The crisis surrounding COVID-19 has about a million layers, but one that every start-up founder will be familiar with is the fear of the unknown. To scale a business requires founders to push through and past this fear, to iterate rather than cancel, to adapt rather than react, and in doing so, to carve out an often unknowable path forward.
In good times and in bad, Endeavor is committed to ensuring the safety of the community while continuing to carry out our mission of selecting and supporting entrepreneurs as they scale up and multiply. To this, we are pushing forward on the launch of our ScaleUp Birmingham program with a few small changes and contingency plans.
1. An extended and virtual application cycle:
In order to reach a diverse base of applicants, and to give candidates time to adjust to the challenges of this unprecedented global situation before submitting ScaleUp applications, we have extended our application deadline to April 24th and plan to welcome our first ScaleUp cohort after Memorial Day weekend. We’ve also made the suggested donation optional to ensure it’s not a barrier for great companies to apply.
2. Innovations around program design:
Rather than delay ScaleUp indefinitely, our team is taking steps to ensure we’re prepared to deliver high value mentorship and programming where selected founders may need to participate in ScaleUp Birmingham from their respective living rooms. This includes identifying and bringing in experts to address new business challenges related to the global pandemic, exploring creative ways to make virtual cohort meetings more engaging, and maintaining and expanding on our commitment to connect participants with mentors for one-on-one advice around specific business goals.
3. Ongoing virtual office hours:
From now until April 23rd, our program manager and Birmingham lead Maggie Belshé will be holding virtual office hours for interested entrepreneurs in the Birmingham area. Schedule a virtual coffee to tell us about yourself and your business – and learn what ScaleUp is all about!
Stay well, and stay ambitious. As Endeavor’s Co-Founder and CEO Linda Rottenberg likes to say, “when economies are down, entrepreneurs rise up!”