TLDR:
- Success stories like MercadoLibre and Rappi highlight the impact of strong companies on innovation and network effects.
- While unicorn startups get the most attention, smaller startups foster competition and innovation across different sectors.
When three young entrepreneurs started MercadoLibre in Argentina in 1999, it became the highest-valued company in Latin America two decades later. Meanwhile, Rappi, a Colombian food delivery unicorn, birthed a wave of innovation. However, the focus on unicorn startups can overshadow smaller ventures that also contribute to a resilient business ecosystem. The Innovate Entrepreneurship Summit in Guatemala emphasized the importance of fostering smaller startups for greater business variety and competition.
Key Points:
One emerging venture studio, Nobody Studios, is challenging the unicorn hype by focusing on early-stage impact-driven ventures, believing that seeding the right ideas will drive meaningful change worldwide. The studio champions a ‘people first’ paradigm and supports companies like Evalify, which pioneer smart patent risk assessment. Nobody Studios aims to build 100 ventures in 5 years with a crowd-infused incubation model for quicker impact delivery.
