The Immigrant Entrepreneur: Recent Episodes
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Filip Valicia develops products for underwater robots and many other applications. He has also painstakingly laid out the process for you to develop your product. You can see this process at his website, The Product Startup. He also helps those crowdfunding a product – which is how I discovered his service.
Filip escaped from communist Czechoslovakia, with his mother, when he was six years old.
His fate, as a product developer guru was set into motion, when he was in a Greek refugee camp. One day, he found a discarded toy truck, with a missing back axle. He found … More
The post 060 How to Build a Product – Filip Valicia from Czechoslovakia appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Poverty is a hard place to be. Many of us, perhaps most of us, as we started out in life, lived for years one paycheck away from poverty, with no savings. Yet people do rise out of poverty each day.
According to one my interviewees, poverty is big business. Apparently the various levels of government spend over 900 billion dollars every year, to pay for the food, housing, medical care, and other expenses for the poor. Yet the number of poor is not declining. In 2003 there were 23 million on food stamps and in 2012 there were 46 million … More
The post 059 How Do Immigrant Entrepreneurs Learn? appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Chiara Cokieng is a young entrepreneur and copy-writer, in the Philippines who thinks a lot.
She told me she wanted to be an entrepreneur many years before she could spell it.
She lifted herself up above her environment in two ways – she became a champion free style wrestler, and she began entering math competitions starting locally and then going international. She also wrote at quite a young age, a 100 page sales letter for her first employer, to find out if through a mix of storytelling, empathizing, and reason-why copy-writing, they could double their monthly recurring revenue. They did.… More
The post 058 How to Think Like a Philippine Free-Style Wrestler / Entrepreneur – Chiara Cokieng appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Eric Siu, my guest today, practices patience like a marathon runner. Patience is simply an understanding that there are laws of nature at work.
Patience is not an excuse to stop working. Quite the opposite, patience pushes you to not give up, when you don’t see immediate results.
This is so valuable for aspiring entrepreneurs and immigrants to add to their understanding of an active patience, a proactive patience, so to speak.
Eric Siu produces a seemingly nonstop stream of content. So as I record this introduction, on October 12, 2016, at his Twitter account https://twitter.com/ericosiu he published 30 substantial … More
The post 057 Patience – While Moving at the Speed of Eric Siu appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Immigrant refugees appear every day. A dictator claims more power, an invasion occurs, discrimination grows. Nations that could do something, do nothing.
Some of the people in those countries decide to take their chances on a new land. When they arrive in that new land, some of them are welcome, some are unwelcome, but mostly they are ignored, left to their own devices – that is to say, they must start making a new foundation, and quickly, where they are.
This episode is dedicated to two refugees among the 120,000 Venezuelans who fled to their neighboring country of Colombia, South … More
The post 056 How to Start Where You Are – Advice from Amel, Steli, Jose and Garyvee appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs often spend hours each day working in their home office. Why not enjoy better interior design and make it a positive place! Especially if the design fee is a low, fixed price!
Jaime Gonzalez and his online interior design company, The Man Home (Listen for his discount for you, toward the end of this podcast!) may be able to help you. Their target market fits the straight-forward business model and pricing: single guys who can use ‘a little help’ in how their apartment looks and feels. (That would probably be about 100% of single guys).
The service … More
The post 055 Interior Design Can Change Your Life . Jaime Gonzalez . The Man Home appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
In America today, many feel that the country is losing its unity and falling into discord. Over the past 18 months, I have undertaken a podcast and project called The Immigrant Entrepreneur, that explores how immigrants create 27% of new businesses, despite accounting for only 13% of the population. That includes a lot of dry cleaners, but also firms like Intel, PayPal, SpaceX, eBay, Google, Nordstrom, DuPont and WeWork. After interviewing over 50 immigrant entrepreneurs from 38 countries, I’ve come to believe that, in these divided times, immigrants remind us of what is grand about this country and the people … More
The post Looking at America Through Immigrants’ Eyes appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Welcome IMMIGRANT ENTREPRENEUR listeners to this bonus episode. Over the last year I have published podcasts every other Thursday. Because the number of listeners has increased, I’m considering to publish weekly. In the meantime, please enjoy these bonus episodes.
I have interviewed one hundred successful business people – some for this podcast and some for magazines. Some run major corporations – last month I interviewed a female CEO of a company with 90,000 employees – while others work solo.
I wanted to talk about what these successful people have in common. You might think in a podcast about immigrant entrepreneurs, … More
The post 054 How To Get Lucky! (Hat Tip to Howard Marks) – Bonus episode appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Jonathan Moyal cofounded Oliver.ai, to reduce the cost and stress for those applying for a visa to the United States, a problem many of their friends had faced. They promote themselves as The easiest and most secure way to get your visa for the United States.
Jonathan’s ancestry is so global, Moroccan, Jewish, French, American, with a Spanish last name, that he can have empathy for almost any tourist, student, or immigrant trying to navigate the visa system.
Their service is combination of software – which checks the applicants’ paperwork for errors or potential problems – and personal … More
The post 053 Reducing the Cost of Visas – Jonathan Moyal of Oliver.ai appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
See Episdoe 50 for my interivew in English with Moises Annicchiarico
Also see translation of this episode in the transcript below.
