Immigrant Entrepreneurs

Immigrant Entrepreneur: Andrey Sokurec

Andrey came to the States at 23 with $25,000 in debt. He not only had to start working odd jobs like in the construction business during the day and pizza delivery at nights but also needed to hire a private tutor to teach him English. He had many struggles when he first came to the States and you won't believe it, his entire plan was to make some money in the States and then go back home. It was never his plan to live in America. 

As life threw curve balls Andrey found himself cold calling for 2 years, day in and day out, asking if people wanted to refinance their house. He found himself doing real estate and when he made his first $16,000 commission he thought that the American dream was at his fingertips. 

His company was featured on the Inc. 5000 one of the fastest growing companies. 

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Sean is originally from Ireland and was one of 5 kids in his family. His dad always told him that you can be anything you want in America so he held onto that dream. After leaving Ireland and going to London he realized that the successful people that he read about in the library did not have ordinary jobs. So he quit and told everyone that he was going to America to become a millionaire. 

He came to the States with $500 and a huge dream.  He moved in with a far relative that thought he was a lunatic for following his dreams of becoming a millionaire. He did a lot of things out of the ordinary, but as humble as he is, considers himself a fairly normal person. 

He's also a TV star, hosting ,The Deed on CNBC. Sean is an incredible humble, and wise guy who believes that you can achieve any dream in America.  

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Tsvetta grew up in a post communism Bulgaria and remembers standing in long lines to get a loaf of bread with her grandma. She always craved more in her tiny town and wasn’t getting it. She decided to apply for scholarships outside of her country and with many options she decided to get as far away from Bulgaria and to the most exotic place, she called America.

Upon arriving as a 20 year old into a huge city she was constantly lost and didn't have a solid vision of her plan. Although the citizenship process is pretty brutal in America, she stuck it out to do everything the legal way. 

In this episode she explains how she went through her struggles, what it meant to her to have her own business and the journey that she's on.

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My site: alinawarrick.com

Robbie came to the States in his 20s from Dominican Republic with his band partners to pursue music. He was raised by a single mother and he never intended to invent anything. He did loads of odd jobs like valet parking, doing real estate, working in restaurants, and hotels. Robbie’s first side hustle was selling collectibles online and after it wasn’t working out, he ended up selling the business just to recoup some of the debt. 

While being laid off, depressed and at home with his wife and three little kids he realized that he needed to get his act together and start doing something.  He joined the gym to lose some weight and get back into shape. This is where BenjiLock was born.

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Doctor Patrick Anquetil was born in Paris where the status quo environment was to set you up only to work on a government focused career. Entrepreneurship was not common at all and in fact if you have told him that he was going to open not one but several businesses when he was young, he would’ve thought that you were from another planet. 

He was never set out to become an entrepreneur and his parents never motivated him to become one. His studies were done in MIT when he was on a PhD program but it just so happens that Wall Street was his gateway to his first entrepreneurship adventure.

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My contacts:

alinawarrick.com

[email protected]

Immigrant Entrepreneur: Mercedes Concepcion-Gray. 

Mercedes came to the States right after college with 2 suitcases and $200 in her pocket. She had a college degree that wasn't highly recognized in the States but with her broken English and resiliency she was able to make it in the corporate America. 

After being in corporate America she quit, and started her own company in her mid 40s. She is a true inspiration to all immigrants who want to escape the corporate world and always dreamed of starting their own businesses. 

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Max Faingezicht came to the States from Costa Rica to study at MIT in the MBA program. Altough his entrace to the States was pretty smooth, his immigrant entrepreneurial path was not at all a straight path. 

Max was a co-founder at Thrive Hive and one of his biggest successes was raising $1.5 million in capital to continue the launch of Thrive Hive. 

He now started a brand new company, Telescoped. I call it more of a philanthrapy movement because the mission behind Telescoped is to connect highly intelligent engineers from his home country, Costa Rica, with the folks in America that can pour into their dreams of starting a business. 

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Sandi's immigrant entrepreneur journey started when she was young, by babysitting in her Jewish neighborhood. She came to the States when she was 10 years old and constantly remembered how her mom's work ethic impacted her entrepreneurial path. In this episode, Sandi shares her experience escaping the corporate world and how she's sailing through COVID season only because she sailed through the 9/11 market. 

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I'm so excited to have Vladimir Gendelman on my show because he's also from the former Soviet Union, just like I am. He is living proof of starting a business without knowing anything about business growth, or success. But his fire and his passion drove him to be featured in Inc.com as one of the fastest growing companies. He's been in business for 17 years and his revenue is in the millions. 

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Herby Duverne came to the States when he was 20 years old from Haiti. Life in Haiti wasn't all that great. He got to eat 2 meals a day, the whole family lived in one room, the kitchen was outside and the laundry was done by hand. 

Herby was in and out of school in Haiti all because his mom couldn't afford putting him through school during the entire school year. Anytime the money would run out, Herby was let go from school until the tuition is all paid for. 

Herby's immigrant entrepreneur success is rooted from how people live in Haiti. Let's hear his success immigrant entrepreneur success story, and hear what his thoughts are to new immigrant entrepreneurs.  

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