Across Latin America, and particularly in Ecuador, entrepreneurship is often presented as an almost automatic response to unemployment, discrimination or limited social mobility.

The message sounds empowering: if no one hires you, start your own business. If the system excludes you, build something of your own. If the market closes a door, create another one.

But that narrative has limits.

A business does not survive on hope. It survives on sales, customers, visibility, cash flow, reputation and access.

Many people launch businesses and still remain trapped in precarious conditions: they produce, overwork, sell too little, fund everything themselves and depend on occasional buyers or people already within their personal networks.

That does not mean entrepreneurship is pointless. It means that without market access, entrepreneurship can become another form of vulnerability.

01 · THREE ASSUMPTIONS WE NEED TO LEAVE BEHIND

Not everything that looks like economic inclusion actually is

That is why the more serious conversation should not be limited to how many businesses are created, but how many of them become viable and credible market options.

Explore the work of the Institute for Inclusive Economy and Development — IEDI →

02 · THE STRATEGIC MISTAKE

We celebrate the beginning too much and think too little about what comes next

There is something deeply appealing about the idea of “becoming an entrepreneur.” It has drama. It has a success narrative. It photographs well. It fits perfectly into motivational speeches.

But sustainability is less glamorous. It requires structure, organization, commercial strategy, partnerships, formalization and reliable channels through which customers can discover a business.

In other words, it requires a system.

That means economic inclusion cannot stop at encouraging people to start businesses. It must also help them become visible, more professional and better connected to the market.

03 · THE OPPORTUNITY

A marketplace will not solve everything. But it can solve something decisive: invisibility

Today, many entrepreneurs depend on an unstable mix of social media posts, WhatsApp messages, personal referrals and content that disappears from view within hours.

That model is fragile. It was not designed to build long-term commercial positioning.

In that context, a digital showcase such as Marketplace Emprende y Provee has strategic value: it organizes supply, improves discoverability and allows a business to exist publicly within a recognizable commercial ecosystem.

And for a small business currently buried beneath a stream of short-lived posts, that difference can be significant.

04 · THE ECUADORIAN CONTEXT

Competing today also means being visible online

According to Ecuador’s National Institute of Statistics and Census — INEC — the country registered more than 1.2 million active businesses in 2025. The same institution reported that 80.1% of people aged five and older used the internet.

The conclusion is straightforward:

That is why I do not believe it is an exaggeration to say that commercial visibility has become part of the basic infrastructure any small business needs if it wants to grow.

05 · MY POSITION

Economic inclusion must move beyond assistance and toward competitiveness

LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants, people with disabilities, Afro-Ecuadorians, Indigenous peoples and other historically excluded communities should not be viewed only as beneficiaries.

They can also be business owners, service providers, professionals, employers and suppliers.

That, in my view, is the more mature conversation we need to have when discussing entrepreneurship, inclusion and economic development.