Moises Annicchiarico es el CEO y co-fundador de el popular Teachlr punto com, una comunidad, de cursos online, y clases en vivo online, y mucho más. Está creciendo mucho, y está ayudando a tanta gente alrededor del mundo. Tambien tiene plataforma para companies y universades.
Algunos destacados de la entrevista En Teachlr.com
Teachlr.com es un mercado de conocimiento. Es un lugar donde cualquier persona que tenga alguna idea de algún conocimiento del cual se sienta experto y pueda compartirlo … More
The post 052 Bonus! TEACHLR – Enseñanza De Aquellos Que Quieren Aprender En Línea – Moises Annicchiarico appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Sasibai Kimis has a good heart, lots of courage, and a wonderful laugh. Perhaps those are the ingredients to make one adaptable, which is Sasi’s secret power.
I asked her about her greatest skill that she could offer to listeners:
“I would say that I think my greatest skill that I’ve built over the years is adaptability. I remember telling an employer once: ‘You can pick me up and drop me off anywhere you want around the world, and I’ll find my way.’ As long as you are smart, street smart, and you’re not afraid, you can try to make … More
The post 051 You Can Pick Me Up and Drop Me Off Anywhere in The World – Sasibai Kimis of Earth Heir appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Sometimes I wonder, what about those talented entrepreneurs who stay in their emerging-market country? In this episode we meet an entrepreneur in Venezuela, an emerging market – and one of the most challenging places to live and work today.
Moises Annicchiarico, co-founder of Teachlr.com, has visited America and other countries, but is proud to have started and grown Teachlr in Caracas, Venezuela. In this episode he shares his business and talks about some of the advantages and struggles of starting a company in a challenging environment.
Moises and his cofounder Ruben Benarroch, created Teachlr.com, in order to teach … More
The post 050 TEACHLR – Teaching Those Who Want to Learn in Latin America appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Welcome to The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
This is a bonus episode. Two days ago we were listed #4 on iTunes New and Noteworthy, and #16 in the business category of PodcastChart.com. I want to give you new listeners a flavor of The Immigrant Entrepreneur by sharing snips of several awesome episodes.
A flavor of what makes immigrant entrepreneurs overcome all obstacles to create 1/3 of Silicon Valley startups, 27% of all business in this country. What is the immigrant story behind Gary Vaynerchuk working in the back of his dad’s liquor store when he was 14? What allowed Due Quach to … More
The post 049 BONUS EPISODE – Snips from Gary Vaynerchuk, Hiten Shah & Due Quach – To Introduce The Immigrant Entrepreneur appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Why is it important that you do the work you have chosen to do, and not someone else? How can you break through to the next level? How do you get out of your own way? How do you overcome negative self-talk? Emily Filloramo lives to help her clients answers these questions.
Emily shares about the the decision to become an entrepreneur. After a successful 27-year career at Pfizer, Inc., one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, she simply decided to do what she loved.
That is not what happened! Emily was laid off in October, 2011. She panicked, for … More
The post 048 How to Be the Person You Dreamed of Becoming! Emily Filloramo! appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Sheila Pakdaman, demonstrates that the power of gratitude is in paying attention to the details, paying attention to the nuances of the stories that surround you, from your parents, from the sacrifices others have made, to the needs of others. She demonstrates that gratitude is about being fully alive.
Sheila was educated in global medicine and biology and has published research on health issues, from the Masai in Kenya to chemical addictions in Los Angeles. But in the course of her research, she discovered another need, for people to lift themselves up through education.
She founded iTutorU, LLC, https://www.itutoru.org… More
The post 047 “It Kind of Breaks My Heart” – Sheila Pakdaman appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
As an immigrant entrepreneur, who founded a successful digital marketing agency, Alexander Kesler gives back many ways
One way is to uplift his 25 Romanian employees who are on rotation to work with his 25 Boston employees at his digital marketing agency – They say that their lives are changed forever.
Regular listeners know that this podcast seeks to “encourage entrepreneurship in emerging markets”. I regularly ask guests for their input on how to accomplish that. A pragmatic answer I receive is: ‘Yes, in developing countries, there is corruption and red tape, but what can be done right now is … More
The post 046 How to Measure Your Customer’s Success – Alexander Kesler appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Dennis Mendiola loves to build bridges.
Tens of millions of bridges.
- Between Filipinos overseas and at home
- Between computers and mobile phones
- Bridging online users and offline mobile subscribers
- Between those wanting to share prepaid credits
In the year 2000, he co-founded Chikka Text Messenger, a messaging app used by tens of millions throughout the world.
The instant messaging application supports free SMS or text messaging between online users and offline mobile subscribers.
It was the world’s first commercially successful integration of web and mobile utilities. Dennis filed a number of technology patents, (he says probably the most infringed-upon … More
The post 045 Making Internet Available 24/7 in the Philippines – Dennis Mendiola appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
You can really do what you choose to do, Allen Vaysberg teaches, if you put your mind to it. The way to do it is to look at other people’s examples. Allen speaks simple, profound words. For example: “In order for you to love what you do, you have to understand who you are. Once you understand who you are and what you are passionate about, then you must become an expert in it. Once you become an expert then you make that your profession and you start creating products and services that help other people. Over time that becomes … More
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Indiegogo.com is the 722nd most visited website in the America, and one of the most visited websites in the world.
