Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Recent Episodes
alina
The only podcast out there that outlines amazing immigrant entrepreneurs' journeys.
Immigrants are building the economy in America every single day. This show was born to inspire all immigrants who want to become entrepreneurs. Immigrants bring the fire, the drive and the compassion to build communities around them, and to create economies. They build jobs, create amazing opportunities, give back in some unimaginable ways and make America great.
I came from Russia and my entrepreneur spirit stems from my dad. He came to America with $600 in his pocket and got paid $8/hour on his first job. He later decided to start his own business doing HVAC and never stopped. He's been in business for over 20 years and never looked back.
If you would like to be on my podcast, email me at: hello@alinawarrick.com
Website: alinawarrick.com Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Eva Sadej
Eva is originally from Poland and she immigrated with her family to the States when she was very young. Her parents had to downgrade and take lower paying jobs than what they were used to back home. As an immigrant, they had humble beginnings. Eva grew up and wanted to get to Harvard really, really bad.. so she did everything in her power to achieve a full ride scholarship to Harvard.
After receiving her bachelor's in Economics she went out into the private sector where she worked for 4 years. During that time she saw her boyfriend launch a very successful startup and she had the urge to do the same thing. She saved $200,000+ during her time in the corporate world and gave everything she had to her brand new startup: Floss Bar.
Floss Bar is a mobile dentistry service, providing high quality dental services to companies nationwide.
Eva was featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 in Healthcare, Fox News, Business Insider, Yahoo! Finance, and many more news mediums. Eva is a young immigrant entrepreneur and shows proof that you don't need to be a dentist or a hygienist to start a company in that field.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Ali Payani
Ali is originally from Iran but his entrepreneurial journey started when he was living in Dubai. He wanted to launch his startup but the government in Dubai did not allow him to do it only because he was Iranian. He tried so hard for 2 years, but was unsuccessful. So, he took his business idea to Silicon Valley.
He came to the United States to be able to launch his company. He was working on a prototype in the air quality industry but a year later he decided to pivot. So he connected with one of his friends from Dubai and they launched a digital marketing agency without any knowledge, or any experience in that field.
One year after coming to the States, Ali took his business to the streets of Ventura Blvd. in Los Angeles County. In the middle of summer he went knocking on businesses and asking them if they wanted any of his digital marketing services. With his fire and drive he kept on going and saw massive success.
Only 4 years later, LookinLA announces 300% growth and didn't lose a single client in 2020 during the pandemic. LookinLA is a full service digital marketing agency beating all the odds.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Tal Frankfurt
Tal studied Business Administration and Communications in college, back home in Israel. He came out to the U.S. for a short program and met his wife. He later came out to live in the States at 26 years old and had to go find a job.
But 4 months later he found himself jobless and merely out of a necessity he started his company. Initially, it didn't even seem like a company because he had no idea what he was doing. Cloud for Good was created over 11 years ago and they offer services that are directly related to what Salesforce.org offers to their non-profit and higher education institutions.
Tal never had any computer science degrees, or a whole lot of experience in the computer science world. But because he had no other choice, he got creative. Cloud for Good is a 3x Salesforce.org Partner of the Year, Certified B-Corp and a 7x Inc. 5000 company that creates transformation value for nonprofit organizations and higher education institutions with Salesforce.
Prior to his involvement with Salesforce, Tal was the Director of Resource Development for a nonprofit organization that worked with at-risk immigrant youth in Israel. He was looking for tools to better manage his donors, participants, and volunteers. It was through this experience that Tal learned about Salesforce. The adoption of Salesforce into his everyday work was what sparked the inception of Cloud for Good.
After 4 months of starting his company he signed a 6 figure contract and it grew rapidly, and all organically. He now operates with amazing and talented 100 employees! Tal is completely self taught, and drops a lot of wise advice to all immigrant entrepreneurs about what he learned along the way in his journey!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Maria Karr
Maria originally came from Siberia, Russia when she was 19 years old. Her plan was to go to college and then go back home. It was never her intent to stay in United States. However, after college she started working for the corporate world. She ended up working for a PR agency that focused on Korean beauty products.
After diving into the beauty products world she noticed that there wasn't a single company in the States that sold Russian beauty products. So she decided to change that.
Maria launched, RumoreBeauty where she works with specific brands from Russia to bring beauty products to our markets. Her mission is to only work with brands who source their ingredients naturally, from the Russian's nature.
She initially launched her company with her husband during COVID as a side hustle, but quickly learned that the business was taking off and she had to quit. Maria has a remarkable story to share and her experience from immigration to entrepreneurship is truly inspirational.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Amanda Ma
Amanda moved to California with her family from Taiwan when she was 10 years old. Amanda Ma is the Founder and Chief Experience Officer of Innovate Marketing Group, an award-winning live & virtual experience agency that provides full-service event & activation for Fortune 500 companies. Through her leadership, the company has flourished into one of the most distinguished live & virtual experience agencies both locally and nationally. She started her company with nothing and after quitting her corporate job she went all in.
Her vision is to help fuel brands to change lives for the better. Amanda has been running her business for 15 years now. She's been featured in Inc, Bizbash, Meetings Today and many others. She was recently named "Top 100 Most Influential People in the Event Industry Globally" by Eventex. Bizbash also featured her as: "Top 500 most influential event professionals in the US."
She is recognized for her business and philanthropic work in the community. A collaborative leader, she is consistently sought out as a trusted strategic advisor and knowledgeable resource, and she’s respected for uncompromising integrity and expertise.
She currently sits on the board of Entrepreneur Organization- Los Angeles as the Diversity & Inclusion Chair. A strategic Advisor to The Diversity Advisors. Emeritus Chair of the Asian Pacific Community Fund and board of California Events Coalition. Board of Asian Business Center Los Angeles. She is a big champion for diversity & inclusion. When she is not working with the White House or Secret Service, you can find her spending time with her family or traveling.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Lily Roden
Lily came from El Salvador with her family when she was 7 years old. The country was suffering from civil war, gangs and drugs. They lived very poor and the area they lived in was considered "the projects." So her parents decided to move to United States.
When they initially made the move, her mom fell into depression and anxiety. Their family had a very rough start as immigrants in the States. Since her parents didn't know much of English and always had to make ends meet, her grades suffered in school as a child.
Lily tried her best to get her grades up and landed at UC Berkley where she excelled tremendously. After college she went into the corporate career doing HR. But her job made her miserable, depressed and full of anxiety. Lily didn't know what to do.
Through her dark journey, she found herself picking up flowers and arranging bouquets. She would post pictures on her social media and it went viral. She started doing flowers for weddings and didn't even know she was running a side hustle. Lily's talent was quickly found by transforming flowers into amazing and beautiful pieces that light up every single wedding.
She grew her business in the last 5 years all organically, without any debt or spending any money on advertising.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Benita Kasbo
Benita came to the United States from Syria with her family. Her family came with very little when they first immigrated. They initially lived in a very small low income apartment complex. Her dad was a tailor, so he was able to secure a job fairly quickly, but her mom stayed home to take care of the kids.
So she grew up and got into the pharmaceutical industry where she worked for 14 years. She tried to launch her business 2 times. But when the pandemic hit, she couldn't resist. On the third time, she finally launched her company, Kasbo's Market where she makes authentic Syrian cheeses. She launched this all by herself, during the pandemic and was able to get everything off the ground in 3 short months.
Benita launched her business when she was 42 years old all while having 3 kids and a husband.
