Jonathan Ortmans, president of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, presents an overview of GEN at the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Medellin, Colombia.

1. Gen logo
Jonathan Ortmans
President, Global Entrepreneurship
Network
Senior Fellow, Kauffman Foundation
Chair, President Obama Spark
Global Entrepreneurship
Commission
email: jonathan@gew.co
twitter: @jortmans

3. The Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) is a year-round platform of
programs and initiatives aimed at creating one global entrepreneurial
ecosystem. GEN helps people in 160 countries unleash their ideas and
turn them into promising new ventures – creating jobs, accelerating
innovation 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
operates in all types of economies and cultures.
GEN is a compass to identify effective initiatives that positively impact
whole societies and interventions that target the most critical areas for
entrepreneurial ecosystems around the world.
ABOUT GEN

4. Expanding the number of ordinary citizens working for or starting firms
around the world by fully legitimizing entrepreneurs in all cultures and
economies.
Increasing understanding between the new and traditional elements of
emerging startup communities and ecosystems including the constructive
engagement of the public sector in supporting entrepreneur designed
public programs.
Supporting the emergence of a new class of global entrepreneurs with
access to research, programs and networks inside the 160 nation strong
GEW network.
Connecting an emerging community of national startup policy advisors
with a next generation network of world-class entrepreneurship research
institutions in an effort to generate more robust research and data to
support evidence-based policymaking and more effective entrepreneurial
THE GEN MISSION

5. THE GEN APPROACH
Celebrate:
Efforts to promote a more entrepreneurial culture by celebrating the successes of
entrepreneurs and inspiring the next generation of 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 startup community leaders to help identify best-in-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 the support,
enable, start and scale new firms and entrepreneurs.

6. THE GEN UNIVERSE
160 COUNTRIES

8. GEN PROGRAMS
CELEBRATE | INSPIRATION

9. CELEBRATE | GLOBAL
ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK
During one week each November, thousands of
events and competitions around the world inspire
millions to engage in entrepreneurial activity while
connecting them to potential collaborators,
mentors and even investors. Since it launched in
2008, Global Entrepreneurship Week has
expanded to 160 countries – building and
strengthening entrepreneurial ecosystems around
the world. Powered by the Ewing Marion Kauffman
Foundation, the initiative is supported by dozens of
world leaders and a network of 16,836 partner
organizations.

10. CELEBRATE | GLOBAL
ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK
Recognized around the world, GEW offers GEN
country affiliates a springboard from which to
launch new year-round programs and initiatives.
The media attention GEW attracts each November
creates the opportunity for GEN country affiliates
to spotlight the founders it has helped, announce
new programs and initiatives, and highlight the
impact it has had during the course of the year.
GEW serves as a community-building season in
each nation that reaches out to the public at large
to inspire more citizens to engage with the
entrepreneurial ecosystem.

11. GEN PROGRAMS
UNDERSTAND | RESEARCH & POLICY

12. The Global Entrepreneurship Research
Network (GERN) funded by the Kauffman
Foundation is a working coalition of
institutions funding research as a tool in
realizing the full potential of
entrepreneurship to create inclusive
prosperity on a global scale. Its objectives
are to develop a next generation of
entrepreneurship research, share lessons
and knowledge and establish open,
standardized data resources. Each member
organization is a leader in its nation or
region in promoting entrepreneurship.
UNDERSTAND | GERN

13. GERN members undertake joint projects
that map entrepreneurship ecosystems,
evaluate the efficacy of entrepreneurship
programs (including accelerators), and
validate research methodologies (such as
those that involve the use of government
datasets). Through GERN, GEN country
affiliates are able to connect national
entrepreneurship research organizations to
their global counterparts, allowing them to
standardize their approaches, pool data,
and leverage a wider Kauffman Foundation-
led consortium of researchers. Better
research results, ultimately, in stronger
support programs for entrepreneurs.
UNDERSTAND | GERN

