Central Non-Profit for Entrepreneurs

Back in college I’d routinely jump in my old Jeep Wrangler and make the 10 mile drive down the Durham Freeway to RTP for events and programs at the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED). CED bills itself as “the network that helps Triangle entrepreneurs build successful companies” and has 700+ member companies with 4,000 members. In Atlanta, we have a number of strong entrepreneurial non-profits:

• Advanced Technology Development Center
• TAG Entrepreneurs Society
• Technology Executives Roundtable
• Atlanta CEO Council
• Atlanta TiE
• Metro Atlanta Chamber Eyes on Entrepreneurs
• Venture Atlanta

Only, we don’t have a central entrepreneur organization that encompasses both tech and non-tech startups. As expected, there are a tremendous number of non-tech entrepreneurs in town. EO has a strong Atlanta chapter with over 100 members, but that’s limited to companies with at least $1 million in revenue. Where do non-tech entrepreneurs go?

Last week I had the chance to learn about Endeavor, which is a non-profit for helping high impact entrepreneurs (defined as ones that have the potential to scale and create a large number of jobs). Endeavor has chapters all over the world and focuses on mentorship, connections, talent, education, and capital. As different from most non-profits for entrepreneurs which are broad, Endeavor is extremely hands-on with a limited number of entrepreneurs in each city (e.g. 10).

Strong entrepreneur organizations are important for great startup ecosystems.

What else? For Atlantans, does Atlanta need a central non-profit organization for entrepreneurs? For non-Atlantans, is there a central non-profit organization in your city?