She's determined to make everything work and has a huge passion and drive to bring authentic Middle-Eastern food to United States.
In this episode she shares everything she learned from how to launch a business to getting her cheeses into 3 stores in New Jersey.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Daria Tsvenger
Daria always wanted to work for the Russian government and never imagined that she would end up living in the United States. But 5 years ago, she and her husband decided that it was a good move to come to Silicon Valley. Daria's husband is a tech entrepreneur and had started several startups.
Moving to United States, Daria didn't know what she was getting herself into. She didn't know that she was going to be all alone, fall into depression and experience immense self doubt. Through her journey and experiences she went looking for answers. She discovered neuroscience that was offered at Stanford. She was finally able to be set free and find her inner joy.
With her experiences she went on to produce 2 amazing communities in the neuroscience industry with a cofounder. She connected amazing people with well known doctors in the neuroscience industry. She's worked with Dr. Adam Gazzaley, and Dr. David Eagleman to name the few. Daria launched a successful program, The Dream Sprint, where she coached and mentored people who wanted to get more connected with people, live out their dreams and get clarity for their life.
Daria launched her entrepreneurship journey when she was only 23 years. Daria is a mindset expert who has helped hundreds of people tap into the power of their brain to gain clarity and make their dreams come true.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Esmeralda Todorova
Esmeralda came to New York when she was 18 years old. Coming from a very small town in Bulgaria, she had no idea what she was getting into. On her first week being in New York, she was so close to hopping back on the plane and going back home. Handling the New York lifestyle was a lot to take on as an immigrant and being all alone.
Her original plan was to get her Accounting bachelor's degree and then go back home, but when her parents decided to move from Bulgaria she decided to stay in U.S. to pursue her master's degree in Accounting as well.
During her corporate career Esmeralda realized that she was not living up to her American dream so she decided to work on launching her bookkeeping business, EDT Bookkeeping and Tax. She launched her business during COVID and she wishes she started her business a lot earlier!
She's excited to share her journey to success to entrepreneurship and provide value by serving her clients with her tax and accounting expertise.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Andy Cheng
Andy's immigrant entrepreneur journey really started after his father passed away. He was 26 years and he became the President in his father's company over night in Shanghai. He didn't necessarily love that role, but he managed through it. It was challenging for him but he didn't ask for help, and learned everything the hard way. But when an opportunity came up to get out of the country and start a business in Mexico, he took that without hesitation.
Leaving his family behind, he booked a one way ticket to work with the Mexican mafia on his new business venture doing mining work. That is where he learned fast about negotiations, and entrepreneurship in real time. Since his life was on the line, he ran out of Mexico and never turned back.
He came to the US when he was 29 and that's where new businesses were born. He was fearless and on fire to continue with his entrepreneurial drive. He now operates 4 different businesses and he's thriving at $4.5M annual revenue.
In this episode he provides invaluable advice to all immigrant entrepreneurs and his journey is absolutely remarkable.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Kam Knight
Kam was brought up in a poor country, India, where he grew up in the ghetto part of town and in poverty.
Kam went to school in the States and became a Certified Public Accountant. He got a regular, 9-5 job but after doing some research he realized that many successful people don't have 9-5 jobs, they were entrepreneurs.
As an immigrant Kam never loved writing, and never thought he would be good at it. All of a sudden he had this sudden urge to write so he took action. After picking it up, he excelled and became a best-selling author of many of his books. He's now a coach, a writer and continues to write books on mental performance, speed reading, concentration and memory.
So far he's written 9 books and launched several online courses. To me, Kam is a philosopher with deep intelligence and in this episode you will pick up so many insightful entrepreneurial tips!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Andrea Ley
Andrea worked as an IT professional in Mexico and got an opportunity to work in the States for 1 year, so she took it! She was planning on coming back to Mexico but 8 years later found herself still in the US working at the same IT company.
At 37 years old she found herself homesick, and missing her family. She also wanted a slice of her hometown by drinking some really good Mexican authentic coffee. But, there was none to find. So, in San Antonio, Texas she went searching for ways to launch her Mexican coffee business.
Her creativity took her places on wheels, literally. Her coffee shop is mobile, and she drives around in a really nice and retro Volkswagen delivering the best Mexican coffee.
Olla Express Cafe is completely mobile and Andrea is extremely passionate about her coffee. The cool thing is, she has never opened up a business and her background was in IT, not business.
Andrea is completely self taught and she brings her grandmother's coffee recipes into her Volkswagen to deliver the best quality and fresh Mexican coffee.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Odette D’Aniello
Originally from the Philippines, Odette came to a small island, Guam with her family at a very young age. Her parents came to work on a bakery shop, that was owned by Odette's uncle and aunt. Little did she know that she was going to be working at the bakery shop without pay as a little girl.
She didn't see the sun, she didn't have a normal childhood and they didn't celebrate holidays. Odette had to grow up really fast as a child, all because she was handling heavy machinery at the bakery, and doing adult work as a child.
Odette escaped Guam, to go to the States for college and studied Political Studies and East Asian Studies. After college, she wanted to become a lawyer! But with her experience and love for baking she launched Celebrity Cake Studios close to 23 years ago!
Odette is truly passionate with her cake decorative skills and her artistic side transpires beautiful cakes. She's truly a success and her journey is inspirational!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Gautam Rao
Although Gautam's family was not made up of entrepreneurs, Gautam wanted to do something meaningful in his life. So at 23 years old he branched out and launched his very first startup, while in Singapore. His entrepreneurial journey lead him to start several other startups. He kept on pursuing his passion for entrepreneurship. Gautam never imagined to live in the States. After applying to Stanford to study on his masters program, to his surprise, he got in! Now he's transitioned to becoming an investor and in this episode he provides invaluable advice to any immigrant entrepreneur looking to raise capital along with his amazing immigrant entrepreneur journey!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Mamba Hamissi
Mamba Hamissi is originally from Burundi, East Africa. His wife was an activist and her life was threatened. Many times people were either killed or put into jail if they went against the government. We're in 2021, and there is still civil war happening in East Africa.
They decided to flee the country and applied for refugee status with any country that will take them. America was the first one to give them refugee visa, but his wife was the only one that was accepted. They decided to get separated and Mamba knew that he will one day join his wife. What he didn't know was that he was going to miss his twins birth.
His pregnant wife left Africa and was living a shelter and had no idea when she was going to see her husband again.
Mamba missed his twins birth, and only came to the US when they were 2 years old. He came not speaking any English at 35 years old. Mamba and his wife launched an East African restaurant Baobab Fare without having any knowledge or experience in business.
Their journey to immigration and entrepreneurship is quite remarkable.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Richard Mensah
Richard grew up in Ghana and started his very first startup at 18 years old. He never imagined that he would end up in the States but when he applied to attend a masters program, he got accepted with Hult International Business School.
Richard launched 3 different startups that didn't work out for various reasons, but that didn't stop him. He kept on pursuing his dream of entrepreneurship.
While studying on his masters program, he launched his 4th startup, EllisX. He's revolutionizing how marketing is working. EllisX is a platform for connections. This platform connects amazing startups with podcasters and event producers to get media coverage.
On this platform you won't see any ads, or anything flashing at you. Richard and his co-founder designed it so unique and with simplicity in mind. Right now, there are startups that are on the waitlist to get into EllisX. At 25 years old, Richard continues to innovate and disrupt the marketing field.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Yuting Su
Yuting grew up in Taiwan and she never imagined living in the States. Her dad came out to States to get his master's degree when she was 4 years old and she thought she would do the same.