14. Startup Nations helps identify policy levers
that can unleash high impact
entrepreneurship and innovation. It is made
up of “startup savvy” policymakers and
program leaders focused on exploring
different regulatory changes and other
policy ideas to help accelerate new and
young firm formation in their economies. It
enables informal knowledge sharing among
economies focused on leveraging
entrepreneurs and their startups.
UNDERSTAND | STARTUP NATIONS

15. GEN country affiliates are a conduit through which
policymakers in one country gain access to the
collective knowledge and experience of their peers in
another similar economy. Startup Nations is also a
means to learn about new government-sponsored
programs and/or regulatory policies aimed at increasing
new firm formation, especially in the early, experimental
stage. Startup Nations enables GEN country affiliates to
gain leading-edge insight into government efforts to
support entrepreneurs. Further, through the annual
Startup Nations Awards, GEN country affiliates are able
to help local policymakers gain global recognition for
their efforts championing startup policies.
UNDERSTAND | STARTUP NATIONS

16. The Global Entrepreneurship Index is an
annual report that measures the health of
entrepreneurship ecosystems in 132
countries. It collects data on the
entrepreneurial attitudes, abilities and
aspirations of the local population and then
weights these against the prevailing social
and economic infrastructure – this includes
aspects such as broadband connectivity and
transport links to external markets.
UNDERSTAND | GLOBAL
ENTREPRENEURSHIP INDEX

17. The Index provides GEN country affiliates
with a snapshot overview of their
entrepreneurship ecosystem and serves as
an analytical tool for diagnosing key
challenges that, if addressed
comprehensively, would have substantial
impact on new firm formation. For program
planning and policy advocacy, the Index is
one initial go-to resource. Moreover, GEN
Global’s partnership with the GEDI Institute,
which produces the Index, facilitates access
to world-class experts in entrepreneurship
ecosystem analysis and development.
UNDERSTAND | GLOBAL
ENTREPRENEURSHIP INDEX

18. UNDERSTAND | COLOMBIA'S ECOSYSTEM

19. Colombia currently ranks 43 out of 132
countries and 3 out of 24 South and Central
America and Caribbean countries.
Its ecosystem exhibits a world-class
strengths in Opportunity Perception and
High Growth oriented firms.
Colombia is also very strong in Opportunity
Startup, Product Innovation, and
Internationalization (i.e., Colombian
entrepreneurs access to global markets).
UNDERSTAND | COLOMBIA'S ECOSYSTEM

20. Colombia’s strengths are mainly in the
Aspirations Pillars (10-14). Its main
bottlenecks appear to be in the Abilities
Pillars (1-5).
This snapshot analysis shows that Colombia
would benefit most from broad-based,
coordinated programs that comprehensively
address its bottlenecks – e.g. Process
Innovation, Technology Absorption, and
Networking – without undermining its
strengths.
UNDERSTAND | COLOMBIA'S ECOSYSTEM

21. GEN PROGRAMS
SUPPORT | PROGRAMS & RESOURCES

22. The Global Business Angel Network
interfaces with entrepreneurs, policymakers,
early-stage finance actors and leading
entrepreneurial support programs to
strengthen the global entrepreneurial
ecosystem. Whether helping recruit more
investors, expanding geographic investment
arenas beyond local markets or amplifying
the angel “voice” to regulatory issue
discussions, GBAN seeks to provide an
inclusive, supportive community of early-
stage investors around the world.
SUPPORT | GBAN

23. GBAN provides a way to more actively
engage a country’s angels in GEN and
GEW – and also brings insight about
ecosystem investor challenges to research
and policy efforts enabling GEN country
affiliates to support local investors by
empowering them with information about
cutting-edge international research and
policy developments, connecting them to an
international investor community, and
offering them new opportunities to discover
high potential entrepreneurs. For GEN
country affiliates in places without mature
angel networks, GBAN brings experienced
networks and tools from across the globe to
support their creation or development.
SUPPORT | GBAN

24. Startup Huddle is a program designed to educate,
engage, and connect entrepreneurs. It is based on
the notion that the best way for entrepreneurs to
discover solutions to the challenges they face is
through purposeful engagement with one another.
As an experiential learning opportunity, the Startup
Huddle format is consistent in each location: on a
given morning, one or two early-stage startup
founders give a six-minute presentation of their
companies to a diverse audience of peers,
mentors, educators, and advisors. Each
presentation is followed by a 20-minute question
and answer session and feedback via an audience
survey
SUPPORT | STARTUP HUDDLE