Because Indiegogo gives possibility to peoples’ dreams.
There are over 300,000 campaigns on Indiegogo as we speak. They send millions of dollars each week to over 100 countries.
People, like you, ask others to financially support their passion, their project, or even to help someone suffering from illness.
Recently 2,500 people raised money for Syrian refugees.
There are three types of projects on Indiegogo. Entrepreneurial Projects:
Like Flow Hive which raised over $12 million to fund a way to … More
The post 043 Empowering You and the World through Crowdfunding – Indiegogo appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Journalist, Kevin Ferguson, recalls the Irish community in the Catskill Mountains of New York, where he spent his summers.
He recalls: “You felt safe as a child because no one was watching you, but everyone was watching you. You ate at large family style tables. There was social dancing every night with all ages joining in. A very welcome, nurturing environment.
Kevin’s documentary, Dancing at the Crossroads tells the story of the heyday of Irish immigrants 1950s and 60s, when 40 Irish resorts covered the Catskills. He hopes something of that legacy can endure.
There are some useful practical Irish … More
The post 042 The Story Is No More Important Than The Storyteller appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Radio is a $45 billion per year industry, I didn’t know that. Francesco Baschieri created Spreaker to allow new entrants into this huge market – such as podcasters, and creators of radio shows – to present their content more professionally. Clear Channel, possibly the world’s largest radio programmer with 245 million listeners, partnered with Spreaker in 2013. They valued Spreaker’s web and mobile broadcasting tools allowing audio creators to connect and stay connected with their fans through live broadcasts. Also Spreaker’s content creators can have their shows promoted alongside Clear Channel (now IheartRadio) most popular talk shows.
In this … More
The post 041 Running a US Company (Spreaker) from Italy appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Pat Flynn of The Smart Passive Income leads. People follow him. People listen to him. Millions of people. He’s not a politician, movie star, or news anchor. He’s like you or me. Maybe a little funnier. And paradoxically maybe a little more sincere. Six years ago in the 2009 recession, he was laid off as a senior draftsman in an architectural firm. He looked for a job, could not find one, then using only what he knew, and created a successful online business.
Very successful, he makes over $100,000 per month through his podcasting, blog, and other online endeavors.
After … More
The post 040 Pat Flynn – Be Yourself – Serve Others – Filipino Style! appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Welcome listeners to Part 2 of my interview with Brett Gajda who is master of ceremonies of the show called: “Where There’s Smoke”. The title of this episode is: Wherever You Are, You Can Get Where You’re Going – that is a message of courage – and in Part 1 (Episode 035) we talked about courage – the courage to create something from nothing.
The first story of courage was about a man named Frantischek in who gave his life to create freedom for others as the borders of Czechoslovakia were closing in 1950. The second was about … More
The post 039 Wherever You Are, You Can Get Where You’re Going – Brett Gajda #2 appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Randy Rayess lives in New York City. He attended the Wharton engineering program and loves technology. He co-founded VenturePact, a platform for companies to find, connect, scope, and engage software development teams. Their teams are trusted by General Electric, Honda, Bosch, Coca Cola, and other prominent brands. In this episode of the Immigrant Entrepreneur, we take time to discuss the two perspectives of clients and outsourced development teams, and how they can best work together. Randy explains how they gained their first customer, his specialty of enhancing the communication between clients and developers from the very beginning.
If you … More
The post 038 How to Make Outsourcing Work – Randy Rayess of Venture Pact appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Before Hiten Shah became known as a powerhouse entrepreneur
Before he began investing in 23 companies,
Before he launched The Start Up Chat with his friend Steli Efti
Before he started speaking at conferences, and advising startups and corporations on how to grow.
Before he co-founded two successful software companies with Neil Patel: Kissmetrics, in 2008, an easy to use, insightful web analytics package that measures what matters (and has grown to 70 employees today) and Crazy Egg in 2005, which gives you X-ray glasses to see what people are doing on your website.
Before he attended UC … More
The post 037 Hiten Shah – Help Other People Be Better appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
When I sat down next to Hani Mourra, on the bus leaving the conference, I thought, “Maybe I’ll take a nap”. This person looked so relaxed, so calm!
Since then, through conversations and this interview on The Immigrant Entrepreneur, I discovered within his calmness, and perhaps a source of his calmness is his confidence – to move through his many ups and downs. Think of it like this, you go up, you go down, but if you were to draw a straight line through those ups and downs, it’s heading up.
Hani’s family were immigrants to Kuwait when it was … More
The post 036 Pick a Problem – Try to Solve it – Hani Mourra appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
This courage, where does it come from? And acted upon where does it go? The courage to try, the courage to express, the courage to create. To create something from nothing.
This episode of the Immigrant Entrepreneur provides no business tips, no startup techniques, and the only reason you should listen to it is if you are facing a choice, one of many choices someone makes on the path of becoming a hero. It won’t look like heroism. It will look like a difficult thing that needs doing, maybe without others knowing, maybe in a dark period of your country, … More
The post 035 Courage and Creativity: Brett Gajda – Where There’s Smoke appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Two years ago, Vasily Malyshev founded Messapps, a top-rated application development company located in New York, which has built 28 mobile apps for clients world-wide. In addition, Vasily is among the few to have earned dual legal qualifications of Juris Doctor in the USA and Jurist in Russia.
