Immigration Tech & Marketing - The GMI Rocket Show - Hosted by Roman Zelichenko.

Join my discussion with Henry Soo, founder, and CEO of Settlely, an online resettlement concierge based in Vancouver. Settlely helps connect immigrant newcomers to life's essentials using an on demand concierge model and Henry, Settle’s founder and CEO, has a fascinating story.  His great grandfather moved to California during the gold rush, and after a few generations, Henry was born and raised in Vancouver, BC.  Henry started his career in tech back in the 90s, moved to China for 15 years to work on foreign investment, and since returning to Canada, is instrumental to the Vancouver startup scene and so much more.  So, here’s what we’re going to talk about:

For More Information On Settlely:

Jeremy Fudge, Managing Partner at BAL!  BAL is one of the world’s biggest and most recognized corporate immigration law firms but is also a technology leader as well.  They’ve been pioneering immigration tech for decades, have built their own platform called Cobalt as well as other immigration tech tools, and are constantly investing in the up-and-coming.  So Jeremy, as a managing partner, is instrumental to BAL’s continued tech advancement. Jeremy’s been a partner with the firm for almost 15 years, and here’s what we’ll be talking about: :

For More Information On BAL:

Join my discussion with Michael Guirguis, the CEO of Seso, and he’s tackling agricultural immigration and the H-2A visa.  Michal and his team come from consulting & farming rather than immigration, and I think this is SUPER important because innovation within an industry is often inspired by an outside perspective.  As for Michael, he graduated from Stanford with a degree in Economics, had a stint at the White House, and then joined McKinsey, where he worked around the world.  After leaving McKinsey, Michael worked for an EduTech startup for a handful of years before finally launching Seso in 2019.  So, here’s what we’ll be talking about:

For More Information On Seso:

For episode 39 of the GMI Rocket show, my guest is someone with an incredibly impressive career spanning the entire globe and ending in immigration tech: Brendan Ryan, CEO of Nomadic!  Brendan has had an illustrious career. First, he spent more than 2 decades in the Australian government: Department of Immigration, embassies in the Philippines and Hong Kong, and India to name a few.  Brendan then moved to private practice, first as a partner at PwC’s Australian immigration practice and eventually at Fragomen, where he spent over 16 years in offices around the world.  Finally, in 2019, Brendan became the CEO of Nomadic, a business visa, and document procurement company, which spun out of Fragomen.  Here’s what we’ll be talking about:

Brendan’s early years & how he got his first job in Australia’s Dep’t of Immigration, Working for the Australian government around the world, How and why Brendan switched to private practice when he joined PwC, Brenda’s eventual move to Fragomen, and his experience there for nearly 2 decades, How Nomadic was born, and his journey to becoming CEO, What Nomadic does, what’s coming, and Brendan’s vision for the future of immigration tech, And more!

For More Information on Nomadic:

https://www.gonomadic.com/

Today is a different type of guest on the GMI Rocket show - more of an INTRApreneur within a large corporation than my typical founder guest: Damian Wilson, manager at Abogado.com  Damian has been with Thomson Reuters since 2012, moving up the ladder every few years.  He worked with law firms, helping them with TR’s SaaS product, and at FindLaw assisting law firms with marketing.  Eventually, Damian stepped into a leadership role at Abogado.com, with a truly entrepreneurial mindset, to grow that business.  If you haven’t heard of it, Abogado.com helps lawyers that work with Spanish-speaking clients get in front of and connect with those clients. As you can imagine, immigration lawyers are a big part of this.  So, here’s what we’ll be talking about: 

For More Information On Abogado:

I’m super excited for episode 37 of the GMI Rocket show because my guest is immigration lawyer, tech founder, and social media guru Bahar Ansari, founder of 2nd.law and co-founder of Case.one I met Bahar at the first-ever AILA tech and innovation summit in 2019. We connected right away over immigration tech and how it can help immigration law firms automate, streamline and scale.  But Bahar is also a social media guru - she’s active on Instagram, Linked In, TikTok, Clubhouse, and more. She has her own podcast, and we’ve discussed the power of digital marketing too!  This episode can easily go on for hours because there’s just so much to learn from Bahar. But I’ll try to keep it manageable So, here’s what we’ll be talking about:  

Bahar’s story and immigration journey, What drew Bahar to the legal field and her law school experience, Why Bahar went from litigation to immigration and started her own firm, How Bahar got into legal tech and founded Case.one, Bahar’s journey with Case.one, How Bahar has also scaled her law firm using social media, Where Bahar sees the immigration industry going in terms of tech and marketing, And more!