25. The Global Entrepreneurship Library,
created in partnership with the Kauffman
Foundation and the World Economic Forum,
is an international portal of knowledge and
resources to enable entrepreneurial
success. It provides a way for useful
information needed by entrepreneurs to be
curated within each country, and contributed
to a pool of knowledge shared
internationally. Entrepreneurs can find
resources by country, language, topic, type,
market and stage of business.
SUPPORT | GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
LIBRARY

26. Easy access to top-of-the-line resources
enables GEN country affiliates to provide
entrepreneurs, and those who support them,
with the ideas, insights, knowledge, and
wisdom of world-renowned entrepreneurship
thought-leaders from across the globe. More
importantly it provides a platform for
distributing national research information
and programs.
SUPPORT | GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
LIBRARY

27. Global Enterprise Registration is an index of
web portals around the world allowing online
business registration or describing the
business registration process. It is intended
to promote the use and improvement of
business registration services worldwide, by
allowing easy access to existing online
systems and by facilitating the exchange of
experiences and best practices among
governments. Global Enterprise Registration
is jointly produced by UNCTAD and GEN in
partnership with the U.S. Department of
State.
SUPPORT | GLOBAL ENTERPRISE
REGISTRATION

28. GER helps GEN country affiliates accelerate
new firm formation in two ways. One is by
walking a founder through the registration
process. The other is by identifying
bottlenecks within the bureaucracy, an
invaluable tool for policy advocacy. For a
GEN country directors, up-to-date and
detailed information about the business
registration process in their country can be a
vital tool in a strategy to engage more of the
informal economy in entrepreneurial
economic activity.
SUPPORT | GLOBAL ENTERPRISE
REGISTRATION

29. Startup Experience is one of several new
GEN educational programs offering
intensive transformational workshops
designed to inspire the next generation of
young entrepreneurs. It introduces students
to the entrepreneurial mindset and provide
hands-on training in high impact
entrepreneurship. Students build creative
capacity, entrepreneurial confidence, and
learn effective tools to build new ventures.
SUPPORT | STARTUP EXPERIENCE

30. A proven model with a track record of
success, Startup Experience offers a
program designed to foster an
entrepreneurial mindset in young people. It
has been especially valuable in societies
where initiative and creativity has been less
predominant in the national culture. It can
serve as an important means of training
teachers locally with tools that enable more
young people to see their potential to make
a job rather than take a job – something
important in so many parts of the world with
high rates of youth unemployment.
SUPPORT | STARTUP EXPERIENCE

31. GEN PROGRAMS
COMPETE | FINDING FOUNDERS

32. Startup Compete is a global networking site and
competition platform for aspiring entrepreneurs,
mentors and advisors to connect with each other
and bring potential business ideas to market. The
customizable white-label platform has powered
hundreds of competitions in more than 125
countries – providing organizers with a simple and
efficient tool to manage their competitions and
offer emerging startups a chance to hone their
skills and make connections that will take them to
the next level.
COMPETE | STARTUP COMPETE

33. For GEN country affiliates, the Startup
Compete internet platform simplifies and
streamlines the process for organizing and
conducting business competitions. It allows
a GEN affiliate to customize questions and
rounds, invite and sort judges, and manage
everything from one place.
COMPETE | STARTUP COMPETE

34. Startup Open is a global startup competition
organized on GEN’s Startup Compete platform to
identify, connect and recognize promising young
startups around the world. The top virtual
applicants from around the world join the global
winners of GEN’s affiliated live competitions in
being offered admission into GEN’s Starters Club.
Following due diligence and interviews with a
panel of investors, the top GEN Starters travel to
the GEC to be recognized in front of the world –
and to face off against other finalists. Previous
winners – which include startups from Israel,
Croatia, Ghana and the United States – have been
featured by CNBC, CNN, Fast Company and
Forbes.
COMPETE | STARTUP OPEN