When you meet Vasily, you do not readily observe his concentration and resolve. He grew up in Moscow, in a family of doctors and scientists dedicated to help other people. In Russia, practicing medicine has been one of the lower paid professions, especially during the 1990s – See NY Times Article… More
The post 034 When Something Goes Wrong – Always Blame Yourself – Vasily Malyshev appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Are you stuck? Does it look like there is no way out? Are obstacles too big? Are your competitors winning? Know that others have been in your situation. And know that people like Kaihan Krippendorff of OUTTHINKER, have thought long to create a process to get you or your company unstuck. His specific process involves using your imagination, looking where others are not looking, dissecting the details.
While Kaihan and his team work primarily with corporations, he has written extensively on the subject since 2004. His current book is OUTTHINK THE COMPETION, with OUTTHINK FLASH CARDS so you … More
The post 033: Are You Stuck? Listen to Entrepreneur Kaihan Krippendorff appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Gary Vaynerchuk doesn’t’ want to see my interview questions before-hand. First, he doesn’t have a second more than the 20 minutes he’s allocated for the interview. His company, VaynerMedia, a social-first digital shop, grew 79% from 2013 to $40 million in 2014 revenues. Employees now number 500, and he just opened a fourth office, in Chattanooga, Tennessee breaking the flyover trend of most media agencies. This is in addition to his first company, WineLibrary.com, his investment fund, Vayner/RSE, and most importantly, his family!
Second, Gary loves not knowing what he’s going to be asked, thrives on jumping … More
The post 032 Gary Vaynerchuk – Round 2 – Climbing through Paradoxes appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Andres Blank es super inteligente. Después de completar uno grado en ingeniería industrial de la Universidad Católica Andrés, en Caracas, Andrés fundó una empresa maderera éxito.
Entonces a la edad de 24, con Venezuela cayendo a pedazos y la escalada del crimen, decidió asistir a la escuela de posgrado en el extranjero. El Sloan School of Management del Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) lo aceptó en su programa MBA, donde pronto comenzó a crear una aplicación llamada Pixable. Andrés y sus dos co-fundadores trabajaron como locos durante más de un año, ganaron los grandes inversores, y fue capaz de … More
The post 031 De Venezuela a MIT Para Crear un App de $26 Millones – Andres Blank appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Parviz Parvizi co-founded CLAMMR, a mobile app where you can listen to 18 second samples of published audio content, Think: what Twitter did for text — what Instagram did for photos. CLAMMR is truly a tech innovation. For content creators – you can now highlight key points from your audio, and distribute them to multiple channels. For example: it is easy to create a ‘widget’ which can be posted in many places – then when that widget button is pressed, it streams all of your CLAMMR clips. Parviz explains all this during the interview, and gives resources such as:… More
The post 030 Audio Twitter? Audio Instagram? – Parviz Parvizi founder of CLAMMR appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
If you want to build, launch, and market profitable software as a service (SAAS)? Then listen to
Omer Khan, founder of ConversionAid. Omer interviews software entrepreneurs, asking step by step how they work, and then teaches insights and tactics to his audience. He also builds his own SAAS product, and shares that journey.
I’ve listened to a number of his interviews two or three times, because they are packed with value.
Omer was born in Pakistan, and raised all over Britain, as his father pursued an ascending career in banking. Omer came to the U.S. to Microsoft where for … More
The post 029 Successful SAAS – Omer Khan Learning, Teaching, Building SAAS Products – on ConversionAid appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Games are big business. Not only the NBA, NFL, or NHL. And not only with the video game industry. Games are used in business.
It’s called gamification, bringing game elements into solving problems and engaging people, in large and small companies.
3 elements are:
- Feedback: showing progress – “you meditated 10 days in a row”. “you have 10,000 miles”.
- Friends: a social network for co-workers to share their progress.
- Fun: how we make something interesting.
Gabe Zichermann is CEO of Gamification.CO, CEO of Dopamine, and Co-Director of the New York City Chapter of the Founder Institute, and … More
The post 028 Gamify Your Business – with Gabe Zichermann appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Mercy Kay Nthiga likes to say, that growing up in Kenya, she followed all of the shoulds. She did everything she should do. Studied hard in primary school, passed the 8th grade exams, that allow a small % of Kenyans to continue to secondary school, became one of the 5% that graduated secondary school to attend university. Completing university put her in the top few percent of Kenyans. For all that, facing 60% unemployment, it still took her one year to find work. When she did, her paychecks weren’t paychecks, the pay clerk would reach into a petty cash bag … More
The post 027 Mercy Nthiga – Kenya – Educating a Continent appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Think of growing up in a warzone. Now think about growing up in three war zones.
Amel Derragui, grew up in India, then Algeria, then Serbia, and then Uganda. Three of those nations faced their most difficult years while she studied, learn more languages, had fun with friends, and survived!
Since then, Amel has lived in France, Austria, and finally the best (but probably not last) New York!
Her company is called BLINKandC, and it has had to fit in her suitcase! But now she’s taking it out.
With BLINKandC, Amel helps small and medium companies to attract customers, … More
The post 026 – Share more than what you sell – Amel Derragui – #1 appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Hi Everyone,
I’m trailing, following, and investigating, curious to understand this American phenomenon called the immigrant entrepreneur
Thank you for joining me on this journey, this podcast.
