Marcell Haywood invested $300 in the 2004 startup of a building maintenance business as a sideline to his work as a Florida State University computer science student. Then, his sideline turned into a career.
His Fort Lauderdale-based maintenance company, Encompass Onsite, has expanded to Miami and West Palm Beach. Formerly known as Dirt Pros, Encompass Onsite does facility maintenance and management for companies in hospitality, education and health care.
Now Haywood is aiming higher and farther with the support of an international economic development organization called Endeavor Global Inc., an 18-year-old nonprofit that mentors “high-impact” entrepreneurs capable of turning small businesses that make money into big ones, the Miami Herald reported.
“We provide institutional real estate owners with scaleable solutions to better manage their facilities,” Haywood said, and with Endeavor’s support, he hopes to expand Encompass Onsite to U.S. markets beyond Florida and eventually to foreign markets.
Encompass Onsite probably will create 1,000 jobs throughout Florida in the next 18 months, “jobs with upward mobility,” he said.”We provide institutional real estate owners with scaleable solutions to better manage their facilities.”
Founded in 1997, New York City-based Endeavor provides carefully vetted entrepreneurs with valuable access to its global network of mentors, investors and managerial talent. While many companies apply for support from Endeavor, few are chosen. The organization has accumulated more than 30,000 applications from entrepreneurs, and has accepted about 2 percent of them. Endeavor Miami started up in September 2013 with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Early-stage companies need not apply. Endeavor backs companies that already have a successful operating history and the promise of dramatically increased revenues. Seedlings and startups have needs that business incubators and accelerators are better suited to address.
Advice from brand-name mentors is a big part of the appeal of Endeavor, and it starts at the top. The star-studded board of directors of Endeavor Miami includes Adriana Cisneros, chief executive officer and vice chairman of the Cisneros Group of Companies, a family-owned conglomerate with estimated annual revenue of $1 billion, and Manuel D. “Manny” Medina, who founded data services and storage company Terremark Worldwide and engineered its 2011 sale to Verizon Wireless for $2 billion. [Miami Herald] – Mike Seemuth