Betting Big: Young Immigrant Entrepreneurs

Jan 30th, 2018
SRI International Conference Center
333 Ravenswood Drive
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Event Link: www.vlab.org/events/young-imm...
Event Flyer: www.vlab.org/wp-content/uploa...
===Moderator:
Mohit Aron, Founder and CEO, Cohesity
===Panelists:
Iba Masood, Co-Founder and CEO, TARA.AI
Tenzin Seldon, Co-Founder and CEO, Kinstep
Gary Kurek, Founder and CEO, Kügar
Adelanwa Adesanya, Co-Founder, Moving Analytics, Inc.
===Featured Speaker:
Iliana G. Perez, Research Analyst, Stanford University Graduate School of Business
===Event Team
Event Team Chair: Sangam Sangameswara
Event Team Co-Chair: Esha Prasad
Event Team: Michael Chen, Hira Dangol, David Fundenberg, Monique Hodgkinson, Ravi Prasad, Anshuman Tripathi
===Description
One of the most highly-motivated, capable groups of individuals in America is often taken for granted: young immigrant entrepreneurs. They leave their home countries to bring their dreams to live in the land of opportunity. Immigrants are some of our most brilliant innovators, researchers, and scientists. They make up only 12% of the U.S. population but in recent years hold 30% of its patents, 47% of its doctorates in science and engineering, and 25% of its Nobel Prizes. Young immigrant entrepreneurs are tackling challenging problems, building successful companies, creating jobs, and adding to the economy.
While there are political factions with anti-immigration agendas, the facts will not change: immigrants are twice as likely to start businesses than U.S.-born citizens. According to Inc. Magazine, between 1995 and 2005 immigrants founded 52% of all new Silicon Valley companies, with 25% of them raising VC funds. In 2012, tech companies founded by immigrant entrepreneurs employed over 560,000 people and generated over $63 billion in sales.
Well-known immigrant entrepreneurs, including Sergey Brin, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Vinod Khosla, have built some of the world’s most successful companies. If not for immigrants, Google, PayPal, Tesla, Evernote, Reddit, and many other companies would not exist. With new ideas and diverse perspectives, young immigrant entrepreneurs are leading promising startups that could be the next unicorns.
What drives these young entrepreneurs to immigrate?
How do they overcome the many challenges that they face?
Are they concerned about immigration reform affecting their companies?