Endeavor’s Journey: From Fragmented Knowledge to Single Source of Truth

Endeavor is the leading global community of, by, and for High-Impact Entrepreneurs. Operating in 45 markets worldwide with a staff of over 600, Endeavor inspires high-growth entrepreneurs to dream bigger by supporting and investing in them to scale faster and providing a platform to pay it forward. Endeavor calls this the Endeavor Multiplier Effect.

However, managing knowledge across such a vast and dynamic organization presented significant challenges. In this case study, we explore how Endeavor leveraged Dashworks, an AI-powered knowledge management and enterprise search platform, to overcome these challenges, streamline workflows, and scale their knowledge management efforts.

Fragmented Knowledge and Workflows

Endeavor's knowledge management challenges were multifaceted, stemming from the complexity of its global operations and the diversity of its data sources. Enrico Robles Del Rio, Director of Data Analytics and Platform at Endeavor Global, outlined the primary hurdles:

1. Fragmented Data Across Platforms: Endeavor's data was scattered across multiple platforms, including:

• Slack
• Salesforce
• Notion
• Dropbox
• Asana
• Google Drive
• Gmail
• Google Calendar
• MS Teams
• HubSpot
• GitHub
• Websites

This fragmentation made it difficult to access and integrate information effectively.

“Previously, we faced a fragmented data collection and storage method. Our data was spread across many platforms, and data taxonomy and quality were consistent challenges,” Enrico explained.

2. Time-Consuming Workflows: Over two decades, Endeavor had built a heavily customized CRM-centric system in Salesforce. While this system supported their processes, it also created technical debt and overly complex workflows.

“We developed a database inside Salesforce, but it was a limitation because we customized it so much that it prevented us from evolving with our workflows. Users had to visit multiple screens and custom objects just to input a single data point,” Enrico shared.

3. Tribal Knowledge and Turnover: With an average employee tenure of 2.5 to 3 years, much of Endeavor's institutional knowledge resided in employees' heads or unstructured formats like emails and spreadsheets. This "tribal knowledge" was challenging to capture and share

“People learned a lot and developed essential knowledge, but that knowledge is tribal knowledge. It lives in people's heads, but we don't have a good way to store it.” Enrico noted.

Dashworks as a Single Source of Truth

To address these challenges, Endeavor implemented Dashworks as their knowledge management and enterprise search solution. Dashworks provided a centralized platform to integrate structured and unstructured data, streamline workflows, and improve collaboration.

1. Unified Knowledge Repository: Dashworks served as a single source of truth, integrating data from various internal platforms.
   

“Dashworks complements our data ecosystem. It brings structured and unstructured data together in one place, making knowledge accessible and reducing barriers,” Enrico explained.

2. AI-Powered Search and Automation: Dashworks enabled Endeavor's teams to quickly find relevant information, reducing time spent on manual searches and repetitive tasks.
   

“For example, our team spends a lot of time researching the industry landscape of companies during the selection process. With Dashworks, we created a workflow that generates a first draft of an industry highlight in seconds, saving 90% of the time,” Enrico shared.

3. Slack Integration and Bots: Dashworks' Slackbot streamlined user support by providing instant answers to frequently asked questions, reducing the platform team's support bandwidth by 50%.
   

“Now, with bots and effective guidelines, Dashworks points users in the right direction, avoiding repetitive questions and saving time,” Enrico said.

4. Cross-Referencing Internal and External Knowledge: Dashworks allowed Endeavor to combine internal data with external web search results, enhancing decision-making and due diligence processes.
   

“Dashworks brings the best of both worlds—internal and external knowledge. This is critical for activities like finding the right mentor match for entrepreneurs,” Enrico noted.

Transforming Knowledge Management at Scale

Since implementing Dashworks, Endeavor has seen significant improvements in its knowledge management processes and team productivity:

1. Time Savings: Dashworks has drastically reduced the time required for meeting preparation, industry research, and contract comparisons.
   

“Dashworks will save you 90-95% of your work for industry analysis tasks. The rest is human judgment and human input, which they need to review the resources. I also used to spend hours comparing contracts for budgeting. With Dashworks, I can simply ask it to find and compare the documents for me, saving me countless hours.” Enrico shared.

2. Improved Collaboration and Decision-Making: By centralizing knowledge and making it easily accessible, Dashworks has enhanced collaboration across Endeavor's global teams.
   

“Dashworks helps us create better meeting notes, summaries, and transcriptions, which we share with entrepreneurs to ensure knowledge transfer,” Enrico explained.

3. Scalable Knowledge Management: Dashworks has enabled Endeavor to scale its knowledge management efforts, turning unstructured data into actionable insights.
   

“We onboarded 300 staff members into Affinity and brought almost a million emails into Dashworks. This unstructured data is now being used to map our impact and influence with entrepreneurs,” Enrico shared.

Dashworks' intuitive interface and powerful search capabilities have driven organic adoption among Endeavor's teams.

“The key is to share clear use cases with the team - once they see the benefits, adoption takes off,” Enrico said.

The Future of Knowledge Management at Endeavor

Endeavor's journey with Dashworks demonstrates the transformative potential of AI-powered knowledge management. By addressing fragmented data, technical debt, and tribal knowledge, Dashworks has empowered Endeavor to scale its operations, enhance collaboration, and focus on its mission of supporting high-impact entrepreneurs.

Endeavor plans to further expand its use of Dashworks by integrating it with Snowflake and exploring additional use cases, such as leveraging Dashworks' API to power their mentor matching experience.

For organizations looking to improve their knowledge management and enterprise search capabilities, Endeavor's experience offers valuable lessons:

1. Integrate Structured and Unstructured Data: A unified platform like Dashworks can break down silos and make knowledge accessible across teams.
2. Leverage AI for Efficiency: Automating repetitive tasks and enabling powerful search capabilities can save significant time and resources.
3. Focus on User Adoption: Training users with real examples and workflows is critical to unlocking the full potential of AI-powered tools.

As Enrico concludes, “The possibilities and use cases with a platform like Dashworks are truly endless.”