Sometimes, entrepreneurs need encouragement.
Why? Because growing a small business can be incredibly challenging.
Indeed, entrepreneurship is the definition of going “against the grain,” of embracing chaos in a world that craves certainty. That’s why only disciplined dreamers and mavericks choose to launch a small business.
Today, we have the encouragement you may be looking for—especially if you recently immigrated to the United States.
In this article, we’ll introduce you to six immigrant business owners who built dominant companies after coming to the United States.
Though these individuals have reached great financial heights, they all started with a vision just like yours. They faced similar setbacks and endured equally devastating periods of doubt, but they persisted all the more.
These are their stories.
Starting Your Own U.S. Business as an Immigrant
Let’s zoom out for just a moment.
More specifically, let’s look at the overall success of immigrant business owners in America—the statistics may surprise you.
According to the New American Economy, there are over 3.2 million immigrant entrepreneurs in the United States. Collectively, these businesses generate over $1.3 trillion in annual sales.
While the economics are staggering, there’s another figure that’s even more amazing: immigrants are 80% more likely to launch a small business than native-born Americans.
Perhaps that’s why immigrants are driving the largest firms in America. In 2023, immigrant entrepreneurs (and their children) represented nearly 45% of the Fortune 500.
These statistics tell a cohesive story: immigrant entrepreneurs are both strong in number and economic mobility.
Therefore, while you do your due diligence, remember that your peers and predecessors have climbed the very mountain you’re gazing up at right now.
Yes, you’ll need to investigate the legal requirements for opening a small business. You’ll also need to write a small business plan and organize your financial documents. Plus, you’ll need to make time for networking and cultivating business relationships.
Finally, you’ll need to know the ins and outs of business credit as you investigate the many funding options available to you, including:
- Small business credit cards, both secured and unsecured.
- Community Development Financial Institutions, aka CDFIs.
- Small business grants, i.e., “free” money!
- Merchant cash advance, a “lump sum” of capital.
- Small Business Administration loans, SBA.
While these details may seem overwhelming, take confidence in the fact that the following entrepreneurs have stood in your shoes before—and prevailed.
Six Immigrant Success Stories
Immigrant entrepreneurs are quite successful in the United States.
In fact, it’s rather challenging to choose which stories to tell, since there are so many to consider.
While the following entrepreneurs represent a small fraction of a larger whole, it’s important to note that they each hail from diverse regions of the world.
Though they have different skills, upbringings, and goals, they all forged their own path in the American marketplace.
1. Andrew Cherng (China), Panda Express
When Andrew Cherng was 18, he wanted to become a mathematician.
Leaving Yangzhou, China for Baldwin City, Kansas, he thought his future was clear: go to college, get a job, and build a family.
But something amazing—and unexpected—happened. After helping his father open a restaurant (with the help of an SBA loan), a frequent customer encouraged Andrew to open a Chinese fast-food shop inside a nearby mall.
He took the advice, and two years later (in 1985), Cherng was running nine different restaurants. Today, there are over 2,200 Panda Express locations worldwide, fueling Cherng’s $3.5 billion net worth.
Despite his enormous wealth, Andrew and his wife Peggy have always maintained a disciplined mentality: “Because we’re immigrants, we have a can-do attitude.”
The Cherngs were also quite frugal, limiting expenses in every possible way:
“From 1983 to 2000, with every new store, [we] would take an established team to the new location to help open the store. Every team would live in one apartment for a month, and [the] supervisor might sleep in the same room as you rather than go to hotels.”
Their sacrifices have been handsomely rewarded.
2. Jorge Pérez (Argentina), Related Group
The Miami skyline was largely built by one man from Buenos Aires.
Nevertheless, the story of Jorge Pérez had humble beginnings.
Born in Argentina to Cuban-exiled parents, Pérez came to Miami at the age of 19 without a dollar to his name. To make ends meet while in college, he “worked at a pizza restaurant in the kitchen and sold encyclopedias door to door”.
After graduation, he worked as an urban planner in low-income neighborhoods, learning the ins and outs of Miami real estate. At age 29, he founded the company that would become his empire: the Related Group.
While continuing to prioritize low-income housing, Pérez soon focused on building luxury waterfront towers that would secure his iconic title of “Condo King.”
Since founding Related Group in 1979, Pérez has reportedly developed over 80,000 condos and apartments that built his net worth of over $1.7 billion.
Though cognizant of the challenges in America, Pérez has maintained a hopeful disposition for the future of immigrant entrepreneurship:
“In America, you are judged by what you accomplish…I feel deeply indebted to the United States. While I know there’s prejudice and bigotry, I experienced very little or none of that in my career.”
The Miami skyline remains an enduring symbol of Pérez’s fortitude.
3. Jan Koum (Ukraine), WhatsApp
Born under the U.S.S.R., Jan Koum experienced poverty, tragedy, and totalitarianism in his youth.
When he, his mother, and his grandmother fled Kyiv for California in 1992, they hoped for a fresh start. However, his father died unexpectedly, and was never able to reunite with his family overseas. Worse, his mother was diagnosed with cancer not long after they arrived in the United States.
Adding to these challenges, his family lived exclusively on federal assistance and food stamps for a lengthy period of time. Koum also worked as a janitor and grocery bagger to help stay afloat.
