How to be a Networking Ninja with Andrew Warner

Andrew’s parents came to the United States from the Middle East. In the mid-90s, Andrew saw that people in the U.S. had different perceptions of immigrants, so he changed his name from Shuki Khalili to Andrew Warner. After forming a startup with his brother, he tried different ideas and spent a lot of time analyzing how people connect, and what makes a successful professional relationship. In 2003, Andrew was burned out, and took a break to read and study various aspects … [Read more...]

Creating Tools to Simplify Podcasting with Hani Mourra

Hani Mourra was born in Kuwait. When the Gulf War started in the 1990s, his family moved to Iraq, Jordan, the United States, and eventually Canada - where he now resides. Hani's first passion was video, which led him to launch Easy Online Video Tips to show people how video could boost the success of their business. From there, Hani created the Simple VideoPress plug-in to help automate uploading videos and integrating them into websites. One thing led to another, and … [Read more...]

Finding a Problem You are Passionate to Solve with Vijay Ragavan

Vijay Ragavan came to the US to get his masters in CS at the University of Georgia. He became an intern at Motorola in the Bay Area (California) and fell in love with it. From there (late-90s) he worked as an engineer for a startup (cellmania.com). After the .com bubble burst in 2001, Vijay was laid off and had to hunt for a new job. He was contacted by Yahoo! to be an engineer and had to return to India to get his visa in order, so he could return to work. Within … [Read more...]

Living the Nightlife with Bak Zoumanigui

Bak Zoumanigui was born in Senegal and moved to France where he completed most of his pre-university studies. When his father got a job in Austin, Texas, Bak was thrown into southwestern U.S. culture as he was completing high school. After college, Bak worked in the IT industry, while also developing his love of dance and nightlife in Austin. After launching a blog in 2009 to showcase the personal stories of bartenders, DJs, musical artists and performers, Bak started … [Read more...]

Extending Entrepreneurial Opportunities to Immigrants with Nitin Pachisia

Nitin Pachisia spent the early part of his career with Deloitte, focusing on small and mid sized tech companies to help them grow. From there, Nitin worked to help in the R&D aspect of other startups, and saw that there was a void keeping highly skilled workers working on a visa status to start their own businesses. With that vision, Nitin started Unshackled, which funds startups including teams with immigrant founders who are feeling stuck working for other … [Read more...]

Making a class project into a real world business with Shyam Devnani

Shyam Devnani grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and helped in the family businesses, when he was younger. After graduating from Babson College, Shyam worked in India before moving to the United States. Shyam worked in marketing and strategy before deciding to take the plunge and start up his own business – India in a Box. Shyam recently launched his own line of gluten-free, vegetarian, traditional Indian meals that can be shipped directly to customer and can be taken … [Read more...]

Startup Insights with Ramesh Padala

Ramesh Padala had an extensive career working Electronic Design Automation (EDA), and spent many years working for other established companies and startups, before deciding to break away and explore consumer design. During this time, Ramesh struggled with funding his own ventures, borrowing against his own savings and dealing with incredulity from those close to him while he followed a new direction. As a small project, Ramesh created Yoga Tailor, and set it aside to … [Read more...]

Taking the Leap of Faith with Raj Sidharthan

Raj Sidharthan left his stable corporate job to start his own UX design firm, Freshdesign. After becoming an entrepreneur, Raj landed big name clients like Facebook, Adobe and HP. Raj joined me to lend some words of wisdom about becoming an entrepreneur, and the empowerment that comes with taking control of your own destiny.   In this session, Raj discusses: Taking that leap of faith from well-paying job to becoming an entrepreneur How some personal … [Read more...]

How to “Crash” Your Way into Starting a Business with Sasha Eslami

Sasha is the founder and CEO of Eversnap which is a mobile app to share pictures from any event. After getting fired from a corporate job in Atlanta, he moved to silicon valley to pursue his startup dream. After moving to silicon valley, he hustled his way to start his own company Eversnap. You can reach Sasha through email.   Links Eversnap and Eversnappro Article: How to Crash any Event by Sasha Sasha writes at medium.com Recommendations Mixergy … [Read more...]

How a Personal Struggle Led to a Business Idea with Preethi Chandrasekhar

Preethi came to the US as part of an on-site software development project. After the birth of her daughter, she found herself juggling motherhood and freelancing. When she was looking for parenting advice online, she saw a lack of outlets for Indian mothers. In 2011, Preethi founded Indian Mothers Connect (IMC) a global community for urban Indian mothers to connect and share stories. IMC has since grown from a small operation to a fully monetized global network where … [Read more...]