2019 provided many opportunities for us to reflect on just how far Endeavor has come over the past 22 years, while looking to the future as we recommit to our core belief — that high-impact entrepreneurs hold the key to sustainable economic growth.

It’s become fashionable among some entrepreneurs, and even some venture capitalists, to badmouth the venture capital industry. The industry certainly has many flaws. But to paraphrase Winston Churchill, venture capital is the worst method for financing scaling startups except for all the others.

Silicon Valley can frequently be too provincial in its views of entrepreneurship, strategy, and markets. Part of why I’m on this trip with Wences Casares (founder and CEO of Xapo) is to learn (and share) a broader view of entrepreneurship, where the strategies of Blitzscaling can be applied outside of Silicon Valley and China, and participate in Endeavor’s critical global mission for building the industries, companies, and jobs of the future.

I’ve come down to Argentina with my friend and portfolio company CEO, Wences Casares, the founder of Xapo. Wences and I have served on the board of Endeavor together, which enables high impact entrepreneurship around the world. As part of connecting with local Argentinian entrepreneurs and part of the amazing Endeavor networks here and South America, Wences and I recorded a podcast to share what I and Silicon Valley can learn from the robust entrepreneurial ecosystem down here.

From supporting entrepreneurs to becoming one herself Daniela Terminel shares how Endeavor’s network has impacted her career and fostered the connections that led her to her current role as CEO and Co-founder of newly-launched venture Elephant in a Box.

Endeavor Insight recently conducted an 18-month research project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to answer this question. This project is one of the largest studies ever conducted on entrepreneurship communities. The findings summarized in this report are based on interviews with more than 2,000 technology entrepreneurs in six cities, as well as secondary data on over 5,000 tech founders and their companies.† Data was also gathered on more than 500 investment firms and local entrepreneurship support organizations. Participating entrepreneurs and executives contributed a total of more than six months of time to this research.

George Azih, CEO of Atlanta company LeaseQuery, reflects on how Endeavor has impacted his company’s growth and factored into his own entrepreneurial journey. This post was originally published on LeaseQuery’s blog.

When Fırat İşbecer became an entrepreneur, Istanbul was a growing but nascent market with little in place to support the growth of businesses at scale. A decade later, he is a serial entrepreneur, mentor, and leader in a now-thriving entrepreneurship ecosystem. Below, Fırat shares the inflection points that impacted his role today.