She came to the States to study on a master's program and her plan was to leave back to Taiwan after graduating. But after launching a prototype during her thesis at University of Southern California, the product took off.
She launched the product Octobo when she was 28 years and pregnant! Octobo is a big fluffy octopus that is an electronic educational device for kids. It is the world’s first soft robot that teaches ABC’s, spelling, rhythm, and the foundations for STEM education.
Yuting is inspirational and provides so much valuable advice in this chat!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Sahar Roques
Sahar fled to America alone at 25 years ago to pursue a higher education degree where she was banned by the government of Iran to achieve due to my religious beliefs.
In the U.S. she studied Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics at University of Maryland College Park while working over 30 hours a week to earn a living.
After graduating she worked at biotech companies for a few years until she got married and had kids. After having kids, she realized a corporate job is not a right fit for her or her growing family.
After quitting she was lost, confused and didn’t have any solid plans on how to move forward with her career. Her passion for cooking, nutrition, and helping others through her work landed her to start her recipe developing and branding Spice of Life simmer sauces. She loves to encourage healthy eating one meal at a time with Persian spices/herbs.
Always looking to improve, she reads lots of health books and incorporating what she learned into her life and work. The Spice of Life community is her family and she loves taking care of everyone by delivering the best products.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Doctor Gemi Bertran
Gemi was lead by love to come to the US and that's when she married her then, husband.
At one point she was juggling and running so many things at once, alongside with raising her 2 children she had a breakdown. She was stressed, depleted in so many ways, and was running her dad's business that was overseas. Her brain stopped working, and the doctors had no idea what was going on. So she went on a journey to discover her own true health.
She launched, Nourish the Brain Institute, and that is not her first company. This company was launched in her own house, with $0 investment. She's now making over $1M annually as a Brain and Behavior Coach helping people transform their lives through healthy eating habits, one on one coaching, through her Brain & Behavior Academy Program and lots of other methodologies.
Gemi's current business was launched when she was 43 years old and her business is thriving!
In this episode she provides extensive tips on ways she discovered success in her immigrant entrepreneur journey.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Yasir Shirazi
Yasir came from Pakistan to study in college and earn his M.B.A degree. He launched 2 other business ventures but kept on a lookout for something more creative and meaningful.
He kept noticing that he's running into the same problems on a regular basis. Taking care of business back home while being overseas was somehow extremely difficult to do and manage. There were constantly issues and delays obtaining legal documents from back home, to sending funds, to taking care of regular business.
After doing some market research, he realized that many other immigrants were in fact running into the same issues. He was not alone.
His creative mind kicked in and he found a solution to his problems along with all the other immigrants. He launched, InstaKin.
InstaKin can take of your business needs while being overseas. They can even take care of flower arrangements and plan a wedding! The sky is the limit with InstaKin and they're constantly expanding with their services and markets.
Yasir provides some invaluable advice to all immigrants who want to thrive as an entrepreneur!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Lei Wang
Lei came to United States when she was 24 years old to study on a Master's program, majoring in Instructional Technology. She came all by herself and had no one to turn to. She went through a lot of different struggles and challenges as any other immigrant does while trying to figure out this new country.
Lei graduated, and went on to work a 9-5 job in her field for 17 years. One day, it hit her. She realized that she didn't come to America to have a 9-5 job and to do the same thing over and over every single day.
She knew that America has a wealth of knowledge so she quit and launched Minuteman Press, a commercial printing company. She didn't have any business experience, and had no idea where to begin. Remember, this field is completely different from what she studied in school.
She turned to books to get her resources, she connected with her successful neighbors, she reached out when she needed to and learned from her mistakes.
Lei is a self-taught immigrant entrepreneur that provides a wealth of advice in this episode on how she started her business.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Kalika Yap
Kalika was born in the Philippines but her family moved to Hawaii when the military coup took over. Her father was an entrepreneur and was always planting positive seeds in her life about entrepreneurship but Kalika thought she had a separate path. She always wanted to be a journalist so she attended New York University and got a Bachelor's in Journalism.
However, life took her by surprise when she was in CA recently dumped by her boyfriend, with no place to live, and no job.
Her drive and passion was suddenly fueled into learning all about programming and web design. She started a side hustle and she was hooked.
Ever since then she's grown to 5 different businesses, she is a podcast host and an author! Not only that, her family is her #1. Kalika has been featured in Inc. Magazine, MSNBC, VoyageLA, to name the few!
Kalika is unstoppable and an exceptional innovator.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Vienne Cheung
Vienne's journey to the United States dates back to the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Gold Rush ages. Her parents had to wait 15 years to get accepted to come to the United States.
Vienne received her Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts and Psychology from University of Massachusetts Boston. But she knew she was always creative and always kept her eyes open for new oppportunities.
One day, when she realized that there were extremely limited options for thigh high stockings that any woman can wear to any occassion or just daily whereabouts she knew she had to fill that void.
She started doing extensive research on how to launch hosiery products in America and finally in 2011, she launched VinneMilano without any prior business experience at all.
Her product line features one of the world's most extensive variety for thigh high stockings.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Nafy Flatley
Nafy was born with a talent to cook and she was so natural with it. At 8 years old she could whip out a full blown meal and she found her happiness creating healthy meals.
She came to the United States because it was her American dream. She pursued higher education and graduated from University of San Francisco majoring in Marketing and International Business. She went on by working in the marketing field and was really good at it. But when she had 2 kids at home she realized that working full time and being a mom was pretty difficult.
She was taken back by the lack of opportunities her corporate career gave her when she asked for a part time job. She was devastated and decided to quit.
She went looking for answers, but her ultimate source was her own mother. After speaking with her mom, she knew that cooking was the ultimate passion that she should pursue.
She created Teranga by featuring foods from her hometown, Senagal, Africa. She's partnered up with La Cocina in San Francisco to sell her foods in their marketplace.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Timothy Roman
Tim grew up in Russia during communism times where life was tough. You had to go outside of the city to see who had the butter, the chicken, and your basic and trade what you had.
Tim came to United States at 13 years old and he found himself all too excited in the land of opportunities! Tim thought he could only be street smart and not book smart so he ended up dropping out of high school and selling drugs. That way of living got him locked up in jail where he realized that he's putting his energy in the wrong things.
He decided to change his way of life and became self taught in entrepreneurship. His journey is completely filled with successes and in this episode he gives us so much insight that any immigrant can apply to his/her life to attain success.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Yuri Kuts
Yuri had very humble beginnings when he immigrated to the United States. He and his buddy came to United States on a work abroad program. When they realized that it wasn't going to happen it was too late. They were already dropped off in the middle of a field in Panama City.
That was the beginning of Yuri's journey.
Yuri and his buddy went around Panama City for 3 days looking for someone to help them. They had no money, no English but a HUGE dream to live in the US.
So, life took him to New York where he lived in a basement with 7 other people. They all shared one shower.
He ended up opening up his moving and trucking company at the age of 24, all while being an illegal resident.
Now, he's making anywhere from $5M-$7M a year at the age of 32!
His journey is filled with amazing stories and life experiences. Yuri drops some amazing and powerful tips for immigrant entrepreneurs!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Veena Somareddy
Veena's immigration journey was not all that easy. She was denied three times when she applied for a visa. She had to fight for her entrance, but with her determination she knew she wanted to be in the US.
