Resiliency, Immigrant Founders, and Investors Who Make a Difference!

As an immigrant in the USA who has lived in six countries, I understand the challenges of integrating into a new system. From restarting my credit score in my 40s to navigating the process of obtaining a US social security number, the journey towards cultural understanding is complex. While traveling is about seeking the unfamiliar—exploring new nature, food, and culture—making a new country your home requires adopting and integrating old and new habits, expectations, and values into a new life. This demands self-awareness, determination, boldness, and an open mind. These are precisely the qualities we want in entrepreneurs.?

Living abroad for at least a year, or moving entirely to a new country, fending for oneself, and learning a new language are experiences that cultivate resilience and adaptability. When you hear a foreign accent, recognize it as a testament to someone's badass ability to thrive in changing circumstances.

“When you hear a foreign accent, recognize it as a testament to someone's badass ability to thrive in changing circumstances.”

Many of America's most successful entrepreneurs are immigrants. This aspect of American culture is something to be proud of. We might think of famous names like Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX; Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google; Indra Nooyi, former CEO and Chairman of PepsiCo; Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay; Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp; and Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo. However, immigrant entrepreneurs also include the local dry cleaner, restaurant owner, and dentist, who are vital drivers of the US economy. According to the US Chamber of Commerce, small businesses employ 45.9% of America’s workforce 4 in 10 small business owners are foreign-born, and over 40% are women.

Last year, at Sensate, we faced a very challenging capital market that, unfortunately, caused many quality businesses to falter despite having great products, simply because they couldn’t access capital. In our case, we also had committed funding pull out—an extremely difficult situation when you have ongoing costs in global sales operations, manufacturing, etc. Many founders would have thrown in the towel at this point, and several of our investors didn’t expect us to navigate our way through it. This is where flexibility, grit, and being accustomed to navigating unexpected challenges come into play. We successfully pivoted our strategy, stretched our cash runway, convinced two existing investors to support us with short-term loans, and here we are—on track to profitability by the end of this year.

“Many founders would have thrown in the towel at this point, and several of our investors didn’t expect us to navigate our way through it.”?

Now, in order to get there, we have to hit our milestones along the way. Internal milestones may be significant deliverables, but they are within our control. With the qualities of self awareness, determination, boldness, and an open mind, I am confident we will!

When it comes to funding, this also depends on the other side of it—the investors. I want to celebrate those who make a difference and shift the landscape by backing people who might not look or sound like the typical entrepreneurs who receive the majority of funding, but who have the resilience, grit, and adaptability to navigate the startup journey: Ihar Mahaniok from Geek Ventures, a savvy entrepreneur turned VC, investing in immigrant founders; Naseem Sayani (she/her) from Emmeline Ventures, Elisa Miller-Out from Chloe Capital, and Laurel Mintz from Fabric VC, who all are rockstars investing in female founders; Arlan Hamilton from Backstage Capital is devoted to investing in underrepresented founders, including women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs; and Brian Mac Mahon from ExpertDojo backing strong entrepreneurs all over the world who lack the traditional relationships to capital. These incredibly savvy investors recognize the highly relevant skills immigrant and other underrepresented founders bring to business success. These investors couple this understanding with a higher vision—that life is too short not to make a positive impact. They are moving the needle and making a real difference in the venture capital landscape!

“These investors couple this understanding with a higher vision—that life is too short not to make a positive impact. They are moving the needle and making a real difference in the venture capital landscape!”

If you have some capital sitting around, consider investing in these funds, and if you want to support us and invest in our future growth, we would love to have you onboard: https://www.getsensate.com/pages/interest or wefunder.com/sensate

?? https://www.getsensate.com/pages/interest - get in touch!

There is no reason to choose between doing good and doing well—that’s just a limiting belief. Join in!!