At ECatalyst, a lot of what we do is help entrepreneurs in local communities start businesses. But though those businesses are very important, business creation is not our primary focus. Our primary goal is the growth of the ecosystem, and we use elements like entrepreneurial training and business launches as tools to accomplish that end. It is the ecosystem community that creates businesses that will be sustainable long into the future, more so than any single business.
The ECatalyst Process (For the FULL process, click here)
So when we start, we begin facilitating a network of business leaders, investors, and entrepreneurs in community. We then take the first cohort of 4-10 new entrepreneurs through 3 stages of business development. Each stage begins with an event which outlines that stage's training. The stage then continues for 4 months during which the entrepreneurs meet with each other every other week to walk through the process. At the end of that 4 months we have another event which celebrates the amazing progress to that point, and introduces the material for the next stage. During the third stage entrepreneurs begin launching their businesses, and the last event often includes a pitch day where the newly launched businesses can seek local and international investment.
What makes this a community is that we add new entrepreneurs at Stage I at every event. This way there are several levels of entrepreneurs at different stages of business development, all working together in community on their businesses. Entrepreneurs who are further along can teach and mentor those in earlier stages. And every entrepreneur has the freedom to experiment, fail, and grow through multiple attempts at different businesses.
And all the while, we are connecting these entrepreneurs to business leaders, local mentors, investors, and resources in the area. As the network becomes more successful, it becomes more attractive not only to other businesses in the area, but to other entrepreneurs, even those who have not been through the program. At some point the growth becomes self-perpetuating, and though ECatalyst continues to support the community, all international presence steps back and lets local leadership take over entirely. This is our goal, to facilitate self-sustaining communities on the ground that grow entrepreneurs who grow businesses.
One year* of building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem produces up to:
* Figures are based on the averages of 5 new jobs/business and 5 members/family.
Every ecosystem is different and will have different end results.
After 1 year we launch 5-10 MORE businesses every 4 months.
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