She immigrated when she was 22 years old and when she was in her PhD program life took her by surprise. A random act by a stranger lead her to open up her business with a co-founder.
She's in the augmented/virtual reality industry and what their company is doing with rehabilitation is absolutely revolutionary.
Their clients experience a lot less limitations by doing virtual reality rehab exercises.
Veena is full of energy and extremely passionate to change the healthcare industry by revolutionizing rehabilitation exercises. Her journey is definitely one of a kind.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Maria Orozova
Maria was born in a communist country, Bulgaria where food was scare and buying anything was extremely difficult. She remembers people having to stand in the bread line for hours just because of the limited supply of food.
Her family immigrated when she was 11 years old and she went on to study marketing and graphic communication at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her journey to entrepreneurship started when she was only 25 years old. With a lot of risk at hand, she went full force to get her company launched.
She remembers putting in way too many hours in the beginning, but it was all she ever wanted to do.
She's now worked with clients like Dell Computers, Lexus, AT&T, Four Seasons Private Residences and Indeed to name a few. Her company merged with her husband in 2018 and during COVID, they thrived.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Wai-Loong (Y) Lim
Y came to United States when he was 29 years old. He was born and raised in Malaysia but immigrated from Canada. His entire life was spent doodling and drawing anything that comes to mind. He went into industrial design because that was really his passion and he never looked back.
He came out to Silicon Valley all because this was the place where products are born. He took an internship, but when that company went under he was forced into entrepreneurship, and Y Studios was born.
He ran his company out of his house so he constantly had employees in his house developing and creating products for his customers.
Y is extremely talented and saw that he could use his talent through entrepreneurship. Y Studios has been running for 20 years now and it's thriving!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Daisy Jing
Daisy came from China with her family when she was very young. Growing up in an immigrant household where money was scarce and she was always about saving.
Her mom worked at McDonald's, in the back kitchen since she didn't speak English well and she worked at Chinese restaurants under the table. Daisy saw first hand what hard work was all about.
When Daisy went through horrible acne she went looking for answers. What she did next was astonishing. She started to record her journey on YouTube and launched over 1,000 videos. She showed the world what it was like going from acne to clear skin.
So when Daisy created her own skincare products people started to buy! She knew there was something there and decided to quit her corporate job.
Banish started close to 8 years ago and it is thriving! In this episode we talk about what it's like being an entrepreneur and a mother to a very young baby!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Magie Cook
Magie was born in an orphanage where she spent 18 years of suffering. She had 68 brothers and sisters at the orphanage and at times she had to hunt for her food with her own bare hands because there was no food at the orphanage.
Holidays were celebrated very seldomly, if they were celebrated at all. The shoes that they wore to school were hand made by her "parents". In this episode she explains why she doesn't call her parents, "parents" and how she found basketball for a means of escaping the orphanage.
Magie started her salsa company all by accident, and later sold it for $231M.
Magie is an internationally recognized speaker and expert in the field of business and personal development and has been featured on numerous publications, magazines, and television networks such as Daystar TV, Bloomberg TV’s “The American Dream” and many more.
She has received many awards, including, being inducted into the Hall of Fame at the University of Charleston and received a Nobel Entrepreneur Prize in Mexico. She’s worked with many Fortune 100 and 500 companies, as well as A-listers including professional athletes, influencers, and thought leaders.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Lauren Cohen
Although Lauren is Canadian, her immigration process was still lengthy and she had to fight for a better visa status. Lauren's passion for immigration law came after her then-husband was deported after their honeymoon to Thailand.
She was confused, lost and devasted. She knew that there were other people fighting the same battles and she went looking for better answers.
Lauren is an immigration lawyer in both countries and is the only true concierge ancillary service provider oriented to helping foreign nationals secure their and renew their desired visas.
Lauren has also published a book, Finding Your Silver Lining in the Business Immigration Process,and has gotten tons of amazing reviews!
She's also a sought out speaker that has taken the stage in various capacities.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Prateek Joshi
Prateek's interest in machine learning/artificial intelligence came early on when he was growing up in India. Since there was lack of clean water where he grew up, he knew that there had to be a solution for this.
Every so often their family had to go to a place to get drinking water and do it over and over when supply was getting low. He started learning about water sources and machine learning early on and he grew such a passion for it.
When he came to USA at 27 years old to study Computer Vision on his Master's program he knew this was only a beginning to his amazing journey.
He's an author of 13 books all related to Python, machine learning and AI. He's also taken the stage on TedX and has been featured on Forbes, 30 under 30 list.
Prateek is a young immigrant entrepreneur who manages his company of 35 employees and he's thriving.
In this episode he drops a lot of invaluable advice on entrepreneurship, growing his business, how it all started and raising capital.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Kate is an immigration lawyer who does an amazing job by helping and serving the immigrants of America. Immigration is an international law which means that she can help anyone, regardless of their location in America.
Kate provides some tools on how to make the immigration process smoother, why the immigration process takes forever, and she goes over some of the mistakes that she normally sees when reviewing applications and assisting immigrants through the citizenship process.
Kate has appeared on news outlets such as the BBC, MSNBC, the New York Times, and National Public Radio as an immigration expert and she regularly speaks at legal education seminars for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the State Bar of Texas, and the Austin Bar Association, as well as to community groups such as churches and schools.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Marie Capita
Marie immigrated from Haiti when she was very young. She started her entrepreneurship journey after getting her law degree and starting her own practice with a business partner. Her entrepreneurial career didn't end there.
She left the practice and started a bakery business with her husband. Since they went through a divorce, she decided to give that up as well.
Although she got a County job and worked a desk job, she wasn't giving up on her entrepreneurial spirits. It was when she had a near death experience when she realized she wanted to do more in this life and make a difference.
That's when Taste of Immokalee was born.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Spoorthi Kumar
Spoorthi is a native born, but she left to India with her family at 5 years old. She eventually came back to the States to study I.T. but she didn't like her job out of college. She ended up quitting her corporate job and wanted something more for her life.
She had absolutely no plans, no plan A, no plan B but she went searching for it. In fact, she didn't even have any side hustle income coming in.
Starting a coffee shop with her business partner was something, well, very spontaneous. She was 23 years old and she had so much energy and fire to figure it all out.
Both Spoorthi and her business partner didn't have any experience running a business, or any experience even being a barista. You would think, that would be the first thing that they would do.. but that was definitely not their strategy!
The coffee shop, Hidden Grounds, now has 5 locations and 30 employees!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Liubov Lomonosova
Liubov grew up with humble beginnings. Living in Ukraine, her family couldn't afford to live in a house. In fact, living in a house was considered a luxury, so they lived in a very small apartment complex.
While she never imagined living in United States, she immigrated at 30 years old when her husband was moved out here for work. They barely knew anyone and started their lives fresh. She had to take English classes, and thought that getting a job will be very easy. Unfortunately she came to a few roadblocks and had to settle for a shoe store company.
While she was going through her weight loss journey, she realized that she can actually become a running coach and teach people what she knew about being a runner. Although her experience in Ukraine was in engineering her entrepreneurship lead her to become an amazing running coach.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Alina Trigub
Alina grew up in Ukraine when anti-semitism groups were complete widespread. As a Jewish she and her mom feared for their lives. It was out of pure safety that they realized they had to move out to a better place and that's when they immigrated to United States.
Alina had several jobs out of college, but her side gig really only started out of curiosity. She started researching and learning everything there was about real estate syndication. Alina found that not a lot of people knew about syndication so Samo Financial was born to teach people and help them through financial wealth.