35. Startup Open offers GEN country affiliates a
means for connecting their nation’s most
promising entrepreneurs and startups
without having to hold live business plan
competitions. This can bring global
exposure, helping them build their support
communities by connecting them to global
resources such as peer mentors, investors,
and support providers.
COMPETE | STARTUP OPEN

36. The Creative Business Cup is a world
championship for entrepreneurs in the
creative industries – including design,
gaming, music, film, content production,
architecture and more. While these
industries hold great potential, creative
entrepreneurs are not as prepared with the
business skills necessary to take their ideas
to the next level. Winners from national
competitions participate in the global final
during Global Entrepreneurship Week in
Copenhagen, Denmark winning among
other prizes a place in GEN Starters and a
trip to the GEC.
COMPETE | CREATIVE BUSINESS CUP

37. The Creative Business Cup leadership are
experts in the special support required by
creative entrepreneurs. For GEN country
affiliates, organizing a local CBC
competition offers an opportunity to tap into
this expertise and connect with this
particular sub-set of entrepreneurs as well
as their community of supporters. CBC
provides additional support targeted to
creative industries startups year round.
COMPETE | CREATIVE BUSINESS CUP

38. Get in the Ring brings promising
entrepreneurs from around the world in
contact with investors and inspires the next
generation of entrepreneurs to begin the
entrepreneurial journey. Created by the
Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship,
global finalists face off in a boxing ring to
secure an investment of up to €1,000,000.
The battle takes place around the world
culminating in regional and then a global
final.
COMPETE | GET IN THE RING

39. Get in the Ring attracts a wide-variety of
aspiring entrepreneurs. Connecting them
with a GEN country affiliate enhances their
ability to succeed, and the GEN affiliate’s
ability to learn about and develop programs
that address their needs.
COMPETE | GET IN THE RING

40. Each year 1776, a global incubator and
venture fund, hosts a worldwide tournament
called the Challenge Cup in partnership with
GEN and others including more than 50
incubator hosts around the world to discover
the most promising, highly scalable startups
that are poised to solve the major
challenges of our time.
COMPETE | CHALLENGE CUP

41. Startups advance through three rounds:
Local, Regional and Global Finals. All of the
regional winners and a host of wild cards will
be invited to participate in the Challenge
Cup Global Finals next June in Washington,
D.C. There, they’ll compete for over $1
million in prizes, as well as spend time with
the investors, customers, media and other
key connections that can help them succeed
on a global scale.
COMPETE | CHALLENGE CUP

42. The Future Agro Challenge is a world
championship for innovators changing our
everyday life through farm, food and lifestyle.
The competition explores farming and
business practices in water management,
production conservation, instant data access,
crop diversity, post harvest waste; increases
education and training; transforms primary
agricultural production into biological
solutions; invents alternative uses of natural
products; and revolutionizes new ways to
address the importance of living healthy
lifestyles.
COMPETE | FUTURE AGRO CHALLENGE

43. Similar to the Creative Business Cup, the
Future Agro Challenge provides GEN
country affiliates with a competition for the
agricultural sector – a vital and often
overlooked market segment within the
startup world – offering a means to reach this
important sub-set of entrepreneurs. As the
world adapts to changes in the environment,
those who aspire to find practical solutions to
such challenges as those mentioned above
require a specialized community of
supporters.
COMPETE | FUTURE AGRO CHALLENGE

44. GEN Starters Club is a global community
made up of talented founders whose
promising startups have been battle-tested
through one or more of GEN’s global startup
competitions. Through the Club, GEN
Starters have access to connections with
potential collaborators, mentors, and
investors within the Global Entrepreneurship
Network – as well as year-round
opportunities for additional support, visibility,
and peer-to-peer learning experiences.
COMPETE | GEN STARTERS CLUB

45. GEN PROGRAMS
CONNECT | GLOBAL FORUMS & EVENTS

46. The Global Entrepreneurship Congress
(GEC) is an inter-disciplinary gathering of
startup champions from around the world –
where entrepreneurs, investors,
researchers, thought leaders, and
policymakers work together to help bring
ideas to life, drive economic growth, and
expand human welfare. The Congress
brings together an average of 6,000
delegates from 150 countries to discuss
growing entrepreneurial ecosystems.
CONNECT | GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
CONGRESS

