3. The Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) is a year-round platform of programs and initiatives created by the communities that celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week each November.

4. ABOUT THE GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP NETWORK

5. 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

6. 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 support programming. THE GEN MISSION

7. 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.

8. THE GEN UNIVERSE 160 COUNTRIES

10. GEN PROGRAMS CELEBRATE | INSPIRATION

11. CELEBRATE 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 roughly 10,000 partner organizations.

12. CELEBRATE 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.

13. GEN PROGRAMS SUPPORT | PRORGRAMS & RESOURCES

14. Startup Experience offers 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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 Global Entrepreneurship Week. SUPPORT

19. 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 Acting Managing Director, up-to-date and detailed information about the business registration process in their country can a vital tool in a strategy to engage more of the informal economy in entrepreneurial economic activity. SUPPORT

20. 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

21. 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

22. The Liberalizing Innovation Opportunity Nations (LIONS@FRICA) is a partnership that seeks to mobilize the knowledge, expertise and resources of leading public and private institutions to encourage and enhance Africa’s innovation ecosystem and to spur entrepreneurship by investing in: capacity building, access to capital, enhanced connectivity to global markets, and credibility by raising awareness of Africa’s innovation potential. SUPPORT

23. The lessons won by GEN Global from implementing this program provide GEN Country Affiliates with proven models of what works in terms of supporting entrepreneurs. When developing strategies of their own, being connected through GEN to skilled and knowledgeable entrepreneur support program personal offers GEN Country Acting Managing Directors invaluable ground-level expertise and knowhow. While this is currently an African continent oriented initiative, additional regional GEN efforts may emerge. SUPPORT

24. GEN PROGRAMS COMPETE | FINDING FOUNDERS

25. Startup Open is a virtual competition to identify and recognize promising young startups around the world. The top 50 applicants, selected from more than 60 countries, are recognized each year as the GEW 50 and considered finalists for prizes and additional opportunities. Previous winners—startups from Israel, Croatia, Ghana and the United States— have been featured by CNBC, CNN, Fast Company and Forbes. COMPETE

26. Startup Open is a ready-made GEN Global competition that offers GEN Country Affiliates a means for identifying aspiring entrepreneurs and connecting them to global resources and exposure that will help them succeed, such as peer mentors, investors, founder clubs, and support providers among others. COMPETE

27. The Creative Business Cup is the 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. COMPETE

28. 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

29. 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 between June and November, with the grand finale in Rotterdam during Global Entrepreneurship Week. COMPETE

30. Get in the Ring attracts a wide-variety of aspiring entrepreneurs. As mentioned above, connecting them with a GEN Country Affiliates enhances their ability to succeed, and GEN Country’s ability to learn about and develop programs that address their needs. COMPETE

31. The Future Agro Challenge is the world championship for innovators to change 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

32. Similarly 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

33. GEN PROGRAMS UNDERSTAND | RESEARCH & POLICY

34. The Global Entrepreneurship Research Network (GERN) 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

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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. Startup Nations is also a means to learn about new government-sponsored programs and/or regulatory policies aimed at increasing new firm formation, many of which may be in the early, experimental stage. Startup Nations enables GEN Country Affiliates to gain leading-edge insight into national 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

38. The Global Entrepreneurship Index is an annual index that measures the health of entrepreneurship ecosystems in 130 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

39. 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 an 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

40. The Compass Report assesses the experience of high-impact entrepreneurs in more than 30 countries so that the outcomes may help inform future policy decisions affecting new and young firms. Conducted throughout Global Entrepreneurship Week, survey results guide the development of policy summits in participating countries. A report outlining key findings is released during the Global Entrepreneurship Congress. UNDERSTAND

41. Because the Report lends insight into what entrepreneurs need from the wider support ecosystem and what services they most value, it empowers GEN Country Affiliates with information they can leverage for developing new initiatives, advocating for policy reforms, and raising public awareness. UNDERSTAND

42. GEN PROGRAMS CONNECT | GLOBAL FORUMS & EVENTS

43. 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 more than 6,000 delegates from 150 countries to discuss economic and policy challenges around growing entrepreneurial ecosystems. CONNECT

44. With live events featuring the latest, best-in- class programming and research, GEC is a unique opportunity for GEN Country Acting Managing Directors to meet fellow practitioners and stay apprised of new ideas, insights and developments. The annual event is designed so that when Acting Managing Directors return to their country, they are able to develop fresh, forward-leaning entrepreneurship support efforts. CONNECT

45. The Startup Nations Summit (SNS) features startup savvy policy advisors and startup 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 and most recently by Startup Korea and the Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs in Seoul. This November, the Startup Nations Summit will serve as the finale of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2015 in Mexico. CONNECT

46. For GEN Country Affiliates, the annual Summit is an opportunity to offer government ministers and 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

47. GES Youth + Women is a gathering focused on the challenges and opportunities faced by youth and women trying to start and scale their company. The event allows these promising entrepreneurs to showcase their respective success stories and give them the opportunity to connect, share, and learn from their peers. CONNECT

48. THE CASE FOR GEN COUNTRY

49. In each of the 160 nations that celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week, GEN leadership is taking shape to formally help guide the development of healthy national ecosystems that are born connected to leading edge research, communities and programs that deliver high impact entrepreneurial performance to the world. INTRODUCTION TO GEN COUNTRY

50. GEN enables every country to align a varied collection of players, programs, and information to better support entrepreneurship. Alignment helps streamline efforts, minimize competition among those with limited resources, and maximize impact. THE CASE FOR GEN COUNTRY

51. GEN Country Affiliates provide national leadership in the effort by: Convening and connecting ecosystem players Amplifying 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 THE CASE FOR GEN COUNTRY

52. Leverages GEN Global’s major programs in your country including: Global competitions – e.g. Startup Open, Get in the Ring, Creative Business Cup, Cleantech Open Global Ideas Live international events such as the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, Startup Nations Summit, GEN Regional Meetups) Entrepreneur support programs such as Startup Experience Policy development and advocacy especially through Startup Nations THE CASE FOR GEN COUNTRY

53. Leverages GEN Global’s major programs in your country including: Engagement with GEN’s academic and research entities including the Global Entrepreneurship Research Network, Global Entrepreneurship Index and other research vehicles Engaging in city ecosystem mapping and evaluation Curating GEN Country’s contributions to a library of support resources THE CASE FOR GEN COUNTRY

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