4 Immigrant Entrepreneurs Who Are Beating the Odds
If being an entrepreneur isn’t hard enough, there are many immigrant entrepreneurs who are trying to become successful while combatting stereotypes, cultural differences, and language barriers. With the many challenges that this particular group of business owners face, it can be harder than usual to thrive.
These four immigrant entrepreneurs have beaten the odds and are now successful business owners in their adopted country.
Immigrant entrepreneurs who have found success
Shayan Zadeh and Alex Mehr
Shayan Zadeh and Alex Mehr both had a successful history before launching one of the biggest apps in social media. Zoosk, which was launched in 2007, is one of the biggest online dating apps and is available in over 80 countries.
Zadeh and Mehr met at the Sharif University of Technology in Iran and then attended graduate school at the University of Maryland, where they earned master’s degrees. After college, Shayan worked for Microsoft and Mehr worked for NASA.
Zoosk is not only the number-one grossing dating app in 2014 but had revenue in 2013 of $178.2 million. The company has approximately 27 million members.
AJ Rassamni
AJ Rassamni is an entrepreneur from Lebanon. He is the author of Gain the Unfair Advantage and Increase Business 30 Percent in 30 Days. He has been featured in Forbes, has been a keynote speaker many times, hosts webinars, boot camp training, videos, phone coaching, and more.
Growing up in Lebanon was not easy for Rassamni. His father died when he was only eight. Shortly after, at the age of 12, civil war broke out in the country and lasted for nine years. In 1985, Rassamni finally left Lebanon for the United States with $100 in his pocket.
In 1987, Rassamni was in California, attending college at night, working at a car wash during the day, and dreaming of owning his own business. Even though he was only earning minimum wage, he worked hard in many areas of the car wash—fixing things and making change to grow profits for the business.
When he decided to leave the car wash, his distressed boss offered him a share of the business to stay, and he took it. After several years, his efforts led him to owning several car washes, including the one he worked at for many years.
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Alexander Torrenegra
Alexander Torrenegra is an entrepreneur originally from Colombia. Torrenegra, and is mostly known for co-founding Bunny Inc., a crowdsourcing and outsourcing company that he founded with his wife. Torrenegra is also the co-founder and investor of many other companies, including but not limited to, Webhostels, Dashbell, BogoDev, BogoTech, and HubBog, and has received many awards, including the 2013 NYC Venture Fellowship Award and the High-Impact Entrepreneur Title by Endeavor.
Torrenegra started his first business in Bogotá, Colombia, at the tender age of 14. The reason he started a business was because he wanted to purchase a computer, but his family did not have enough money. Torrenegra lived in a 400-square-foot apartment with his mother and grandmother, and was fortunate enough to have a black-and-white television in the 1980s.
After successfully running a business in Colombia, he came to the United States in 1997, where he was forced get a job at McDonald’s because his English was poor. Torrenegra met his wife and business partner in 2003, and now after much hard work he's become a successful business owner, despite the challenges he faced early on.
Immigrant entrepreneurs face many challenges
It’s no secret that becoming a successful business owner is not easy, but being an immigrant entrepreneur comes with many difficulties of its own that many U.S. natives do not experience.
It’s important to keep your dreams and goals alive because with hard work, anybody can succeed.
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