Normally when people write a book, broadcast a podcast, there is an introduction, to explain what is the purpose, what is the thinking behind.
I held back because I wanted the entrepreneurs to speak for themselves.
I did not have clear answers.
After 24 interviews with entrepreneurs from 21 different countries, I at least am beginning to understand the right questions to ask.
Before I started I knew only the facts – that … More
The post 025 Why I’m Pursuing The Immigrant Entrepreneur Podcast appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Do you know why people in Iceland follow the Golden Rule? Or that Iceland received its independence in 1944? Or which letter Icelanders cannot pronounce? Or why Anna Zerin immigrated from Iceland to LA, the Southern California metropolis? Okay, I’ll tell you that one – She came to change the world! To dance, to form a band, to discover her dream! And yes she accomplished all three.
Anna is co-founder and CEO of Entertainment Drive Thru, where she interviews your favorite musicians, entertainers and has a lot of fun doing it. But in this interview, Anna shares her story … More
The post 024 Musicians Are Entrepreneurs – From Iceland to L.A. appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Enjoy my first interview in Spanish, with Jose Prendes. Please see episode 10 for my interview in English with Jose.
Esta es mi primero entrevista en español (que no es perfecto J). Entonces, el nombre de este podcast The Immigrant Entrepreneur, expande a El Inmigrante Emprendedor. En el futuro, voy a entrevistar en Español, Andres Blank, desde en Venezuela, (episodio 20) Edrizio de la Cruz desde La República Dominicana (episodio 12), Pablo Osinaga desde Argentina (episodio 6), y otros
Jose salió de Cuba como un joven, con su madre y hermana, a Ecuador. No sabía si su padre pudiera … More
The post 023 La Creación de una Empresa en $40M Después del Huracán – Jose Prendes appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
This interview – Part 2 with Steli Efti – can change your life.
Sometimes, if you didn’t finish college or didn’t finish high school, like our returning guest, Steli Efti, you are intellectually – more hungry, you are more humble, more curious, more vulnerable. You don’t think that you know it all. And if somebody rejects you – you may feel negative for a while, but if the God of intellectual humility is with you, you might be lucky enough to say…. I need to learn more, study harder, ask more questions to others, and try again. If you have … More
The post 022 How to Become Consistent – Steli Efti #2 appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
This is the story of a young man, who had already been an immigrant within Europe, who came to Silicon Valley, to America, and taught them how to sell.
You’re thinking – really? Silicon Valley – where the smartest minds in the world create, grow companies like Hewlett Packard, Cisco, Oracle, Apple, Google, and Intel?
America. The land of the most brilliant sales minds in history: Dale Carnegie, Zig Ziglar, Mary Kay, David Ogilvy, and Ron Popeil?
What did Silicon Valley have to learn about sales, from this young Greek-German, whose father died when he was six year’s old, and … More
The post 021 How to Find Your Unfair Advantage in Silicon Valley – Steli Efti appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Andres Blank is super smart. After completing a degree in industrial engineering at the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, in Caracas, Andres founded a successful lumber company. Then at the age of 24, with Venezuela falling apart and crime escalating, he decided to attend graduate school overseas. The Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) accepted him into their MBA program, where he soon began to create an app called Pixable. (You have to see the page with the cute bunnies!). Andres and his two co-founders worked like madmen for over a year, gained major … More
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Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO and Co-Founder of Vaynermedia is a fighter. You knew that.
He hustles. You knew that too.
In preparing for this interview I look into the story behind the story behind the story – even if I don’t bring it up during the interview. So, Try to Imagine – if your country lost 1/3 of its population during the Second World War.
Imagine if your part of the country was where most of that 1/3 had lived.
And that your country lost ½ of its economic resources.
And your family survived.
And later moved to America
And you … More
The post 019 Gary Vaynerchuk – To Be Great You Have to Fight appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Michael Sliwinski is humble. You can tell by his voice. And determined – you can tell by his actions. And successful. That would be the 300,000 users of his productivity software, Nozbe.
Nozbe, which Michael created after being inspired by David Allen’s Getting Things Done, does help you be more productive
He created Nozbe by testing it on himself and other software consultants like him, made improvements and so on. Nozbe has a free version which my editor happens to use, a $100 per year version that I use, and more.
Michael is an immigrant from Poland to Spain … More
The post 018 – Nozbe – Founder solved his own productivity problem, shared it and WOW! appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Taro Fukuyama, came from Japan with a suitcase and a belief that the streets were lined with investors. He also believed it would be easy to get a visa. Neither of course are true, but with persistence he got both. Taro co-founded and is CEO of AnyPerk, a fast growing provider of pre-negotiated perks to over 2,500 companies. After reading about Taro in Fast Company Magazine’s “7 People Under 30 Who Are Changing Our World”, I set out to meet him. I discovered that Taro while he has achieved so much, has not fulfilled the other reason he came … More
The post 017 – Ichiro! Taro Fukuyama, Co-founder of AnyPerk – Wants to Meet You! appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Neil Patel creates content which is consumed, everywhere. Take a look at the Alexa rating for his blog, which you want to read by the way, Quicksprout. Wall Street Journal calls Neil a top influencer and Entrepreneur Magazine says he founded one of the 100 most brilliant companies, KISSmetrics (or was it Crazy Egg or Hello Bar). Dhaval Patel drives marketing at Kissmetrics and has his own digital marketing company, Do Good SEO.
