Claudia Duran, Managing Director, Endeavor Miami & Regional Managing Director, Endeavor North America

Invest: sat down with Claudia Duran, managing director of Endeavor Miami, to discuss how the organization helps growth-stage founders scale in South Florida and through its global network. “Our role is to surround these founders with the right resources at the right time, whether through mentorship, strategic guidance, capital connections, or access to trusted service providers,” Duran said.

How would you describe Endeavor’s core mission in South Florida, and what makes this region uniquely positioned for high-impact entrepreneurship?

Endeavor supports high-impact entrepreneurs—founders who are disrupting industries and actively scaling growth companies. Our role is to surround these founders with the right resources at the right time, whether through mentorship, strategic guidance, capital connections, or access to trusted service providers.

We act as an extension of the founder’s team. We invest time in understanding each company’s challenges, opportunities, and growth strategy, and then connect founders with the people who can help them execute—investors, experienced operators, functional experts, and peers who have already navigated similar moments. Endeavor Entrepreneurs’ success is not limited to scaling their companies. We provide a platform for them to multiply their impact within and beyond their ecosystem by inspiring, mentoring, and reinvesting in the next generation of founders.

South Florida is uniquely positioned as a strategic entry point to the U.S. market, especially for entrepreneurs from Latin America. We see companies that begin in Latin America, scale in their home markets, and then reach a point where entering the United States becomes the next step. Miami is a natural bridge for that transition, both geographically and culturally.

We also see founders who choose to build their companies as U.S-based ventures from day one. Many are from Latin America, and we also work with founders from Europe. They come to Miami or Miami-Dade to establish their base here, hire talent, and begin selling into the market. The region’s diversity and deep Latin American ties make it easier to build early relationships with customers, partners, and investors while operating within the United States.

How does Endeavor’s global network benefit local founders pursuing capital, talent, or market expansion?

Endeavor operates across more than 37 countries and roughly 46 markets, allowing local teams to tap into relationships far beyond South Florida. That global reach matters because founders rarely face just one challenge at a time. They may be raising capital, recruiting leadership, and exploring new markets in parallel.

The value is not just in making introductions, but in highly targeted matchmaking. Understanding what type of investor a company needs—what stage and thesis align, and what partnership style fits the founder—is a skill. When connections are made, they are done with context, enabling both sides to move faster and determine quickly whether there is a true fit.

For founders seeking capital in the United States, Endeavor can leverage its U.S. investor network, while also connecting them to investors in other markets when that is the right path. For founders expanding into Europe, we activate our European network to connect them with local Endeavor teams and entrepreneurs who understand the market. A founder in Miami exploring Spain, for example, can learn directly from entrepreneurs who have built companies there—what regulatory and hiring realities to expect, how customer acquisition works, and what early roadblocks typically look like.

Endeavor also facilitates strong founder-to-founder connections, helping entrepreneurs avoid reinventing the wheel, but most importantly serving as a sounding board within a network of trust. It is important for founders to open up and be vulnerable when talking to mentors and other Endeavor Entrepreneurs when facing hurdles they have already overcome. This saves time and prevents founders from having burnout and making costly mistakes. We all know growing a business is really hard and requires resilience and true leadership. Beyond founders, the mentor network includes investors from leading venture capital and private equity firms, as well as senior leaders at global corporations, giving founders access to experienced perspectives on everything from go-to-market strategy and enterprise sales to scaling operations.

How is Endeavor working with investor networks to bridge funding gaps for founders in South Florida and the broader region?

Reaching the right investors can take founders a significant amount of time. They must research funds, secure warm introductions, and pitch to multiple investors before finding a true match and getting a term sheet. This challenge is even more pronounced for founders building outside traditional funding hubs.

Historically, South Florida had fewer local funds, and many founders felt they needed to be in New York or San Francisco to raise capital effectively. That dynamic has been shifting. More funds are now open to investing beyond those regions, and some have established a presence in South Florida, improving their access. Miami has also emerged as a place where capital convenes, with recurring conferences that bring together U.S. and Latin American investors.

Endeavor’s role is to understand what different investors are seeking and connect them to a relevant pipeline. The organization helps founders clarify what they are raising capital for, the milestones they are targeting, and which investor profiles are most aligned. From there, Endeavor works to shorten the path by making introductions—not just for more meetings, but for the right meetings.

We are also seeing a spike in investor interest in sectors such as AI, and we closely track where capital attention is shifting. This allows founders to better position their story and strategy. Endeavor also makes it easier for investors to discover companies they might not encounter through their traditional networks, including those led by Latin American founders in the Endeavor network building in the United States.

What are the biggest opportunities and challenges for Miami’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, and how is Endeavor positioning itself in this regard?

Miami is becoming an increasingly global hub, and we see many Endeavor Entrepreneurs from other markets relocate to the city. This includes founders selected through Endeavor offices in Europe and Latin America, driven by a range of factors—from lifestyle considerations to proximity to the Americas and strategic business needs.

That creates opportunity because it adds diversity, experience, and international connectivity to the local ecosystem. It also creates a challenge: as more founders arrive, they need trusted connectors who can help them navigate how to build in the United States—from finding early customers to hiring talent and understanding legal and operational realities.

Endeavor Miami is organically becoming a hub for both the local portfolio and international founders establishing themselves in South Florida. Through its Access to Market work, Endeavor connects founders with local market experts, potential customers, peers who have successfully scaled in the United States, and the service providers needed to establish and grow operations here. The organization also helps integrate founders into the local community, enabling them to build long-lasting relationships with other founders who are building here. 

In the long term, the goal is to turn Miami’s international momentum into sustained company- building, job creation, long-term investment, and a strong entrepreneurial community. As the ecosystem continues to mature, the region can become a place where founders not only arrive—but thrive.

What is next for Endeavor, and what projects or priorities should business leaders and founders be paying attention to?

A major priority is Endeavor’s focus on “elsewheres,” meaning the markets outside the traditional centers where capital and attention concentrate. We are intentionally building and highlighting a portfolio across Latin America, Africa, Europe, Southeast Asia, and other regions, and changing the narrative so investors see that world-class companies are being built globally, not only in a handful of cities.

This is especially relevant right now in areas such as AI, where a significant amount of investment is concentrated in a small number of geographies. Endeavor is identifying strong AI companies in several countries and helping connect them to capital, customers, peers, and talent across the network. We are also seeing more companies with co-founders from different markets, and Endeavor is supporting these teams by connecting them to the appropriate local resources and peers in each geography.

We are also expanding the work of Endeavor Catalyst, our investment fund. The organization is currently raising capital for Catalyst V, which operates under a rule-based model: investments are made exclusively in founders who have been selected as Endeavor entrepreneurs through our selection process. Check sizes are typically up to $3 million, but the value goes beyond the capital itself. The investment provides Endeavor with a seat at the table, supports founders as they scale, and gives us a clearer view into what is happening across industries and regions.

The fund is powered by the community itself. Mentors, board members, and Endeavor Entrepreneurs invest, and many founders choose to pay it forward after their own growth or exits. That reinforces the network effect: Endeavor Entrepreneurs as role models to inspire the next generation of founders, making the ecosystem become stronger across markets. We call this – the Multiplier Effect.