Union by 1776: Breaking Down Barriers to Entrepreneurship Globally
As anyone who has ever launched a startup can tell you, there is no shortage of people with opinions and ideas to offer founders. Well-meaning friends and advisors often give contradictory counsel, and Internet searches only add to confusion rather than empowering help.
1776 set out to change that through its platform, Union.
For the past two years, 1776’s team of engineers has been building this online platform to connect entrepreneurs and startup hubs around the world to mentors and experts who can help them succeed, because every startup should be able to access the smartest, most relevant mentors even if they live several time zones away.
Union also curates and houses wide-ranging content for startups to consult whether they have just a concept or they’ve achieved product-market fit and are ready to scale. We can eliminate a lot of startup floundering by giving entrepreneurs the educational content they need to learn the minute they need it — and sequencing it in the order they need to be successful.
Not too long ago, entrepreneurs had to set up shop in an already-developed, bustling center of commerce for any shot at success. Not only is that costly to a young business pinching pennies, but it also robs that entrepreneur’s native community of a potential economic boost.
But today globalization just won’t quit — even if Britain does exit the European Union.
There are fewer and fewer good reasons why an enterprising founder from Uganda should move to London to secure investments and get mentorship and guidance.
Over the past five years, hundreds of city leaders all over the globe have been waking up to this concept, and startup hubs and incubators are popping up at lightning speed.
Still, there’s a hitch.
Lagos and Nairobi have become cutting-edge hubs for exciting developments in fintech, for example, and are now home to business leaders and investors with a track record of success in that industry.
But what if a 29-year-old Nigerian doctor is developing a sensor-based app for early detection of heart disease? She shouldn’t have to leave Lagos behind for Boston to earn the educational and financial support of that city’s top health experts and investors.
Through Union, she wouldn’t have to. Instead, Lagos keeps her at home and benefits directly from her business. She can find and connect with all of the people she may need, no matter where they live, on the 1776 platform.
Startups often learn about business-building topics like sales or product development generically. But via the highly curated network of mentors and experts — all tagged and organized by stage, subject and industry — edtech founders can contact mentors in their industry who understand the nuances of education.
Upon connecting, startup founders can request “office hours” with these experts and mentors while they’re using the platform and then hold them on the phone or via Skype.
- Mentors are successful entrepreneurs, people who have “been there, done that” and can provide counsel to entrepreneurs on their overall startup journey.
- Experts are people with specific functional or industry expertise, like sales, marketing, public relations, accounting, lobbying, law and human resources. Every 1776 partner — such as hospital systems, universities, governments, major utilities — also provides experts to work with startups in the network.
1776 and our partner companies, with extra assistance from Dell and Microsoft, have built an impressive catalog of mentors and are growing that database. The world’s leading startup hubs, such as Austin’s Capital Factory, have already committed to join us in creating a single, truly global mentor network. Throughout 2016 we’ll be doing more to add a global stable of the leading experts, making them accessible to startups around the world.
Finally, startup leaders can also visit the discussion boards to communicate with others who have experienced similar growing pains. These entrepreneurs and their support staffs can learn from peers about what has worked for them and what hasn’t.
For the past three years, we’ve made it our mission to find, fund and help grow the world’s most promising companies. We’ve been using Union ourselves since last summer to work with our own 800 startups and connect them to our nearly 500 mentors. Our companies alone have raised more than $330 million in capital and created more than 2,000 jobs. Imagine what these numbers could be if we all worked together globally. Join us and this movement.