Neil and Dhaval have been friends since they can remember. They grew up almost next door to each other, in Indian households, with lots … More
The post 016 – Neil Patel, Dhaval Patel – Two Friends – Quicksprout – KISSmetrics & more appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
1. Take Responsibility America’s greatest songwriter’ Irving Berlin, celebrated as ‘America’s greatest songwriter’, wrote 1600 songs, including the including many of the standbys for Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Fred Astaire. But his beginnings did not guarantee any type of success.
Born Israel Beilin in Belarus (country between Poland and Russia), he saw the Cossacks burn down his village, back in his home country. They lived in a little windowless basement in New York, until his father died at the age of 13, when he left home, because he felt that he was too much of a … More
The post Five Lessons for Entrepreneurs – from Irving Berlin appeared first on The Immigrant Entrepreneur.
Who wrote: Somewhere Over the Rainbow, God Bless America, West Side Story, and
most of our Christmas songs? The Scots? Brits from London? Germans from Bavaria? Those would have been my first three guesses.
After singing in the shower one day, I began to research the composers of individual songs.
And discovered that the most of them were written by Russian Jewish immigrants escaping persecution in their homeland. From the songs in the Wizard of Oz, to God Bless America, to Chestnuts Roasting on An Open Fire, to Annie Get Your Gun; many of the … More
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Daphne Mallory, Esq., is passionate to support family companies. Because they support their communities. Because it’s not about you, it’s about your tribe.
Daphne is an Entrepreneur Magazine contributor, media personality, trainer and family business expert. Born in Liberia, Daphne was sent to London by her family at the age of eight. Weeks before Liberia’s traumatic civil war, she was the only one who they could get a visa to exit the country. From that early age she knew that she was the first one out to the land of gold and that she was expected to pave the path … More
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The Immigrant Entrepreneur is sponsoring a writing contest for youth in the Philippines, in conjunctions with Kendii.
Carmen Feliciano, the founder of Kendii, grew up in a small town, on a small southern island of the Philippines.
You can hear Carmen tell her story here; she tells how books helped her bring her mind far beyond her circumstances.
How she was able to attend university in Manila, join a tech start-up, and then come to America to attend the #1 rated Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
And how she began Kendii, while at Wharton, … More
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I love listening to Dr. Pei’s voice in this podcast. You will too. Her calmness, politeness, kindness is visceral
Dr. Pei is a testimony to the resilience and lightness of the human spirit. She grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution, when the Four Olds (customs, cultures, habits, and ideas) were swept away and mass migrations were enforced. Yet Dr. Pei shares fond memories of a simpler time, of family members supporting each other, quaint street vendors, and playing with childhood friends in their bustling metropolis. An excellent student, Dr. Pei came to the U.S. to pursue her PhD … More
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Alexis de Tocqueville visited America in 1831, to research why America’s prison system worked better than the French system, in terms of rehabilitating prisoners. French theorists believed that education actually made it harder to reform criminals.
Tocqueville visited penitentiaries from Sing-Sing to Michigan to New Orleans; and in the course of this research made, observed the individualism, equality, responsibility, women, and community governance, throughout America.
His book, Democracy in America, became a best seller throughout Europe, and until today is considered a premier
treatise on America, with predictions that proved true 150 years later.
But, Tocqueville wrote most … More
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Clementine Bihiga inspires others. Which is against the odds. 21 years ago, on March 11, 1994, Clementine Bihiga, enjoyed life like any other 8 year old, in Gisenyi, Rwanda. She would play by the lake with her family, go out to restaurants, and attend church. That all changed with the Rwandan genocide, that killed between 500,000 and 1 million people. She escaped to the Congo, then to refugee camps in Kenya, then to Massachusetts in America.
In this podcast, Clementine shares about her homeland, and her journey, especially here in America. Her initial experience starting high school were heartwarming as … More
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Edrizio De La Cruz, immigrated as a boy, to the Bronx in New York from Santo Domingo. He worked as an airplane mechanic for six years, to put himself through Baruch College, envisioned himself working on Wall Street, and then pursued his MBA at the Wharton School. He heard no many times, but because he felt indebted to those who helped him when he was young, he committed himself to succeed.
Edrizio applied that tenacity to attend the top business school in the country. Graduating, he took a on a new risk. Rather than return to his investment banking career, … More
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If you’re reading this, you probably have a dream. Maybe it’s a big dream. But do you have what it takes to follow through on your dream. Are you realizing those dreams?
What are the mechanics of this dream machine? What happens if you live in a small town of a small island, say in the Philippines? How do you imagine yourself outside of your environment? How do you imagine yourself at a better school, then at a top university in your country, then at the top business school in the world? The World! That would be somewhere far away … More
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Jose Prendes left Cuba as a teenager with his mother and sister, to Ecuador. They did not know if his father could join them. After 5 years with the help of a Cuban-American organization, his family moved to Miami. He studied English, attended college for a few years, and started working.