Something happened to her position at her last job and that's when her entrepreneurial journey kicked into full gear.
She drops in a lot of wisdom in this episode about immigrant entrepreneurship and I learned so much from her journey!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Amine Rahal
Amine immigrated from North Africa, Algeria at the age of 12 years old with his family to Canada. They came initially because his parents wanted to relocate to another city where French was spoken. His parents came to give their kids better opportunities and a better life.
Amine was always interested in software since he was a young boy. All because, back in Africa they had a computer when they were growing up. So he naturally gravitated towards anything related to computers or software development.
Amine never imagined that he was going to become an entrepreneur, so when he was fired from his job something inside of him told him that he should start a side hustle. His journey took him to New York, and then to China and that's where he turned his side hustle into his full time entrepreneurial venture.
Amine is also an author of the book: Immigrant Hustle. This book featured 50 amazing immigrants from all over the world and shares their stories and experiences to entrepreneurship.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Veronica Moya
Veronica had many odd jobs when she came to the United States at 21 years old. She worked at different cafe shops, as an au pair, at a health club but during this time she was always auditioning. Her dream was to become and actor and that's what she wanted to do in New York.
Even after being fired from several jobs, she was still persistent to find her passions.
Her entrepreneurial drive really kicked in when she was getting married. She found out that she needed a wedding officiant. After discovering that they made $500 per wedding she told herself that she can do it too!
Without any experience in the wedding industry, without even being a wedding planner she went full force and decided that she will figure it all out.
During COVID in 2020 she hosted 500+ weddings alone, in one year!!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Sid Mohasseb
Sid's journey to United States started when he was 16 years old when he attended a boarding school. He always had a curious mind and launched his very first company after 5 years of being in the States.
He was only 21 years old when he launched his very first business. Although he had several different businesses in his immigrant entrepreneur journey, he's focused his last several years being a venture capitalist.
Sid focuses on investing, mentoring, speaking and being an adjuct professor at the University of Southern California. He's an author of several books and his most recent one, You Are Not Them, is definitely a must read.
Sid breaks down barriers, and creates innovation in amazing ways. He's definitely a thought leader and he also has taken the stage on TEDx. In this episode he provides amazing wisdom to all entrepreneurs in all stages.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Donizete (Donny) Minchillo Jr.
Donny's journey to entrepreneurship was definitely not a straight path. He initiallly dabbled with selling random things on eBay and that's where he got hooked. He had several different businesses along the way, one was a furniture company, another one was something similar to Groupon but in the end he launched Pineapple Development which helps customers with Magento and Shopify platforms.
He didn't stop there! Shortly after, he acquired another business that was completely unrelated to his past experience and unrelated to software development. Both of his businesses now generate roughly $500k annually!
Donny's entrepreneurial journey is definitely one of a kind and in this episode he gives some powerful and transformational advice to all immigrants!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Abdulhamid Ali
Growing up in Somalia, Abdulhamid had a great childhood, but after the Somalian's pressident got assasinated he had to grow up very quickly. His father went to prison several times and his mom was left with 6 kids to care for. It turns out that his mom became extremely entrepreneurial and made the best out of what they had.
If you wanted to go to college in Somalia, the goverment told you want you were going to study and you had no other choice. The decision that the goverment made for me, was nothing that he wanted to study so Abdulhamid decided to pursue engineering instead.
There was no other choice but to get out of the country to study his passions in civil engineering.
In this episode he shares his journey from the very beginning, his struggles and reveals why he decided to leave the public sector. So.. stay tuned!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Igor Krasnykh
Igor immigrated from Russia at 17 years old.. He didn't know much of any English and the English that he did know wasn't helping him much. He was always interested in software, and the IT world so he started several different businesses on the side. Some of them failed but he didn't stop there.
He is a college dropout and one of his side hustles that he started (PowerSync) allowed him to grow that company all organically and without much of any advertising. His startup cost was a whopping $200.
He is self taught in everything computer related and the software industry. When he saw some traction in the very beginning stages he kept working at it for around 8 years until he finally couldn't take it anymore. Well, he saw substantial growth and he had to make a decision. Does he quit his corporate career or sell his side gig?
His decision to take PowerSynce full time eventually allowed him to generate $1M in revenue in only 1 year.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Gurhan Demirkan
Gurhan grew up in Turkey where his dad always said that he will be living in America one day. He also constantly encouraged him to become an entrepreneur and to be your own boss. That was instilled in his brain at a very young age.
He immigrated at the age of 18 and didn't know any English at all. He decided that if he was going to learn English, living with his brother is not going to help him. So he decided to live on campus at college.
His background is in mechanical engineering, but when you listen to his entrepreneur journey he's owned and operated several different companies that have nothing related to engineering.
Today, he operates two companies. Chattypix is in augmented reality industry and Biavexia is in the health supplement industry.
His story is definitely one of a kind!
Show notes
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Laura Kinser is a startup clinic consultant that has a wealth of experience with startups from the Silicon Valley.
In this episode she goes over the step by step process of what it takes to open a startup in 2021 for immigrants. She also provides an extensive amount of resources that will guide you in the process. She is highly intelligent in the startup businesses and works with plenty of entrepreneurs in their startup journeys.
Show notes
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Vladimir Vasilenko
Doctor Vasilenko is a very special guest on my show. He immigrated from Russia to Canada and had a very pleasant immigration process. In fact it took him less than 4 months for all the immigration to be completed and finalized.
He founded Global Warming Solutions out of survival and needed to get the renewable and energy efficient products out there. He took his company public shortly after creating his company and there is a reason for that!
Doctor Vasilenko creates innovation where none has been made before!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Eddie Garcia
Eddie traveled on foot from Mexico with his older brother and his father when he was 5 years old. He had no idea what was going on, and was totally oblivious to the fact that his dad carried their clothes in zip loc bags. On that journey, that came in handy! When they crossed the sewer water, they had to change their clothes and that's when his dad whipped out fresh clothes out of the zip loc bags.
He was on track to be an employee and his dad always pushed him to become an entrepreneur. His dad always knew that Eddie had so much more potential than being stuck at a job.
So when Eddie told his dad he was going to drop out of college, his dad made him promise that he was going to become a millionaire by the age of 30.
Without any real plans he got into real estate, by accident. Now, Eddie holds one of the most successful real estate companies in Chicago and he runs his company from day 1 all with cash flow - absolutely no mortgage loans, and no bank loans!
Link to show notes.
alinawarrick.com
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Fiona Gilbert
Fiona immigrated to United States in her early 20s and landed in Silicon Valley. Shortly after coming immigrating she fell tremendously sick. She was so sick she had to get a service dog that helped her move around. She tried many different treatments and nothing helped.
But with her sickness came a blessing. She was able to find something that allowed her to feel absolutely amazing, and Quanta Therapies was born.
Not only that, her creativity launched her to create several different companies and now she manages 5 of them. Fiona is so full of creativity and helps people every step of her way through many various stages of their lives.
Link to show notes.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Irina Alexander
Irina met her husband in China while working abroad on a summer tour program. She never initally wanted to move to America, but because she married an American (while in China) she moved to Texas in her early 20s.
She didn't have any family or friends in Texas, and on top of that, her husband had to go to work - overseas. She was left all alone. There were many struggles in her immigrant journey from handling basic phone conversations, to driving to the grocery stores and getting around.
