The Global Entrepreneurship Network is a platform of programs and initiatives to help people unleash their ideas and turn them into promising new ventures—creating jobs, unearthing innovations for society and strengthening economic stability around the world.
Ranging from efforts to inspire and educate nascent entrepreneurs to advancing research and connecting global leaders in person, GEN is building one global entrepreneurship ecosystem. While it started as a grassroots movement anchored in established economies with stable political systems, GEN now operates in all types of economies and cultures.
More startups are now springing up in the most unexpected parts of the world. Entrepreneurial programs, capital and talent now travel far to find the most promising founder teams. National policy advisors are more savvy and attuned to the needs of their startup ecosystems in an on-going quest to smooth the path for new firms to start and scale. However, such great success has brought new challenges.
This globalization of entrepreneurship has brought an explosion of programs, startup communities and investment into a new field where there is a paucity of data around what works and what does not in supporting nascent entrepreneurs and new firms forming and trying to scale. Traditional business, education and government leaders have been eager champions, but they need more sophisticated tools, programs and research to help them more efficiently direct their attention and funds to areas that have the greatest impact on future economic growth.
GEN is a compass to help address these needs by identifying effective initiatives that positively impact whole societies and interventions that target the most critical areas for entrepreneurial ecosystems around the world.
OUR MISSION
- More entrepreneurs:
- Expanding the number of people working for or launching startups around the world by fully legitimizing entrepreneurs in all cultures and economies The world needs more entrepreneurs.
- More collaborative ecosystems:
- Increasing understanding between the new and traditional elements of emerging startup communities and entrepreneurship ecosystems to promote more comprehensive engagement throughout the private and public sectors in supporting entrepreneurship advancement.
- A village where everyone collaborates to succeed.
- Born global founders and communities; Supporting the emergence of a new class of global entrepreneurs with access to Global Entrepreneurship Network, global programs, networks and research inside GEN’s 170 nation-strong community.
- National boundaries are open to innovation, and a new creative class of risk takers is hard-wired to a global network.
- Increased understanding of the field:
- Connecting an emerging community of national entrepreneurship policy advisors with a next generation network of world-class entrepreneurship research institutions in an effort to generate robust data analysis in support of evidence-based policymaking and entrepreneurial support programming.
- GEN provides critically needed insight into what works and what does not in supporting new firm formation.
OUR APPROACH
GEN operates through the following arenas:
- Celebrate:
- Efforts to promote a more entrepreneurial culture by celebrating the successes of entrepreneurs and inspiring the next generation behind them.
- Support:
- Programs and resources intended to help smooth the path to market for founder teams and provide entrepreneurs at all stages with the support necessary to reach the next level.
- Compete:
- Competitions to test for the best founder teams and offer them a competitive club of global peers, communities and programs to help fast track their efforts to start or scale ventures.
- Understand:
- Efforts to help increase the quality and quantity of data and research available to policymakers and start-up community leaders to help identify bestin-class programs and policies to advance local and national entrepreneurial growth.
- Connect:
- Efforts to connect entrepreneurs, investors, savvy policymakers, researchers, startup community leaders and other leaders and feeders across the globe as they support, enable, start and scale new firms and entrepreneurs.