Where would YOU be without the mentors who helped?
When you look at everything you have been able to accomplish, it probably came about because you had some keen insight, worked hard, benefitted from a bit of good luck, and were able to surround yourself with some very valuable mentors, advisors, and board members. You successfully raised not just financial capital, but HUMAN capital to leverage for success.
We’d like to ask you for a “hand up” (vs. a “hand out”) to ensure other startup founders around the world can also succeed with better human capital, especially when they live and work in areas where great human capital is harder to find.
The Problem:
As you know, 80% of startups fail within their first five years. And when they do fail, the founders and their teams and families suffer, but their communities suffer even more as jobs are lost and next generation leaders and philanthropists don’t emerge. The problem is particularly acute in communities of under 250,000 people in the US and everywhere there aren’t enough top-tier mentors and advisors to make a difference. It’s a major problem in every country of the world outside of the largest 100 cities. The economic and social costs are huge.
What makes this a tragedy is the failure to capitalize on the TRILLIONS of dollars private investors bet on these companies every year. When that money is lost, investors shrink from the scene and communities become increasingly dependent upon public sector funding to survive.
Sure, some companies fail due to a poor product, or bad timing. But most that are worthy of receiving investor capital fail for preventable reasons related to lack of experience:
They fail to identify and focus on the most important matters.
They fail to identify and execute alternative strategies soon enough to make a difference.
They fail to execute well.
The Solution:
When inexperienced CEOs are surrounded by highly experienced mentors and boards and advisors, they have MUCH higher rates of success - often 50% higher. That’s a lot of quality jobs and economic impact created by better use of human capital.
At the Entrelliance Foundation, we improve entrepreneurial success rates by ensuring access to high quality mentorship, building more effective boards, and teaching founders the leadership skills they need to attract, motivate, and retain top talent.
Much of our human capital infusion is provided by our partnership with YPO (Young Presidents Organization). We work with their 30,000 CEO members worldwide to help them be highly effective mentors and match them with founders.
We reach founders through partnerships with global accelerators like Founder Institute, Mass Challenge, and others. They teach the foundations of startup preparation (product/market fit; proforma financials; fundraising methods; etc.) and we teach founders to map and fulfill their human capital needs.
We operate as a laboratory developing highly practical tools and training and making them accessible in communities around the world - free of charge. Neither founders nor mentors are asked to pay for access to world-class training as we seek to eliminate all barriers to more success. Our early work in more than 20 countries on 4 continents is helping us learn more about what entrepreneurs need and how to adapt our offerings to ensure economic and social benefits to many types of founders and their communities.
How You Can Help:
Over the next few years, we will attract corporate sponsors and partners who can help us fill our annual operating goals. But to get there, we need to raise $1.5 million to build the successful prototype programs and achieve “critical mass” of global mentor participation. We have already secured more than $500k towards that goal and would appreciate some additional support from you.
Your partnership with Entrelliance will help us prove the value of our efforts and reach financial sustainability while immediately impacting the lives of aspiring entrepreneurs.
$10k covers the costs of running our Board training or Mentor training or Leadership Development initiatives for another month.
$50k covers our software and operating tools budget for a year.
$100k would help us accelerate our outreach and “adopt” 5 more communities that need our help to foster stronger startup ecosystems.
$250k would fund a research team for a year to concentrate on overcoming the perceptual and behavioral obstacles that presently relegate HUMAN capital development to a far lower priority than financial capital investment.
We would be delighted to speak about a program that specifically aligned to your interests in our zone of effectiveness.
Together, we can inspire new waves of innovation and creativity and build the fabric of economic and social self-reliance for communities worldwide.
To learn more about the Entrelliance Foundation and how you can get involved, please visit our website at www.Entrelliance.org, Then please reach out to me directly to schedule a call at your convenience.
I look forward to the possibility of working together to make a difference.
Warm regards,
Pat LaPointe
Founder