Irina and her husband decided to launch an HVAC company, but little did she know she was about to run the show all by herself. Not only that, she had 2 kids under the age of 2.
Her immigrant entrepreneur journey is one of a kind, because she was running her business in a male dominated field.
This episode is filled with invaluable entrepreneurship advice and she shares her entire story and the struggles along the way.
Link to show notes.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Christian Carreon
Christian came to the United States when he was 7 years old with his family after losing his sister. His mom was able to regain momentum and strength to launch her own company and they started a new life in California.
Life was not always great for Christian. After struggling with constant racism, seeing his parents go through a bankruptcy, he ended up in the hospital fighting for his life. He eventually lost both of his kidneys, but not too long after ended up locked up in jail looking over his life.
After all of what he went through, he managed to get a Bachelor's degree in Finance and create a wealth management firm at the age of 27.
Three years later, he's still running the successful wealth management firm as a young entrepreneur.
Link to show notes.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Jorge Ruiz
Jorge came from Bolivia to the U.S. initially to study in college. His journey brought him back home where he launched several different companies all in completely different fields.
With his expertise at Citi Bank he launched the first global solution for financial institutions by connecting them with the top innovative fintech solutions. Financial institutions are in need of digitizing practically everything they do, and it's rapidly growing. That's where Finconecta comes in and creates the different services/products that transforms the way they do business and connect with their customers.
With the rapid innovation, Jorge continues to build and transform the fintech solutions.
His journey to success is one of a kind, and you're absolutely going to love all the invaluable advice that he provides.
Where to find Jorge Ruiz:
Finconecta | LinkedIn
Where to find me:
alinawarrick.com
hello@alinawarrick.com
Link to show notes.
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Angelica Rivera
When Angelica came to the United States, she was only supposed to be here for 6 months to finish high school. Through some rough struggles she was able to stay here past her visa expiration date.
At one point she was undocumented and had many limitations that she had to live in. But with her persistence and determination she was able to create not one, but two companies. Her second company was founded with her husband when she was only 29 years old. That company, Colmex Construction, had lots of difficult beginnings. She mentioned that she would work 18 hour days, pay her and her husband $250 per week just to survive.
She now only works roughly 40 hours a week and you normally don't see a female Latino dominating the construction field. Their business is now generating millions in revenue!
Where to find Angelica:
Colmex Construction | LinkedIn
Where to find me:
alinawarrick.com
hello@alinawarrick.com
Get first month FREE with Audible
(affiliate links included)
Link to show notes
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Ahmed Elsamadisi
Ahmed came to the United States at the age of 10 with his family from Egypt, all in the name of education. In Egypt the education system is corrupt. The teachers don't teach and they must supplement their income by tutoring.
Ahmed's parents brought their children to United States because the education system is proven to be a lot better than in Egypt.
Ahmed created his data analysis startup company, Narrator.ai at the age of 25 which allowed him to be feautured on the Forbes 30 under 30 list. His company went through some tough times in the beginning stages but 3 years later it's growing strong!
Link to show notes
Where to find Ahmed:
Narrator.ai | LinkedIn
Where to find me:
hello@alinawarrick.com
alinawarrick.com
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Camila Pachon Silva
Camila and her family had to escape the intense drug war that was happening in Columbia. In this episode she explains how her mom would put tape on the windows to prevent the windows from crashing down during a bomb explosion.
There was violence every single day, people would get robbed and you knew what part of town to avoid, what not to wear and do certain things to live your life. She tells me that it was the norm, you had to adapt to that way of life and continue going about your way.
After seeking asylum from the United States and going through the immigration process with her parents, she knew she wanted to become an immigration attorney.
Her journey to entrepreneurship is absolutely amazing and extremely touching.
Link to show notes
Where to find Camila:
Capella Immigration Law | LinkedIn
Where to find me:
alinawarrick.com
hello@alinawarrick.com
Get first month FREE with Audible
(affiliate links included)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Igor Dobrosavljević
Igor immigrated from Germany with his family at 16 years old from Germany. Germany was their first destination as refugees to flee from the civil war that broke out between Croatia and Bosnia.
As immigrants in the United States his parents had to start their lives all over, for the second time. Amongst many struggles Igor was able to obtain a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and start his own I.T. consulting company, Grand Consulting.
What he's doing with his company is beyond amazing. In this episode, he talks about how he created the apprentice program to allow people who don't have experience or knowledge in the I.T. world to allow them to get the training and the experience they need through his company.
Link to show notes
Where to find Igor:
Grand Consulting | LinkedIn
Where to find me:
alinawarrick.com
hello@alinawarrick.com
Get first month FREE with Audible
(affiliate links included)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Nirit Rubenstein
Nirit came to the United States when she was 4 years old but she still experienced struggles as an immigrant. Her household only spoke Hebrew and she only picked up English in grade school which made it extremely difficult to connect with other classmates.
She remembers her parents talking about how McDonald's was a once a month treat for them and how all of their clothes were second hand.
Her dad couldn't get a job for a period of time until he finally decided to volunteer at a mechanical shop. He soon took over the business and became a successful entrepreneur.
Nirit's journey to immigrant entrepreneurship really stemmed from watching her father go through his entrepreneurial successes, but her tenacity and drive was the key that propelled her to launch a successful credit repair company, Dovly.
Link to show notes
Where to find Nirit:
Dovly | LinkedIn
Where to find me:
alinawarrick.com
hello@alinawarrick.com
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Giacomo Vacca
Doctor Giacomo Vacca leaves his hometown at the age of 16 because he always wanted to become a scientist. Leaving your country behind at 16 is not only considered bravery, but beyond courageous.
After graduating Harvard, he attended Stanford University to obtain his PhD in Applied Physics. This lead him on a path to getting amazing jobs at different companies including one that was a Fortune 500 company. He quickly realized that he was meant for something bigger. Deep down on the inside he always had an entrepreneurial drive so he quit and ventured off to create Kinetic River Corp.
In this episode he explains how he was able to gain his customers without doing much of any marketing and gives us incredible advice on immigrant entrepreneurship.
Link to show notes
Where to find Doctor Giacomo Vacca:
Kinetic River Corp. | LinkedIn
Where to find me:
alinawarrick.com
hello@alinawarrick.com
Get first month FREE with Audible
(affiliate links included)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Doctor Wei Wang
Doctor Wei Wang grew up in a communist China without much education options. But against all odds, he managed to get a PhD in structural engineering in New Jersey.
When he started his company, Urbantech Consulting Engineering he didn't even know he was running a business. He was doing everything by himself and the very first project that he worked on was a bridge that was outlined on the Discovery Channel.
Doctor Wei Wang came to the United States all by himself at 31 years old. His company has now been running for 20 years and continues to grow substantially.
His immigrant entrepreneurship journey lead him on an amazing path of being part of the engineering process to creating amazing bridges all over New York, buildings, and lots of amazing structural projects.
Link to show notes
Where to find Wei Wang
Urbantech Consulting Engineering, PC | LinkedIn
Where to find me
alinawarrick.com
hello@alinawarrick.com
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Fiona
Fiona had no idea that she was ever going to land in the finance world. In fact growing up, she wanted to become a paleontologist but after seeing what her grandparents went through with their personal finances she decided that she wanted to help as many people be financially independent.
She bought her house at the age of 23, she started her blog at the age of 25.. during the pandemic! This young lady is about to tear up the finance world before you know it.
This episode will truly inspire you in so many ways!
