🦄 What’s growing: Unicorn startups — only, not in the way you know.

Praveen Arivazhagan, EY-Parthenon Americas venture building leader, believes the next generation will come from within corporations.

On average, business leaders expect to dedicate 14% of their operating budget to corporate venture building… A 75% increase from the average amount reported in 2022. With bigger bank accounts, better data and existing customer bases, they get a head start on scrappy, small-team startups.

GROW  

Employing the unemployable: Employepreneurs

Or maybe entrepreloyees? Intrapreneurs? Anyway, here’s how to attract and manage entrepreneurial employees

What happens when you hire an entrepreneur? If you let them do their thing, you get PlayStation.

Ken Kutaragi was a junior staff member at Sony when he developed the PlayStation (despite being told no).

Okay, maybe you won’t get a PlayStation, but you might get PostIt Notes, Flaming Hot Cheetos, Happy Meals, or Amazon Prime — all results of employee entrepreneurs.

People with entrepreneurial spirits want to create something great, and they’re going to do that no matter what. Hire a determined entrepreneur, get out of their way, and watch your business grow in ways you never would have imagined.

Why would an entrepreneur work for you, anyway?

You’ve heard this more than once: “entrepreneurs are unemployable.”

It’s not true.

Contrary to popular belief, lots of people who fall firmly in the ‘entrepreneur’ category simply don’t want to own and run a business. Some of them want the benefits of full-time employment.

Not just literal benefits like health insurance and paid time off, either.

Working within a growing company gives employepreneurs desirable things like:

• Stability

• Opportunities to work with other high achievers

• Mentorship and experience

• Immediate earning potential

However, these people can’t thrive in a normal business environment. 

Over-management, inefficient processes, or mediocre teammates will pretty much guarantee that your most entrepreneurial employees quit long before they’ve accomplished greatness.

This is where the “unemployable” myth comes from. Entrepreneurs certainly are employable, but not by an average leader.

Requirements? Leadership.

It takes solid leadership to handle in-house entrepreneurship.

People: Intrapreneurs want to be inspired by their coworkers, not succeed in spite of them. Take a good look at every level of your team — would you want to work closely with these people every day?

Rewards: Give entrepreneurial employees a reason to take risks on their ideas. Why would they pour their hearts into a project that will line your pockets just to keep making their same hourly rate? Make it clear what they stand to gain, and show them that it’s safe to take risks.

Opportunities: Not willing to try (and pay for) new, unproven ideas? Then you won’t have great employees who want to try things. Best case scenario: you have a dedicated budget for employee-led initiatives.

Ownership: We’re not talking about equity, though that’s not a bad idea. Intrapreneurs need to own their work. They should get credit for success, share the blame for failures, and understand how their energy investment moves the needle for the company as a whole.

Equality: Entrepreneurs are often charismatic leaders, and it can feel like they’re trying to take over your position. They’re not. Probably. But they are going to challenge your decisions and expect to be treated like equals regardless of title.

Here’s the thing:

Hiring intrapreneurs is inherently risky. They will create ripples in your team, challenge your leadership skills, and want to try unproven tactics. They’ll ask for extra budget to try crazy things. And they might not come up with anything brilliant.

Entrepreneurship never had great odds. But the reward? Considerable. Up to you!

DATA BASED

Employepreneur This

WOC are taking charge in the US.

Major companies from Meta to McDonald’s are scaling back their diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) policies in response to Trump’s policies.

It seems like the perfect time for women — especially women of color — to branch out and do their own thing.

And that’s exactly what they’re doing.

Entrepreneurship is on the rise and women of color are leading the charge.

Entrepreneurship is surging in the US: there are 430,000 new business applications per month in 2024, 50 percent more than in 2019.

According to a Wells Fargo report, 43% of self-employed Americans are female, and women of color are leading the charge. To give you an idea of the scale — women-owned businesses added 1.4 million jobs and $579.6 billion in revenue to the economy during the pandemic.

Between 2019 and 2023:

• Black/African American women-owned businesses saw an average revenue increase of 32.7%

• Hispanic/Latino women-owned businesses saw an average revenue increase of 17.1%

• All women-owned businesses grew by 12.1%

The knock-on effects one can imagine are numerous:

• More relatable inspirations for 50% of the population

• More inclusive products and experiences

• More diverse workforces

• More diverse ads

If you wonder why DEI is pushed above meritocracy, Mia Lam, from the French social work NGO Aime explains: “Systemic disadvantages for certain minorities is scientifically proven, along with silent discrimination during hiring. Making a push for DEI at this point in time is necessary to re-establish balance, at which point it can, and should, stop.”

ANNOUNCEMENT

SMX Advanced is back - June 11–13 in Boston.

Skip past the basics at SMX Advanced — 500-level sessions on SEO, PPC, and AI led by legends like Wil Reynolds, Jyll Saskin Gales, and Frederick Vallaeys.

✅ Train with top marketers 

✅ Network with your peers IRL

✅ Learn actionable SEO, PPC, and AI tactics

Save $500 with Super Early Bird pricing – ends Saturday

 🚨 That deal’s gone. But you can still use our exclusive community discount code TGB15 for 15% off the current Early Bird rate!

👉 Grab your spot now

📋 Browse the full agenda

Questions? Hit reply — Our manager will get back to you! 

This week’s issue was co-written by Amy Hawthorne and Catherine Solbrig, and edited by Catherine Solbrig.