Immigrant Entrepreneurs

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.

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.

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!

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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! 

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. 

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! 

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!

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. 

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.

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! 

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.

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. 

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!

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

 

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!

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.

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. 

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!

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!

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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! 

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.

 

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!

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. 

 

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!!

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. 

 

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!

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!

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. 

 

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!