Link to show notes
Where to find Fiona:
The Millennial Money Woman | Twitter | Pinterest
Where to find me:
alinawarrick.com
hello@alinawarrick.com
Mentioned in this episode:
Self lender: https://www.self.inc/
Recommended books:
The Richest Man in Babylon
The Millionaire Next Door
The Millionaire Mind
The Behavior Gap
(Amazon affiliate links included-thank you!)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Juan Palacio
Juan came to the United States all because Columbia didn't have much opportunities, there was violence and he knew his country wasn't in a good position.
Since his sister was already living in Miami, he immigrated at the age of 24. His immigrant struggles included eating from the dollar menu at McDonald's every single day. He was always lost taking the public transporation, but he was never lost in his dreams and passions.
Juan, is a college dropout, self-taught had created his company, Bloomsybox, that magically transformed the flower business. His company, has been feautured nationwide throughout many media channels and he continues to thrive.
Let's hear all about his immigrant entrepreneur journey to success!
Link to show notes
Where to find Juan:
LinkedIn | BloomsyBox
Where to find me:
alinawarrick.com
hello@alinawarrick.com
Get first month FREE with Audible
(affiliate links included)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Alex Robbio
Alex came to the United States with his wife and a young daughter from Argentina with only $700 in their pockets. Alex had extremely humble beginnings with very little help. In this episode he shares how his immigrant entrepreneurial mind gets extremely creative to the point of asking their first employees to bring their own desktop computers to work.
He started his software company with his brother and father and shares some extremely valuable advice that he wishes he did in the beginnning stages of his business.
Although he operated in United States, his company had offices in several different countries and came to a total of 700 employees when they decided to sell the company.
Some of his successes that he shares transformed everyone who came in contact with this company, from interns, to employees, and even people who were never employed by their company were touched by the services that Alex and his company provided.
Alex never raised capital to start his business, but does he think he should've raised capital? We'll find out!
Link to show notes
Where to find Alex:
Mentioned in this episode:
Endeavor.org
Where to find me:
alinawarrick.com
hello@alinawarrick.com
Get first month FREE with Audible
(affiliate links included)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Doctor Ashish Mudgal
Doctor Ashish Mudgal came to the United States when he was 26 years old from India. Although he always wanted to become a scientist and that is exactly why he came to the States; his journey to entrepreneurship was something out of the ordinary. He came to study on a Soil, Environmental and Atmospheric Sciences program to obtain his PhD.
Doctor Ashish Mudgal never imagined that he would ever be an entrepreneur but after unique experiences it lead him to opening 2 start up companies.
The start up that he has now, HeyHerbie combines the use of technology with elderly folks to invent a genius product.
This episode is packed with his powerful and insightful advice for all immigrant entrepreneurs.
Link to show notes
Where to find Doctor Ashish Mudgal:
Company: HeyHerbie | LinkedIn
Where to find me
alinawarrick.com
hello@alinawarrick.com
Get first month FREE with Audible
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Alisa Barcan
Alisa was born in Romania at the time where Romania was nearing the communist regime. Although growing up, communism was over a lot of people were still living the communist mindset.
They could not rely on the purchasing power to buy food, because there was no food. Given that experience, Alisa was able to bring some of the post communism experiences into her entrepreneurial journey.
Alisa's immigrant entrepreneur journey didn't bring her to the United States, she immigrated to United Kingdom where she was joined by her boyfriend.
Although Alisa was set on a government sector career path she took a career aptitude test and it surprised her in many ways. The test told her that she sould be in the financial/business industry. So she switched gears and absolutely loves making an impact on the world.
Link to show notes
Where to find me
alinawarrick.com
hello@alinawarrick.com
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Gary Kurek
Gary was raised on a bison ranch in Alberta, Canada. He was always a curious kid growing up and he found himself in the robotic industry when his teacher in school encouraged him to participate in the science fair at the age of 14.
Gary was self taught throughout his young adult life and actually never got a college degree. After his successes in the science fair where he invented a wheelchair device that can be used both like a walker and like a wheelchair device, he found himself in the heart of the startup industries, Silicon Valley.
He joined the Peter Thiel fellowship program at the age of 19 and received $100,000 for 2 years to create his company. Now his entrepreneurial ventures are focused on bringing manufacturing industries back to America.
Link to show notes
Where to find me:
hello@alinawarrick.com
alinawarrick.com
Get first month FREE with Audible
(affiliate links included)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Nelly Garcia
Nelly came to the States when she was 15 years old with her family and knew very little English. She grew up in Mexico where they didn't have central Air Conditioning and she didn't know what she was missing until they moved to the States.
At a very young age, she learned that making money is very easy and that she enjoyed it but when life hit her hard at a very tragic place in her life, she lost all of her hope. She was depressed, had no friends and lost her faith. For 2 years she thought she was nothing.
But one point she turned to God and asked for help. It was at that point where her entrepreneur journey had pivoted in the right direction.
Nelly went on to create her bakery and was feautured in Entreprenuers Magazine, and Forbes list: 30 under 30. Her entrepreneur journey brought tears to my eyes and she's a true inspiration to people all around the world.
Link to show notes
Where to find me
alinawarrick.com
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Laila Pence
Laila was born in Egypt and had a great upbringing, but when war broke out when she was 9 years old she nearly died. She escaped a bomb that landed in her room shortly after escaping with her family. After that, her life completely changed forever. Laila had to be separated from her family and live with her grandmother for a period of time, go to a French school and that was the worst year of her life.
Her dad finally filed papers to move to the States but a month before the departure, he broke his leg and wasn't able to go. Laila and her mom moved to New York with and lived with a family, renting a one bedroom.
They had extremely humble beginnings, she was selling hot dogs at the Staten Island after school as well as her mom. She would've never imagined being where she's at right now; wealthy, a multimillionaire, all because she opened up her own wealth management firm at the age of 22.
Her journey to success is quite astonishing. She's been featured in lots of lists in Forbes and Barron's and dominates the wealth management market.
Link to show notes
Mentioned in the episode
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Millionaire next door by Thomas J. Stanley
(affiliate links included)
Where to find me
alinawarrick.com
email: hello@alinawarrick.com
Get first month FREE with Audible
(affiliate links included)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Mo Hossain
Mo lived a freeing and a happy life in Bangladesh, but when he came with his family members to join his father in the States at 13 years old he had to take ESL classes to learn English. He had no idea what business he was going to open.
For a period of time he wanted to save money to start some sort of venture to create passive income. However, when he quit his day job he had no plan. There was absolutely no business idea in place, so he went traveling.
After some travels, he had several business ideas. He either wanted to get into real estate to get passive income, or start a life coach business. However, he quickly realized that starting a software company was his ultimate immigrant entrepreneur venture.
Link to show notes
My site:
alinawarrick.com
Get Audible for free for the first month (affiliate)!
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Anshu Karki
Anshu came to the States when she was 18 years old. She was raised by a single mother in Nepal and her plan was to come get her undergraduate degree in the States and go back to Nepal. However, her journey lead her on an unexpected path.
She got her undergraduate degree in business and economics and being an immigration attorney was not something that she dreamed of.
As an immigration attorney, Anshu is now serving immigrants all over the nation and businesses who want to retain immigrants in their companies.
