Issue link: http://endeavor.uberflip.com/i/414924
Endeavor Insight contacted 200 of Buenos Aires' top tech entrepreneurs and asked them five questions aimed at uncov- ering their connections to other players in the ecosystem: "Who inspired you to become an entrepreneur? Where were you employed before becoming an entrepreneur? Who invested in your company? Who was your mentor during the growth and development of your company? Have you founded other tech companies?" The team then mapped these five different types of connections (inspiration, former employment, invest- ment, mentorship, and serial entrepreneur- ship) between entrepreneurs and illustrated the relative influence of each founder by the size of his or her "bubble." The resulting map was anchored by three large firms with oversized "bubbles" (Digital Ventures, an interactive media agency; Patagon, an online brokerage founded by Endeavor Entrepreneur Wences Casares; and MercadoLibre), whose founders influenced more than 80% of the other entrepreneurs in the ecosystem, including, of course, the founders of Globant. Eager to discover whether this phenom- enon — in which just a few entrepreneurs spark and foster the development of an entire network — would emerge elsewhere, Endeavor Insight repeated the mapping exercise multiple times, studying cities like Amman, Istanbul, New York, Bogotá, and Mexico City. They found the same pattern around the world. In Istanbul, for example, Yemeksepeti, an online food delivery company, influenced over 55 companies in the city's tech sector. Its ceo Nevzat Aydın and his co-founder Melih Ödemiş were among the first Turkish entrepreneurs selected by Endeavor. In the years since selection, the influence of the entrepreneurs has multiplied. Both entrepreneurs have invested in many Turkish startups. Nevzat, for example, invested in Lidyana, a fashion e-commerce website founded by Endeavor Entrepreneur Hakan Baş , Yemeksepeti's 2012 announce- ment that it had raised a $44 million round of funding led by General Atlantic attracted coverage about both the company and Istanbul's burgeoning entrepreneur- ship scene. To Endeavor Insight, the density of the ecosystems in cities like Buenos Aires and Istanbul signified that Linda and Peter's original hypothesis was correct. High- impact entrepreneurs have an outsized impact on the markets where they live and work. Because they create more jobs and generate more revenue than the average entrepreneur, they inspire up-and-coming founders to think big. They create a culture of innovation within their companies so that employees begin thinking about starting businesses of their own. They are eager to serve as role models. Despite limited time, they mentor the next cycle Nevzat Aydın is the co-founder and CEO of Yemeksepeti.com, an online food delivery company headquartered in Istanbul. 7 THE NETWORK AT WORK