Jose described his first impression of America, that everything was clean and organized. As an organized person himself, he loved that. As he started his family, he began an online pet retailer. It was growing until Hurricane Wilma hit Miami and destroyed his building. The wind actually pulled the … More
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Anthony Tran’s parents left Vietnam four years after the war. His family was adopted by an American family, and soon joined a large Vietnamese community in Garden Grove, California
Mentors have always been key in Anthony’s life, beginning with his father and community. The most important mentor was his dad, from whom Anthony learned dedication, patience, loyalty, and to treat others the way he wanted to be treated. From his community he learned to respect elders, respect others, respect yourself, and to respect the environment. A simple tradition like removing one’s shoes before entering a house, carried meaning. It’s not … More
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People who want to make things better, understand things better, who are predisposed to take action and speak up so that others can take action, may make good entrepreneurs. They may change the world. They may be able to look longer into the mirror. But they do not have easier lives.
That Nikola Danaylov cannot stop himself from wanting systems, society, science, and ethics to reach their zenith, is one thing.
Growing up behind the iron curtain, not being able to stop himself from trying to improve his Bulgarian Army Regiment was another.
He lived to tell the tale (on … More
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At the age of 16, Reham Fagiri came from Sudan to Maryland and entered the University of Maryland, to study engineering. Subsequently she worked at Goldman Sachs for 5 years, and attended the Wharton School of Business for her MBA. At Wharton, her friends kept asking her how to get into Goldman, but she kept asking how to get out. In some ways, she love the corporate life and high income, but she felt compelled to follow the footsteps of her family, going back generations, by starting her own company. Her start-up, AptDeco.com, is today a very successful peer-to-peer … More
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I asked Forbes Columnist, George Bradt of Prime Genesis, to write an exclusive article on consulting, which I published in our Autumn 2012 issue of the Wharton Club of New York Magazine. It exemplifies traits of successful immigrant entrepreneurs.
Be Different – Be Strong – Be Committed
The Three Requirements for Consulting Success
To be successful as a consultant, you must be different; you must be strong; and you must be committed. The consulting field is growing faster than ever, driven by the information revolution, baby boomers moving out of corporate roles and the struggling economy. Some consultants will … More
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American music owes a lot to immigrant musicians: Joni Mitchell (Big Yellow Taxi), Gloria Estefan (Hold Me Thrill Me) , Irving Berlin, They didn’t have capital, credit, or connections, but that didn’t stop them. One of my favorites is Irving Berlin, who escaped Siberia, to become what many call, America’s greatest songwriter. He wrote 1600 songs, including the standbys for Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Fred Astaire.
In this episode 5, my guest, Pablo Osinaga, brings people from around the world collaborate to play whatever song they choose. I watched and heard the song Bring me to Life, played my … More
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There are incredible gems here. Dating coach, Thomas Edwards, the Professional Wingman, shares in exquisite detail the process of coming to recognize who he is, and what he can offer to people. How he lets go of failures while building on his successes. How when he didn’t know where to turn, he turned to books. He shares about the value of his parents’ 40 year marriage, how that gave him stability and confidence.
There is great content here. I asked about the gifts he had from Jamaica and he talked about the Jamaican ability to empathize, which helps his … More
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If you recall your college biology class, information from one neuron flows, virtually flies, to another neuron across a synapse. The synapse is the gap separating neurons. Probably because I wasn’t paying complete attention to my professor’s exciting voice, I’ve maintained the impression that the synaptic gap was a bit of a chasm. It was a very good day when all those messages made it through, like a Pony Express rider leaping his horse across rough-hewn gullies. During my advanced statistics tests, I may have even blamed those synapses for not catching those answers, which were desperately trying to get … More
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Language Word Pronunciation
Afrikaans immigrant
Bulgarian Имигрант imigrant
Bosnian imigranata
Cebuano immigrant
Chinese 移民 Yímín
Dutch immigrant
Filipino imigrante
French immigrant
German Einwanderer
Italian immigrato
Japanese 移民 Imin
Korean 이민 imin
Russian иммигрант immigrant
Spanish inmigrante
Sudanese imigran
Why do all of these languages in Asia, Europe and Africa use a word similar to “immigrant”? Like other modern words, such as “computer” and “Internet,” the very concept and contexts of “immigrant” were born in America.
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word became accepted usage in 1792 in America:
According to Google dictionary, mentions of the word … More
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Turkish tile shops in New Jersey, a Romanian coffee shop in North Bend, Washington, Vietnamese nail salons in Los Angeles, high tech patenting in Silicon Valley, Korean dry cleaners everywhere, start Fortune 500 companies and grocery stores in poor neighborhoods.
In the words of the Lion, played by Bert Lahr in The Wizard of Oz: What do they got that I ain’t got?
To hear a profile in courage, listen to Due Quach (pronounced zway kwak) in my first podcast.… More
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How did Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) achieve so much with so little? How could he form the country’s first hospital and first lending library, lead the formation of the 13 Colonies, and found the University of Pennsylvania?