47. With live events featuring the latest, best-in-
class programming and research, GEC is a
unique opportunity for the leaders of GEN in
each country to attend as a delegation to
meet fellow practitioners and stay apprised
of new ideas, insights and developments.
The GEC which is free for registered
members of GEN, also serves as GEN’s
annual meeting gathering all GEN Countries
and GEN’s verticals, communities and
programs for a week bigger than the sum of
its parts.
CONNECT | GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
CONGRESS

48. The Startup Nations Summit (SNS) gathers
the members of Startup Nations and
features some of the world’s startup savvy
policy advisors and community leaders
collaborating on smarter policies and
government leadership to support new firm
formation. The Startup Nations Summit has
been held in Toronto, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul,
and Monterrey, Mexico. It will go to Cork,
Ireland in November 2016.
CONNECT | STARTUP NATIONS SUMMIT

49. For GEN country affiliates, the annual Summit is
an opportunity to offer national policy advisors an
international forum in which to listen to and learn
from their peers from around the world who are
grappling with similar domestic policy challenges in
government. During the Summit, they are able to
exchange information with policy leaders about
cutting-edge government programs and regulatory
practices aimed at increasing new firm formation
and gain insight about the ways in which other
national governments support entrepreneurs.
CONNECT | STARTUP NATIONS SUMMIT

50. GEC+ is a deep-dive gathering of
entrepreneurship experts that is focused on
a particular area of startup ecosystems.
The event allows for a rigorous examination
of gaps, bottlenecks, overlaps or other
challenges to fostering enabling
entrepreneurial environments.
CONNECT | GEC+

51. GEN COUNTRY
NATIONAL LEADERSHIP | GLOBAL NETWORK

52. In each of the 160 nations that celebrate
Global Entrepreneurship Week, GEN
leadership is slowly taking shape to formally
help guide year round the development of
healthy national ecosystems that are born
on day one globally connected to leading
edge research, communities and programs
that deliver high impact entrepreneurial
performance to the world.
GEN COUNTRY | Your Pipeline to GEN
Global

53. • Aligns the major entrepreneurial ecosystem in one inclusive
effort where all boats rise on the incoming tide of supporting
entrepreneurs
• Plays to the strengths of the current actors and their current
roles
• Has a strong Governing Board of Directors that ensures it stays
focused on outputs and has impact
• Has a broad-based Advisory Board that includes all ecosystem
voices and communities and helps to streamline efforts,
minimizes competition among those with limited resources, and
maximizes impact.
GEN COUNTRY | Aligns, Connects,
Empowers

54. • Convening and leveraging disparate ecosystem players
• Amplifying global outreach and increasing awareness
• Evaluating and endorsing tried and tested programs
• Serving as a source of quantifiable data and qualitative
information
• Acting as a hub for sharing knowledge and experience
• Guiding an ecosystem network bigger than the sum of its
parts
GEN COUNTRY | Leads by:

55. • Global competitions – e.g. Startup Open, Challenge Cup, GITR,
Creative Business Cup, Cleantech Open Global Ideas, Challenge
Cup
• Live international events such as the Global Entrepreneurship
Congress, Startup Nations Summit, GEC+ and GEN Regional
Meetups
• Constant flow of new entrepreneur support programs – including
GBAN, Startup Compete, Startup Experience, GEN Starters Club
• Research and Policy development and advocacy especially
through Startup Nations, GERN and GEN research products such
as the GEI and independent Kauffman Foundation research
GEN COUNTRY | Leverages GEN Global’s:

56. GEN [COUNTRY]
FAQs

57. A vehicle for providing next generation
leadership in rapidly scaling the development
and performance of your national
entrepreneurial ecosystem with a strong
emphasis on leveraging a global pipeline and
distribution channel with parallel operations,
partners and projects in 160 countries.
What is GEN [COUNTRY]?

