he biggest problem for entrepreneurs in SA who want to enter the international business world is they often find themselves "in the wilderness", without access to good advice to help grow their business, says Dumi Gumbi, executive producer of a Johannesburg company that produces animation and live film with a South African flavour and international appeal.
Gumbi and the Anamazing Workshop's fellow founding partner, Isabelle Rorke, who is the company's creative producer, are two of the seven South African entrepreneurs from five companies selected recently to join the international Endeavour programme.
Endeavour is a nonprofit group based in New York that promotes entrepreneurship in emerging economies and, among other things, gives them access to a network of experts and Masters of Business Administration (MBA) students from some of the world's leading business schools.
Being selected "means a lot", says Gumbi. "The network is exactly where we need to be; it's high-level locally and internationally. We can tap into the brains of people like (Discovery Holdings CEO) Adrian Gore ... it's fantastic." Gore is one of the 12 panellists from SA, Chile and the US who grilled the applicants in this year's South African round of selections this month. There were other selection panels working in Mexico and Turkey, and two more sessions are coming up in Argentina and India before the end of the year.
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American Yale graduate Linda Rottenberg co-founded Endeavour in 1997 with venture capitalist Peter Kellner, when she realised that entrepreneurs needed a support system that would help them grow their businesses. It is widely accepted that small business is the engine of economies, from China to the US. Since January last year, Endeavour entrepreneurs throughout Latin America and in SA, Turkey and Egypt have created more than 90 000 new jobs and generated more than $2,47bn in revenue, says Endeavour SA MD Greg Durst.
In SA, which joined Endeavour four years ago, the programme has already helped 30 companies with R1bn in revenue, and has created just over 11 000 jobs, he says.
"We call ourselves venture catalysts. Most entrepreneurs think access to funding is their most pressing problem, but we believe it is the lack of a bankable plan," he says.
Not that the entrepreneurs selected by Endeavour are anything like most entrepreneurs. For one thing, they all have a bankable plan. "Our key hallmark is innovation. The company doesn't have to be the next Google, but it has to serve the customer in a new way that will allow it to grow, and we want the companies that have an opportunity to create the most jobs and have the biggest impact for their stakeholders. On average (in SA) they pay about 10 times the minimum wage, plus benefits. They help to build a sustainable middle class," says Durst. Endeavour can help them with adding finesse to their business plans, gearing them up several notches.
Durst says Endeavour puts all its applicants through a gruelling selection process to ensure they are all "high-impact entrepreneurs".
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