He did it by creating the resources that he lacked. At 24, around 1830, with only a few books of his own, he formed a private lending library among five friends, and then expanded the concept to the general public of Philadelphia. He looked at his problem, recognized that others shared the problem, and went about creating a solution, which benefited eventually the whole … More
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In a high school production of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, I played the noble, Duke Vincentio. Disguised as a friar, the Duke cajoles the various characters to do the right thing by their betrothed. One unredeemable character is Lucio, a fellow about town, who enjoys sharing with the friar his escapades and low opinions of the Duke. At the end of Act IV, Scene III, no matter how the friar attempts to leave, Lucio persists. As they exit, Lucio says:
“By my troth, I’ll go with thee to the lane’s end:
if bawdy talk offend you, we’ll have very little … More
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Entrepreneurship is an American trait — which can be abundantly observed in Benjamin Franklin. He is called both the first American and first entrepreneur of this country. Among other accomplishments, he:
- Founded America’s first hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital.
- Created America’s first lending library.
- Became America’s first Postmaster General, and involved himself deeply in improving its mail system.
- Founded the University of Pennsylvania in 1740.
- Led efforts to unify the Thirteen Colonies in 1754.
- Contributed to the writing of the Declaration of Independence.
- Became America’s first ambassador to France.
- Was considered second only to George Washington, as a Founding Father of the
… More
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I met Vivek, of Tiwary Entertainment Group at a Wharton event in New York City, where he and his wife raise their children. He spoke about his career as Broadway producer, financier, and comic book writer, not your typical professions for an Indian immigrant. In this interview Vivek talks about finding his historical mentor in books, writing a NY Times bestselling graphic novel about The Fifth Beatle, and he delivers an eloquent soliloquy on passion and persistence, to make your dream a reality.
Vivek also co-founded Musicians on Call, as a young man 25 years ago, which has become a … More
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Kunal Sarda’s company, Verbalizeit.com turned down two Shark Tank offers of $250,000 in funding. Kunal came from India to attend grad school, and started the translation company with his classmate Ryan Frankel, and they are growing off of a strong foundation. Their translators must have not only impeccable language skills, but proud of their culture and represent their country appropriately. He talks about their challenge to educate their clients on the benefits of going international, and how he surrounds himself with smart people, and the struggles of dealing with the US Visa program as an entrepreneur.
TRANSCRIPT Kent Trabing(… More
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Melissa Shin Mash, of Dagne Dover, is a Korean American, whose favorite saying is: If something is broken in the world, go fix it. And the motto her company lives by is: Life isn’t about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself. That’s the motto they live by as a company. Melissa ran the Coach store in London, and returned to America to create the ultimate handbag. She did so by returning to school, researching a top designer, surveying her ideal customer (which were attending grad school with her), and setting up a pre-sell. As success came, so did … More
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“Part of me wanted to prove that you can be a refugee from a war torn country, you can grow up in poverty, you can be surrounded by violence and suffer PTSD, but you can still beat it. You can change your brain, take control of your life, and change the trajectory. You don’t need anyone to hold your hand to do it.”
Due tells her story of surviving refugee camps, growing up in inner city Philadelphia, her brother getting his arm broken in his first day in the first grade. She couldn’t speak until she was seven years old … More
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Peter Thiel, born in Frankfurt, Germany, is a founder of PayPal, the first outside investor of Facebook, a Stanford professor and a U.S. chess master.
He recently wrote Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future, a compelling best-seller about the advantages of creating monopolies versus competing.
Quotes from Peter’s book:
“Tolstoy opens Anna Karenina by observing: ‘All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’ Business is the opposite. All happy companies are different: Each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem. All failed companies are the … More
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Hi Everyone,
Thank you for joining me on this journey, the Immigrant Entrepreneur podcast.
Have you noticed that immigrant entrepreneurs are creating an out-sized effect across the country. You may not have had the statistics, but you had a sense of it and that it’s been going on for a while. You were right.
Despite America’s national policy making it harder for company founders to get Visas.
Despite often lacking credit, capital, and connections.
Despite often being an outsider
Over 27% of all new businesses in this country have an immigrant at the helm. And not the type of businesses … More
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Excerpts from my 2013 (six minute phone) interview with Leonard Chairman Emeritus, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.
Leonard Lauder is larger than life. He continues to serve, chair, and contribute his thoughtful discourse to, multiple trademark organizations throughout America. He gives, and gives again, because he believes in it. He has led a lifetime of achievement.
His interview, while brief, is compelling, and his speech at the Joseph Wharton Awards Dinner drew a standing ovation from his peers.
AWhat did you learn from your mother and father that helped you?
Quality of products wins the day.
When faced with competition, … More
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This country has always attracted the brightest, the most assiduous to her shores. Farhad Mohit, who co-founded Bizrate as a class project at Wharton, and grew it as a personal passion accepted the hospitality of both. Bizrate, which became Shopzilla in 2004, and soon thereafter was acquired by E. W. Scripps in 2005 for $525 million, makes you feel like a smart shopper.
Choosing the right partners is essential to a successful venture. But how precisely do you choose the right person?
There are shared fundamental values, and then there are complementary skills. The most fundamental thing is honesty. I … More
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Interview with Alberto Vitale, Former Chairman, President and CEO, Random House
Excerpts from my 2011 interview with Alberto Vitale, who came from Italy to America on a Fulbright Scholarship to the Wharton School. He ran Random House with an entrepreneurial attitude, and has invested in a number of entrepreneurs, so I enter it here. You may see the full interview from 2011, on page 10 of this issue.
The much reported technological transformation of publishing, rapidly spreading new ideas and connecting people across the globe, occurred of course, in 1440, with the invention of Gutenberg Press. By the 1480s, hundreds … More
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