Welcome to Foreign Founders.

We're creating slightly different programming where we highlight innovation ecosystems around the world, the first is with Yokohama, Japan.

Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan, and only 45 minutes from Tokyo, and home to many large Japanese companies, and many startups.

Yokohama has historically been ahead of their time, as they were the first port city to open up influence to foreigners, and today they are focused on becoming an innovation hub for many businesses including climate tech and mobility companies.

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Make Engaging Shopping Experiences For Your Customers with PlayAbly

Angelo is the co-founder of PlayAbly, a gamification platform that drives deeper customer engagement. Online brands generate excitement and curiosity using our playable ads and onsite games. Founded by veterans from mobile gaming and e-commerce marketing, PlayAbly's mission is to make shopping fun again.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Angelo’s immigrant background from Philippines to the US
• Career transition from economic litigation consulting to E-commerce SaaS founder
• Building a startup based on learnings from a big company, and how that was a PMF trap
• Pivoting multiple times and the finding the ability to be nimble with customer input and market reactions

Angelo Ferro on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angeloferro/

PlayAbly AI website: https://playably.ai/

Enjoy the episode!

If you love this episode, please share and review the podcast! It will help more immigrant and international founders find these content.

You can find us here: https://linktr.ee/foreignfounders

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Waste no more with FridgeGuide AI

Delian Petrov is the CEO and co-founder of FridgeGuide AI, where he’s driving a mission to revolutionize grocery management and reduce food waste. Born in Bulgaria and raised in the U.S., Delian’s journey from earning his B.S. at UC Irvine to leading successful tech ventures like SeaStatus has been fueled by a relentless passion for innovation and sustainability.

His time living in Colombia opened his eyes to the devastating impact of food waste, igniting the spark that led to FridgeGuide AI. Delian is known for his ability to forge meaningful collaborations and inspire those around him.

FridgeGuide AI will utilize AI to help food banks manage donor contributions and sync with affiliated grocery stores. The application will lower unnecessary costs, reduce food waste, and provide analytics on inventory usage, donation patterns, and client services to optimize food pantry operations.

The app addresses a lingering problem in the food bank industry. By modernizing inventory management with FridgeGuide AI, food banks can better track expiration dates, handle surges in donations, and optimize warehouse space. Without a clear system, food banks often face issues with expired goods, underutilized donations, and inefficient resource allocation. These issues contribute to higher operational costs, increased food insecurity, and greater food waste.

When he’s not shaping the future of food tech, Delian finds joy in playing the piano, snowboarding, and exploring new places.

Enjoy the episode!

Website: https://fridgeguide.ai/

Delian Petrov LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/delianpetrov/

If you love this episode, please share and review the podcast! It will help more immigrant and international founders find these content. Please do not hesitate to reach out to [email protected] for any inquiries and questions.

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Learn how Rosette Health is preparing healthcare providers on a wide range of patient scenarios.

This week on Foreign Founders, we share a company living at the intersection of maternity care and Generative AI. Gülin Yilmaz, born and raised in Türkiye, studied engineering in France, and built her professional career in the U.S. Prior to starting her company, she was Head of Product at Stork Club, and been an integral part of teams at Meta, CompactCath, Carrum Health and Paypal.

As the co-founder and CEO of Rosette Health, she and her team are on a mission to bridge cultural barriers between practitioners and their patients to improve maternal health and neonatal health.

On this episode, we talk about:

• Gülin’s early life in Turkey and France, before moving to the US
• Being in the room where her father was conducting business, and how that had an impact on her
• Maternal health inequalities in the US, and how Rosette Health is addressing them through AI simulations

Enjoy the episode!

Rosette Health website: https://www.rosettehealth.ai/

Gülin Yilmaz LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isilgulinyilmaz/

Connect directly with Gülin to explore partnerships and investment opportunities

Find more of Foreign Founders: https://linktr.ee/foreignfounders

We create content and have a community for immigrant and first-gen founders.

If you love this episode, please share and review the podcast! It will help more immigrant and first-gen founders find this podcast.

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Are you building an early stage B2B SaaS founder? Pitch Forum VC.

We are back the latest season of Foreign Founders. I’m so excited to kick off this season with the incredible Naomi Goez.

Naomi is an operator turned investor based in New York City who grew up in Israel and then later in Canada. She began her career in supply chain within the fashion industry, initially in mature industry before moving over to the startup ecosystem. Today she is a Principal at Forum Ventures, a B2B SaaS early stage venture capital firm.

Naomi shares:

• Why she was attracted to fashion from a young age
• How the complex business nature of the fashion industry captured her attention
• Tactical ways immigrant founders can get into the room with VCs
• What to do once you’re pitching VCs

and much more

Enjoy the episode!

Forum VC website

Naomi Goez’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-goez-72879484/

Find more of Foreign Founders: https://linktr.ee/foreignfounders

We create content and have a community for immigrant and first-gen founders.

If you love this episode, please share and review the podcast! It will help more immigrant and first-gen founders find this podcast.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Build your remote team and virtual assistants with Wishup

Neelesh Rangwani is an engineer by education, a marketer at heart and cofounder of Wishup.co. He started Wishup.co to help founders build a remote team within 30 minutes with top 0.1% talent from around the world.

