Immigrant Entrepreneurs

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!