About Linda
Named one of “America’s Best Leaders” by U.S. News and one of TIME’s 100 “Innovators for the 21st century,” Linda Rottenberg is considered among the most dynamic experts on entrepreneurship, corporate innovation, and leadership. A frequent keynote speaker at Fortune 500 companies, and subject of multiple Harvard and Stanford business school case studies, Rottenberg has won acclaim for her pioneering work. ABC and NPR declared her “the entrepreneur whisperer;” Tom Friedman dubbed her the world’s “mentor capitalist;” Business Insider named her “Ms. Davos;” and for years she was known as “La Chica Loca” (the crazy girl) for insisting that entrepreneurs existed outside of Silicon Valley, in emerging and growth markets.
As co-founder and CEO of Endeavor, www.endeavor.org, Rottenberg has led the global entrepreneurship movement for two decades. Headquartered in New York, with 60 offices spanning the globe, Endeavor rigorously selects, mentors, and co-invests in innovators with the greatest potential to grow their businesses and move the needle of their economies. In 2013, Endeavor brought its proven entrepreneur scale-up model to several U.S. cities. Currently, the 1,400+ Endeavor Entrepreneurs, screened from over 50,000 candidates, provide 650,000 jobs and generate $10BN+ in annual revenues. Today, Rottenberg also leads Endeavor Catalyst LP Funds I and II, rules-based funds totaling over $100M that invest in Endeavor Entrepreneurs.
Rottenberg is also author of the New York Times bestseller, CRAZY IS A COMPLIMENT: The Power of Zigging When Everyone Else Zags, published in October 2014. In her book, she argues that entrepreneurship isn’t just for young techies in hoodies. Whether you work at a Fortune 500 company, a non-profit, a mom-and-pop, or a startup, everybody needs the mindset to think and act like a change-maker. We all need to be nimble, adaptive, daring, and maybe even a little crazy, or risk being left behind.
Rottenberg serves on the board of ZAYO Group, the world-leading bandwidth infrastructure company based in Boulder (NYSE: ZAYO), and Olo, a premier online ordering platform based in New York City. Rottenberg is a member of Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and served on the entrepreneurship steering committee of the World Economic Forum.
Rottenberg has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Economist, Financial Times, USA Today, Strategy + Business, People, Glamour, and MORE, and has appeared on GMA, Today Show, Morning Joe, Nightline, NPR, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, Fox Business, and Bloomberg News. Dell featured her in its “Take Your Own Path” ad campaign; Veuve Clicquot named her Businesswoman of the Year.