Wishup aims to create 1 million remote jobs to enable people to work from anywhere in the world. Wishup has served 900+ clients in last 7 years and is a well know brand amongst jobseekers in India.

Neelesh can be spotted from a distance due to salt and pepper hair. He loves to play badminton and his interests are investing, geopolitics, and macro economy. He believes he can make the best Chai (Indian tea) in the world. ;)

Build your team with Wishup today

Enjoy the episode!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wishup-services/

X: https://x.com/wishupnow

Neelesh LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neeleshrangwani/

If you love this episode, please share and review the podcast! It will help more immigrant and international founders find these content. Please do not hesitate to reach out to [email protected] for any inquiries and questions.

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Download The Scene on the App Store today!

Ridhima Kalani grew up in a small town in India, where she became the chief coordinator and planner for her family. That continued throughout her school into her time at New York University.

She was so good at finding the right place for her classmates, that she would wake up to random texts asking her to find the “best spot in NYC” for the vibe, the food, the occasion and everything in between.

The personal concierge service became The Scene, a highly personalized recommendation and reservation platform for your New York City outing.

In this episode, Ridhima shares:

• How she was surrounded by entrepreneurship at home
• The realization of business value when strangers texted her personal number asking for recommendations
• The inefficiencies of existing ways to find and book restaurants
• Her successful crowdfunding for an in-person dining app during a pandemic
• The Scene’s special sauce, matching vibes for their customers

and so much more!

Learn more about The Scene

Enjoy the episode!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thescenenewyork/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-scene-nyc/

Download The Scene on iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-scene-nyc/id6479357875

If you love this episode, please share and review the podcast! It will help more immigrant and international founders find these content. Please do not hesitate to reach out to [email protected] for any inquiries and questions.

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Need a system to manage complex family logistics? Download Orgo

Zoya Lehrer is the co-founder and CEO of Orgo. Orgo, derivative of “organization on the go”, is the first mobile app designed for personal logistics. After bootstrapping for over a year through their alpha and beta releases, Orgo launched publicly in early 2024. They target busy families who manage and launching publicly early 2024, they are targeting busy families who manage complex schedules of extracurricular activities and youth sports. Orgo offers a hybrid calendar, navigation and communication platform that helps to get the right people, to the right places, on time.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Zoya’s humble beginning moving from the former Soviet Union to Brooklyn
• Following her mother’s footsteps in engineering
• Lessons from 20 years in corporate and finance
• Observing family logistics of managing the schedules of three athletes in the home
• Why she decided to build her company in public

and so much more!

Download Orgo: https://www.orgohq.com/

Follow Zoya as she builds in public: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoyalehrer/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orgoapp

Enjoy the episode!

If you love this episode, please share and review the podcast! It will help more immigrant and international founders find these content. Please do not hesitate to reach out to [email protected] for any inquiries and questions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Download the Milksense Lactation Tracking App

My guest today is Sujay Suresh Kumar, the CEO and Co-Founder of Lilu.

Sujay received his Bachelor's degree in Electronics Engineering from Osmania University and master's in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He is passionate about working at the intersection of technology and women's health. He has previously cofounded a non-profit called Jyothi in India, a platform for survivors of harrassment and rape to voice their grievances anonymously and receive support. He has spent 2 years in Shenzhen, China, vetting and working closely with manufacturers to bring the Lilu's products to market. He was named in Forbes 30 under 30 in Consumer Tech 2022.

His company, Lilu, builds tech products to make postpartum care more comfortable, efficient and pain-free for new moms.

They are building an ecosystem of smart products to address the physical and mental challenges around lactation and maternal wellbeing, including:

1. The Omni Breast Pump, a wearable breast pump that uses our patented breast massage technology to help moms pump 55% more milk!
2. The MilkSense Tracker that leverages AI to help new moms track their breastfeeding and pumping sessions and provide them with unprecedented insights into their lactation and well being. The Milksense app is currently in beta on Apple and Android

How you can help Lilu:

• Lilu is currently raising a seed round to launch and scale our product lines, and grow the team.
• Lilu is currently looking to onboard experienced professionals to our Board of Directors, especially with prior experience in marketing, growing medical device companies.

Enjoy the episode!

Lilu: https://www.wearlilu.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sujaysuresh/

If you love this episode, please share and review the podcast! It will help more immigrant and international founders find these content. Please do not hesitate to reach out to [email protected] for any inquiries and questions.

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Listen to Sydney’s podcast, Unlocking Venture Capital

Sydney Wong is the principal and investor at VenturX Capital, a family office that invests in industry-agnostic pre-seed and seed companies. Prior to her current role, she was the founder and CEO of a fintech company that had a successful exit to the family office. Sydney also creates weekly startup content through her podcast, Unlocking Venture Capital, where she invites investors from firms like Tusk Ventures, Alumni Ventures and more. Sydney is also the host for her own podcast, Unlocking Venture Capital, and chapter lead for Women in VC.

Enjoy the episode!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydneywong1/

Listen to Sydney’s podcast, Unlocking Venture Capital: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Itfe2YNMpXnjX909fU9gT

If you love this episode, please share and review the podcast! It will help more immigrant and international founders find these content. Please do not hesitate to reach out to [email protected] for any inquiries and questions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.