Link to show notes
Get first month FREE with Audible. (affliate link)
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Doctor Maria Navas Moreno
Doctor Maria Navas Moreno came to the States of hoping to do scientific research. She was nearing the journey to becoming a professor when she realized she didn't want to do that anymore. Her journey lead to marrying a Columbian immigrant man and they both landed in Colorado. That is when she became unemployed as an immigrant due to her visa situation. During that entire year she was researching, networking and going to all the events that were closely related to her field.
She co-founded Lever Photonics and 3 years later, with 2 other co-founders they are now in a completely different field from where they began and thriving.
Link to show notes
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Andrey Sokurec
Andrey came to the States at 23 with $25,000 in debt. He not only had to start working odd jobs like in the construction business during the day and pizza delivery at nights but also needed to hire a private tutor to teach him English. He had many struggles when he first came to the States and you won't believe it, his entire plan was to make some money in the States and then go back home. It was never his plan to live in America.
As life threw curve balls Andrey found himself cold calling for 2 years, day in and day out, asking if people wanted to refinance their house. He found himself doing real estate and when he made his first $16,000 commission he thought that the American dream was at his fingertips.
His company was featured on the Inc. 5000 one of the fastest growing companies.
Link to show notes
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Sean is originally from Ireland and was one of 5 kids in his family. His dad always told him that you can be anything you want in America so he held onto that dream. After leaving Ireland and going to London he realized that the successful people that he read about in the library did not have ordinary jobs. So he quit and told everyone that he was going to America to become a millionaire.
He came to the States with $500 and a huge dream. He moved in with a far relative that thought he was a lunatic for following his dreams of becoming a millionaire. He did a lot of things out of the ordinary, but as humble as he is, considers himself a fairly normal person.
He's also a TV star, hosting ,The Deed on CNBC. Sean is an incredible humble, and wise guy who believes that you can achieve any dream in America.
Link to show notes
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Tsvetta grew up in a post communism Bulgaria and remembers standing in long lines to get a loaf of bread with her grandma. She always craved more in her tiny town and wasn’t getting it. She decided to apply for scholarships outside of her country and with many options she decided to get as far away from Bulgaria and to the most exotic place, she called America.
Upon arriving as a 20 year old into a huge city she was constantly lost and didn't have a solid vision of her plan. Although the citizenship process is pretty brutal in America, she stuck it out to do everything the legal way.
In this episode she explains how she went through her struggles, what it meant to her to have her own business and the journey that she's on.
Link to show notes
My site: alinawarrick.com
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Robbie came to the States in his 20s from Dominican Republic with his band partners to pursue music. He was raised by a single mother and he never intended to invent anything. He did loads of odd jobs like valet parking, doing real estate, working in restaurants, and hotels. Robbie’s first side hustle was selling collectibles online and after it wasn’t working out, he ended up selling the business just to recoup some of the debt.
While being laid off, depressed and at home with his wife and three little kids he realized that he needed to get his act together and start doing something. He joined the gym to lose some weight and get back into shape. This is where BenjiLock was born.
Link to show notes
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Doctor Patrick Anquetil was born in Paris where the status quo environment was to set you up only to work on a government focused career. Entrepreneurship was not common at all and in fact if you have told him that he was going to open not one but several businesses when he was young, he would’ve thought that you were from another planet.
He was never set out to become an entrepreneur and his parents never motivated him to become one. His studies were done in MIT when he was on a PhD program but it just so happens that Wall Street was his gateway to his first entrepreneurship adventure.
Link to show notes
My contacts:
alinawarrick.com
hello@alinawarrick.com
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Immigrant Entrepreneur: Mercedes Concepcion-Gray.
Mercedes came to the States right after college with 2 suitcases and $200 in her pocket. She had a college degree that wasn't highly recognized in the States but with her broken English and resiliency she was able to make it in the corporate America.
After being in corporate America she quit, and started her own company in her mid 40s. She is a true inspiration to all immigrants who want to escape the corporate world and always dreamed of starting their own businesses.
Link to show notes
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Max Faingezicht came to the States from Costa Rica to study at MIT in the MBA program. Altough his entrace to the States was pretty smooth, his immigrant entrepreneurial path was not at all a straight path.
Max was a co-founder at Thrive Hive and one of his biggest successes was raising $1.5 million in capital to continue the launch of Thrive Hive.
He now started a brand new company, Telescoped. I call it more of a philanthrapy movement because the mission behind Telescoped is to connect highly intelligent engineers from his home country, Costa Rica, with the folks in America that can pour into their dreams of starting a business.
Link to show notes
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Sandi's immigrant entrepreneur journey started when she was young, by babysitting in her Jewish neighborhood. She came to the States when she was 10 years old and constantly remembered how her mom's work ethic impacted her entrepreneurial path. In this episode, Sandi shares her experience escaping the corporate world and how she's sailing through COVID season only because she sailed through the 9/11 market.
Link to show notes
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
I'm so excited to have Vladimir Gendelman on my show because he's also from the former Soviet Union, just like I am. He is living proof of starting a business without knowing anything about business growth, or success. But his fire and his passion drove him to be featured in Inc.com as one of the fastest growing companies. He's been in business for 17 years and his revenue is in the millions.
Link to show notes
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Herby Duverne came to the States when he was 20 years old from Haiti. Life in Haiti wasn't all that great. He got to eat 2 meals a day, the whole family lived in one room, the kitchen was outside and the laundry was done by hand.
Herby was in and out of school in Haiti all because his mom couldn't afford putting him through school during the entire school year. Anytime the money would run out, Herby was let go from school until the tuition is all paid for.
Herby's immigrant entrepreneur success is rooted from how people live in Haiti. Let's hear his success immigrant entrepreneur success story, and hear what his thoughts are to new immigrant entrepreneurs.
Link to show notes
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
JP came to the States when he was 13 years old with his family. As many immigrants he didn't know any English and was set out to become an engineer. His immigrant entrepreneur journey blows me away because he got into real estate through a newspaper ad. Today, his company, JP & Associates Realtors is based out of Texas and has 3,200 agents. It is claimed to be America's fastest-growing 100% commission brokerage & franchise.
Link to show notes
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Doctor Luis Velasquez went through several paths of life before starting Velas Coaching in Silicon Valley. I'm so delighted to learn how he reinvented himself several times, battled brain tumor to come out victorious. He's a true inspiration to all of us, immigrants, who are desiring to start a business!
Link to show notes
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Today I get to bring my dad on the show! He's a true immigrant entrepreneur example of coming to America without knowing any English, with very little cash and starting his own business at the age of 37!
Let's hear the journey he took to the land of opportunities and how he's been able to be in business for over 20 years!
Link to show notes
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support
Link to show notes Agie Sihotang always says YES to opportunities and then figures it out. He is an absolute genius in reselling everything he puts his hands on. He flipped shoes, he flipped TVs, and even website design services!
Agie quit his master’s program to sell TVs and that conversation with his Indonesian parents was not an easy task. When Agie first started his company he had absolutely no investments, no capital, and he told his best friend who was helping him out in the new business and his wife to prepare themselves because they are going to hit a million dollars.
I truly believe that the power of words transcends our outcomes and Agie is a true example of that.
Agie started Indo Trading USA without any capital, and without any angel investors!
His first month sales hit $6,000, second month $12,000, third month $18,000 and on the 9th month of being in business he hit $1,000,000 in sales.
He now holds a multimillion dollar company and he’s thriving.
He truly believes in learning from others, networking and building relationships.
Where to find Agie Sihotang * https://indotradingusa.com/
- https://www.instagram.com/indotradingusa/
Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/immigrantentrepreneurs/support