“Consider what each soil will bear, and what each refuses.” — Virgil

Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Central America

The impact-investing industry will reach its potential in the early years of the twenty-first century if the innovation and stamina of entrepreneurial risk-takers can be coupled with industry building leadership. – Antony Bugg-Levine, Managing Director, The Rockefeller Foundation

The entrepreneurial ecosystem is the set of conditions (laws, culture, infrastructure, education, etc.) that encourage (or hinder) a business’s success. If financial capital is a watering can, then the ecosystem is the soil – it’s where all the impact happens — or where ideas wither on the vine.

Building a strong ecosystem around impact entrepreneurship at the local level has been a core goal of Agora Partnerships since our founding. We have spent a lot of time and energy tending the soil, getting the local media and TV to talk about entrepreneurship with over 100 local media pieces, creating prizes to celebrate impact entrepreneurship, hosting conferences, and collaborating with other organization to support a culture of impact entrepreneurship and investing throughout Central America.

Here are some of the ways in which we’re helping to build a stronger entrepreneurial ecosystem:

• ANDE Latin America Conference
• Launching New Ventures in Nicaragua
• LiderES Prize
• Measuring Social Impact
• Women’s Initiative