Immigrant Entrepreneurs
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© alina
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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
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
84 Episodes
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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!
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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!
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