One of the interesting metrics in GEM’s Adult Population Survey is level of educational attainment. A great example of someone whose higher-education experience led to the launch of a company is Gilles Suard, founder of Almighty Tree and a graduate of the School of Management Fribourg (HEG-FR), University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO).
The mission of Almighty Tree is to mitigate climate change, create a cleaner environment, and raise awareness about the role of business and the general public as carbon emitters. In response, the company plants trees in Switzerland and abroad.
“On one hand, my education inspired me to launch a business and, on the other hand, it prepared me to face the challenges associated with such an adventure.”
During Gilles’ studies (MSc BA, major in entrepreneurship), he was exposed to success stories, entrepreneurs’ presentations/lectures, case studies on entrepreneurship and innovation, company visits, and the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Boston, MA.
“Such action-oriented activities inspired me, influenced my career choices and reinforced my deep desire to be an entrepreneur. I also received the appropriate knowledge for execution, from idea to the market. I was able to learn about the wide spectrum of fields needed to launch a business, such as marketing, finance, law, growth management and leadership.”
During his studies, he took part in Venture In Action, a project that allowed students to launch a real business. He went through all the steps required:
he pitched an idea, created a team, tested and challenged the original idea, launched a go-to- market strategy, and truly lived an authentic entrepreneurial journey. In the process, he saw first-hand the importance of perseverance.
Gilles efforts are paying off. The company has grown incrementally each year, going from 2,000 trees in 2020, to 10,000 then 15,000 trees in the following years, reaching 25,000 trees in 2023. The projection for next year is to surpass 35,000 and generate a revenue of 1 million Swiss francs for the first time.
There are 190 companies working with Almighty Tree.
In conclusion, Gilles explained:
“All my educational experiences informed me about how hard it is at the beginning of a venture and taught me how to keep going.”
HUMAN FACES BEHIND THE DATA . . .
Thank you to the School of Management Fribourg (HEG-FR), one of our report sponsors, for providing this material and helping to put our data in a real-world context.
For a new business that is able to export, the opportunities are endless, while the host economy also benefits from the flow of money from abroad. The APS asks those starting or running a new business what percentage of revenue they anticipate coming from customers outside of their own country. GEM defines a new business as export-intensive if its owner anticipates receiving 25% or more of its revenue from abroad. Figure 5.6 shows the percentage of those starting or running new businesses within this category.
As anticipated, there is some positive association with income, with just one Level C economy (South Africa) having one in 10 or more of its new businesses classed as export- intensive, compared to nine Level B economies and 13 from Level A. Export-intensity levels were lowest in Ecuador, Guatemala, India and Brazil (all less than 2%) and highest in Luxembourg (where two in five new businesses were export-intensive), followed by Estonia, Slovenia, Latvia and Croatia (all one in four or more). There are exceptions, with Level A Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Korea each having one in 20 or less of their new entrepreneurs classed as export-intensive. Relatively small Qatar (with some very big neighbours), only just exceeded one in 10 of its new entrepreneurs being export-intensive.
FIGURE 5.6 The percentage of those starting or running new businesses in each economy and anticipating 25%
or more of revenue coming from customers outside that economy Source: GEM Adult Population Survey 2023
% of TEA
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Ecuador Guatemala India Brazil Colombia Morocco Iran Venezuela China Mexico Jordan Thailand South Africa Poland Uruguay Chile Lithuania Oman Panama Romania Hungary Slovak Republic Puerto Rico Israel Spain Greece Cyprus Croatia Latvia Estonia Republic of Korea Saudi Arabia Italy Qatar Norway France Netherlands United States United Kingdom Switzerland Sweden Canada Germany Slovenia Luxembourg
Level B
Level C Level A
UN SDG #17 is about strengthening the means of
implementation and revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development. It is encouraging that many new entrepreneurs have identified SDGs as a priority.
As entrepreneurs become more aware of and connect their businesses to an SDG, they are better positioned to support this goal.
SDG FOCUS . . .
5.6 ARE NEW STARTUPS FOCUSED ON THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDG S )?
Since 2021, the GEM APS has asked those starting or running new businesses if they have identified any of the SDGs as a priority for their business.
This question is optional for National Teams.
In 2023, 33 of the National Teams participating in the GEM APS asked this question, and the percentage of new entrepreneurs confirming that they had identified a SDG as a priority is shown in Figure 5.7.
In 2023, the lowest levels were in the Republic of Korea, Estonia and Colombia (each around three in 10, and all separated by around 10 percentage points from the next lowest), while the highest levels were in South Africa, China, Thailand, Canada, Lithuania and Mexico (each seven in 10 or more). So, there is no discernible association between the proportion of new entrepreneurs identifying SDG goals as a priority and either income level or geographic region,
since high and low levels can be found in all income groups and all regions. However, there is strong evidence that many new entrepreneurs have identified an SDG as a priority, with the proportion doing so exceeding one in two in 25 of the 33 economies.
This question has been asked since 2021.
However, the evidence is inconclusive about whether the proportion of new entrepreneurs with SDGs as a priority is increasing or not. There are 21 economies whose National Teams have asked this question in the GEM APS in each of the three years. Over this period, in 12 economies the proportion increased but in nine it fell. Many of these changes were very small, with the largest increases in the Slovak Republic (up from 43% to 66%) and in South Africa (64% to 81%), while the largest falls were in Colombia (83% to 31%) and in Greece (85% to 54%).
FIGURE 5.7 The percentage of those starting or running new businesses in each economy who have identified a Sustainable Development Goal as a priority for that business Source: GEM Adult Population Survey 2023
% of TEA
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Colombia Ecuador Morocco Jordan India Mexico Thailand China South Africa Estonia Israel Latvia Chile Greece Hungary Uruguay Spain Croatia Poland Romania Slovak Republic Cyprus Lithuania Republic of Korea France Norway Slovenia Switzerland Italy Netherlands Luxembourg Qatar Canada
Level B
Level C Level A