualize the power of high-impact entrepreneurs to affect change, and with our partners at Bain & Company, we developed the Bubble Map. At Endeavor, we love Big Bubbles because they signify precisely how entrepreneurs are paying-it-forward to the next generation of founders. In these pages, you'll see the Bubble Maps of Endeavor Entrepreneurs who represent the best of this ethos. And you'll in turn see the Multiplier Effect — spawned by just three to four Big Bubbles in a given market — that catalyzes local ecosystems of innovation. The most recent phase of Endeavor's growth, into early adulthood, has been defined by our goal of becoming a self- sustaining organization. We challenge our entrepreneurs to disrupt the status quo, and in 2012, we looked inward to challenge how we fund our work around the world. We developed the most mission-driven way possible to support our entrepreneurs, by investing in them and sharing in their success. Endeavor Catalyst, our rules-based co-investment fund, now has over $500 million under management; we have made more than 250 investments in Endeavor Entrepreneurs; and we already have returned millions of dollars both to LPs and Local Offices to further our mission. We're closer than ever to becoming self-sustaining, and I couldn't Letter From Linda