58. Through an agreement with GEN Global, each
GEN [Country] affiliate is set up as an
independent legally registered organization that
is managed and controlled by a local governing
board of directors and advised by a
comprehensive community of ecosystem actors
and organizations.
How does GEN [COUNTRY] operate?

59. Local competition, dispersed transparent
control, inclusiveness, no past baggage
Why must GEN [COUNTRY] affiliates be
independent?

60. Since GEN Global plans to get out of the way
of GEN [Country]’s Board of Directors and let
them run it, own it, and control it, it is vitally
important that the founders are the right people
in terms of gravitas and understanding GEN’s
culture of inclusiveness and transparency.
Why is GEN [COUNTRY] so focused on leadership and boards?
Is this not about getting on with helping our aspiring and scaling
entrepreneurs?

61. Whether building a GEN [COUNTRY] Advisory Board
from GEW’s Advisory Board, finding your GEN
[COUNTRY] Managing Director from the GEW team
or upgrading the engagement of your stakeholders
from GEW to GEN [COUNTRY], GEN [COUNTRY] is
built from the communities within your country that
have a history of collaborating together to help
entrepreneurs. The current GEW leadership should
decide whether to continue focusing exclusively on
the GEW mission or to become GEN [COUNTRY]
founders.
How does the existing GEW leadership
and partnership fit into GEN [COUNTRY]?

62. GEN [COUNTRY] is a neutral ground motivated
by a globally facing effort where no one actor
monopolizes.
GEN [COUNTRY] connects your existing actors
to your GEN counterparts in 160 countries
offering them access to research, policy,
programs and thought leadership and a global
network of best practices and support.
We have good leadership within our ecosystem. We already
have dozens of acclerators and ecosystem actors. What does
GEN [COUNTRY] bring for us?

63. There is a toolkit and a process for you to follow.
Here are the top 10 major milestones:
1. Apply to be the Acting MD by submitting not a
resume but your view of who is who in your national
and local ecosystems. This could take a weekend to
put together, but it serves as a networking roadmap
drawing from your knowledge, experience and
existing ecosystem mapping efforts. It should be a
comprehensive (geographically and constituencies)
dream map of the most significant organizations
(perhaps using GEW relationships as a base) that
would form your advisory board and GEN network.
I personally want to serve as a GEN [COUNTRY]
acting Managing Director. What are the steps in
the process?

64. 2. Meet with Buke Cuhadar to discuss your
proposed Advisory Board
3. Upon a formal written invitation from GEN
Global, work with GEN Global in developing a
master strategy for GEN Country
4. Gather together an exploratory effort and
advisory board – in person and virtually – to
present the vision – tying them into GEN Global
interface opportunities (e.g. GEC or other
events or visits by GEN senior representatives
to your country.
Top 10 Milestones to GEN [COUNTRY]

65. 5. After getting buy in, produce a list of your top
20 dream governing Board of Directors
6. Consult with GEN Global and begin inviting
them through a careful approach to exploratory
meetings
7. Once GEN Global signs off on the final
Governing Board of Director and formal
Advisory Board Members, with one Governing
Board seat always with GEN Global . . .
Top 10 Milestones to GEN [COUNTRY]

66. 8. Hold your first Board of Directors and
Advisory Board Member meetings to discuss
progress on developing an initial strategic plan
9. Establish the legal entity, file documents
10. Begin fundraising and operations.
Top 10 Milestones to GEN [COUNTRY]

67. 1. It must be comprehensive and inclusive of
the major actors within the ecosystem – from
startup communities and accelerators, to the
corporate community, and to government and
NGOs
2. The treatment of competitors and others
must be civil – this is a significant global
interface for your entrepreneurial ecosystem –
do not advertise internal differences on the
global stage
What are your top 5 tips for GEN
[COUNTRY] development?

68. 3. Keep it focused on evidence-based gaps,
and creative opportunities
4. Find a role for all the players currently
providing leadership – let them own parts of it.
5. Make it bigger than the sum of its parts.
What are your top 5 tips for GEN
[COUNTRY] development?

69. GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP NETWORK
w e a r e g e n . c o