For More Information on Case.one: 

https://case.one/

My guest today on the GMI Rocket show is Amélie-Sophie Vavrovsky, co-founder of Formally, an immigration tech startup that’s simplifying immigration applications through accessible design.  Formally focuses on asylum applications (though it’s expanding) and, importantly, supports multiple languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.  Amélie herself has an incredible background: she graduated Brown University with a focus on international relations and Middle East studies, worked with nonprofit Impactive in Somalia, Haiti, and Egypt, is currently doing research at Stanford and speaks NINE languages!!  And in the meantime, she launched Formally, to bring address access-to-justice via technology. Here’s what we’ll be talking about: :

For More Information On Formally:

Today is episode 33 of the GMI Rocket show, and I’m joined by Ilya Brotzky, the CEO & founder of VanHack, which connects tech talent from around the world who are willing to relocate with hiring employers. VanHack is based in Vancouver, BC, but its reach is truly global. They have over 180,000 members from 100+ countries.  And it’s not just pure recruiting - VanHack hosts conferences, webinars, workshops, and more, all with the goal of creating a community of people looking for a job in tech and companies that are hiring.  Ilya launched his first venture while a senior at Cornell, spent considerable time in Brazil, and then started multiple businesses before starting VanHack in 2014.  Here’s what we’ll talk about: 

Ilya’s early life and his time at Cornell, What inspired him to launch his first venture, Mountains for Moms, How Ilya found himself in Brazil, and what he did there, What eventually brought him back to Canada, How he launched VanHack, and the first steps he took, What VanHack does and how he’s scaled it so much in just a few years, What Ilya sees as the current state of the global workforce, and where it’s going. And more!

For More Information on VanHack:

https://vanhack.com/

Today, in episode 34 of the GMI Rocket show, I’m interviewing one of the immigration tech stars of the last few years: Xiao Wang, co-founder, and CEO of Boundless. I actually first heard about Boundless on an episode of The Pitch, a podcast where guests pitch their startups to a panel of VC investors.  I still remember the day - I was on the bike at my gym, and I was SO HAPPY to hear immigration tech in the spotlight!  Since then, Boundless has raised over $18 million, and with its last round, acquired a competitor, RapidVisa.  With the new administration and general trends within the industry, there’s a huge need for tech. But immigration tech raises a lot of questions too...  So here’s what we’ll be talking about::

For More Information On Boundless:

For Episode 35 of the GMI Rocket show, I’m interviewing the CEO of one of the largest immigration tech companies in the world! Dick Burke, CEO of Envoy Global. After working as a corporate lawyer for most of the 90s, Dick spent over a decade at Classified Ventures, a VC firm that famously owned Cars.com.  Then in 2012, he became President at Apartments.com, wherein for just 2 years, he helped reinvigorate the business and lead its acquisition. Shortly after the sale, he joined Envoy.  Actually, at that time (2015), it wasn’t called Envoy yet… it was called VISANOW.  After Dick joined as CEO, the company rebranded to Envoy (2016), raised a $21M Series C round (2017), and has continued to grow ever since! Here’s what we’ll be talking about: 

Dick’s early days and his time in college and law school, Dick’s experience working as a corporate lawyer in Chicago, Why Dick went from law to VC, and what he learned, His journey growing and leading the sale of Apartments.com, Why Dick joined Envoy and what his vision was for immigration tech, How Envoy works, where the company is now and where it’s going, Where Dick sees the immigration tech industry going overall  And more!

For More Information on Envoy Global:

https://www.envoyglobal.com/