Published: Monday, August 1, 2005
Section: Business Monday
Page: 10G
UNLEASHING THE LATENT ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT
BY JANE BUSSEY, jbussey@herald.com
The words spill out: ``transform economies,'' ``role models'' and ``thinking big'' as Linda Rottenberg - an entrepreneur in the nonprofit mode - bounds from one concept to another to explain how the Endeavor program works to promote economic development in Latin America and Africa by boosting the entrepreneurial spirit.
Endeavor was founded in 1997 by Rottenberg, who works in the private sector and economic development, and Peter Kellner, the manager of the Richmond family of funds for Venture Investments.
The New York-based nonprofit selects Latin American entrepreneurs who are already running their own ventures and then advises them on how to move into the next stage of business development. The goal is to tap into their entrepreneurial drive to help create more jobs, all the while building more support for the private sector in Latin America.
Rottenberg was in Coral Gables for the first-ever Endeavor Entrepreneurs' Summit, held last Monday and Tuesday at the Biltmore Hotel.
The Herald caught up with Rottenberg, who was accompanied by her three-month-old twin daughters, in between meetings at the Biltmore and a networking dinner.
Q: What is Endeavor all about and how are you trying to distinguish your organization?
A: Program Endeavor's mission is to transform economies and cultures through entrepreneurship. All this development money was going to top companies, the ones who can already obtaining financing, and to micro-financing, money going into the poorest levels. The middle-class company was left out of that approach. For the private sector, you can get $50 million or $50 in investment, but it's very hard in between to obtain the money. We've screened 11,000 companies to get 200 companies in Latin America and South Africa. They are not only creating jobs in extremely difficult climates, they are becoming role models in their countries. This [program] is all about 15-year-olds who read a story about people doing something big and thinking ``I can do that too.''
When I tell the [Apple Computer] story in Latin America, about Steve Jobs creating the personal computer in his garage, people say to me, ``Hey, I don't even have a garage.''
I am a great believer in role models. I am the third generation of an immigrant family; I didn't have any special privileges. We worked through the system. People always said [in Latin America] if you don't have the right family name, the right connections, you couldn't do it. Now with 200 companies that we have selected, they can't use that as an excuse. That is why we talk about unleashing the latent entrepreneurial spirit.
Q: What kind of companies become part of the Endeavor program and how do you help the entrepreneurs who are selected?
A: We have this company in Brazil that sells hair products for women with curly hair. This company sells $4 million a year, but it needs help in getting to the next level. Or [we have] a South African company that is selling dairy products to disadvantaged populations who weren't getting good enough nutrition.
In a number of cases, we help them access capital. The biggest way the entrepreneurs said they were helped was thinking big. That sense of thinking big and aiming high was the most important. We give them mentors; we give them MBAs to help them in planning. Of the Endeavor entrepreneurs selected since we began in 1998, 94 percent of them are still operating. The average number of employees [they have] is 179, when the average number of employees is usually two in small- and medium-sized companies in middle-income nations. There has to be a way that Endeavor can help them grow.
Q: Tell us about your background and what you went through to start Endeavor.
A: I attended Yale Law School. I wanted to see how the system worked. I never had any interest in practicing law. I feel like people who went to business school tend to be more risk adverse, so I am glad I did go [to law school].
I was living in Latin America, in Argentina, before I started Endeavor. I would meet people with Ph.D.s who would be driving taxis. I would ask them why they didn't do more. There was no sense of the possible. There were no role models, no financing, some structural setbacks and no set of laws to help them accelerate their business.
At one point, we maxed out on our credit cards! We were funding the whole operation with our credit cards. Peter [Kellner] was the seed investor, but this is all volunteer. Jonathan Cranin [executive vice president, worldwide creative director of McCann WorldGroup] is spending all this time with Endeavor pro-bono. People like him, they get jazzed by all these entrepreneurs who are so enthused. We're blessed with people like that.
Q: How is Endeavor different from other nonprofits that promote development in developing countries?
A: This is not an organization with mass appeal. We're not approaching growth the way most nonprofits do. We don't deal with the poorest of the poor. We can't pull at the heart strings, but we get people's passion.
Why can't the next Apple Computer, the next Wal-Mart come out of South Africa, Brazil or Mexico?
Q: Has having twins slowed you down at all?
A: As my husband would say, no. I had a board meeting when they were two months old. Before they were born, they traveled in utero to South Africa twice, to Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Sometimes they say entrepreneurs don't slow down; they take time to plan the next sprint. I have planned my next sprint. The idea is we will take trips to Turkey, Colombia and Morocco to scope out the possibility that Endeavor will be launched there.
LINDA ROTTENBERG
Title: CEO and co-founder of Endeavor, a nonprofit group that tries to promote entrepreneurship in Latin America by seeking out entrepreneurs and helping mentor them.
Career: Director of the Southern Cone expansion of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, a global organization that broke new ground in the field of ``venture philanthropy,'' 1994-96. She also helped design and launch a masters of law program in Argentina at the Universidad de Palermo in Buenos Aires and managed the Yale Law School-USAID Linkage Programs in Latin America.
Education: Harvard undergraduate; law degree from Yale Law School.
Personal: Born Sept. 12, 1968. Husband: Bruce Feiler, author of Walking the Bible, Abraham, Learning to Bow and other best-selling nonfiction books. Children: twins Eden Eleanor Feiler and Tybee Rose Feiler, born April 15.
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