Unfazed by this adversity, Koum enrolled in college and found employment in a variety of firms, including Yahoo! and Ernst & Young. After getting rejected from Facebook, however, he and his friend (and future business partner) Brian Acton decided to take matters into their own hands.
In fact, the release of the first Apple iPhone inspired him to create a messaging app for the digital era. On his 33rd birthday, he founded WhatsApp and officially launched the company in May 2009.
Though Facebook denied Koum’s job application, they eventually bought WhatsApp for a staggering $19 billion. That’s why Koum remains one of the richest immigrant entrepreneurs in America, with a net worth of over $15.2 billion.
While the numbers are mind-blowing, Koum’s entrepreneurial spirit is perhaps even more impressive. As he reflects on the success of WhatsApp, he confesses:
“We didn’t set out to build a company. We just wanted to build a product that people used.”
It’s safe to say Koum achieved his mission.
4. Liz Claiborne (Belgium), Liz Claiborne, Inc.
Born in Brussels in 1929, Liz Claiborne had her dreams deferred when World War II began.
Fleeing Belgium for Louisiana, her family sought safe harbor during an uncertain time. Claiborne was thrown off course in every way: she didn’t go to college, and in fact, she never even received her high school diploma.
Still, these setbacks didn’t stop her in the least. Her artistic passion and flair for fashion powered her through the global chaos and into a brighter future.
At age 21, she won a clothing design contest held by famed magazine Harper’s Bazaar. With this newfound victory and a surge of confidence, Claiborne headed to New York City to officially begin her career in the fashion industry.
Over the next few decades, she climbed the ranks of several major fashion labels and steadily made a name for herself. Before long, she was faced with a choice: to either stay an in-house designer or to set out on her own.
She chose the latter path and invested $50,000 of her own savings to establish Liz Claiborne, Inc., a boutique fashion line that provided professional attire to women at an affordable rate.
In its first year of operations, Liz Claiborne, Inc., made over $2 million in profits. By 1986, the company reached over $1.2 billion, making its founder the first woman entrepreneur to join the Fortune 500.
Like other world-class entrepreneurs, Claiborne identified a need and delivered a solution:
“The concept was to dress the American working woman because I, as a working woman with a child, didn’t want to spend hours shopping. Things should be easy.”
Chances are, you might have something from Liz’s collection in your wardrobe.
5. Pierre Omidyar (France), eBay
Born in Paris to Iranian parents, Pierre Omidyar immigrated to the U.S. at the tender age of 6.
As he grew up, Omidyar cultivated a fascination with computers. Little did he know that his hobby would soon coincide with the coming dot-com boom.
Beyond his love for technology, Omidyar was also a born entrepreneur. In fact, he launched multiple businesses with varying degrees of success, including a software company that he sold to Microsoft.
Despite his success, Omidyar grew frustrated with the start-up scene and took a 9-to-5 engineering job at a software company. While enjoying a more stable career, Omidyar met his future wife, Pamela, who had a knack for collecting Pez dispensers.
Over coffee one day, Pamela mentioned that she wanted to expand her Pez collection, giving Omidyar the idea to build an online auction service that worked across the United States.
And that’s how eBay was born.
Today, eBay hosts a dynamic marketplace for Pez dispensers and millions of other items. As a result of this soaring venture, Omidyar now boasts a net worth of over $6.3 billion, while eBay averages $10 billion in annual revenue.
Just like Koum and Clairborne, Omidyar never chased profits:
“I never had it in mind that I would start a company one day and it would really be successful. I have just been motivated by working on interesting technology.”
He just pursued his passion.
6. Rashmi Sinha (India), Slideshare
Born in Lucknow, India, Rashmi Sinha lived in Allahabad until her early 20s.
Since her childhood, Sinha demonstrated an aptitude for learning—whether studying literature, history, or mathematics. In other words, Sinha was a genius and excelled at practically everything.
This early trend continued well into her adulthood.
After coming to America, Sinha earned her Ph.D. at the prestigious Brown University, putting her on the fast track to an elite career in cognitive neuropsychology.
Nevertheless, destiny had other designs, as Sinha also harbored entrepreneurial traits that needed to be explored. This soon led to revolutionizing PowerPoint with Sinha’s exciting startup, Slideshare.
While leveraging the PowerPoint platform, Sinha merged the program with the power of social media. In her own words, she took “a cold format for business communication, and made it social”.
The presentation-sharing service took off, and before long, it commanded a hefty $118.75 million sale to LinkedIn in 2012.
Over a decade later, Sinha continues to innovate in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.
And thanks to her achievements, doors are opening for a more inclusive startup community:
“I’m seeing more and more technically-inclined Indian women nowadays. There is definitely potential to bring that talent, with a little bit of mentorship and encouragement, to foster a wave of female entrepreneurship.”
They definitely have a role model in Sinha.
Touchpoints: What Immigrant Success Stories Share
If success had a formula, everyone would buy it. Unfortunately, life isn’t quite so simple.
In reality, everyone operates with imperfect information. In other words, most of us have no choice but to make educated guesses with the knowledge and tools at our disposal.
Sometimes we hit the target.
Sometimes we miss.
And when we miss, all we can do is try again until we hit the bullseye.
As we’ve seen in the stories above, entrepreneurship requires a certain willingness and bravery to take risks. It rewards optimism, demands visionary goals, and thrives on unflagging discipline to bring those dreams to fruition.
But there’s another component that’s easy to overlook, and many of the entrepreneurs we discussed have it in common.
They didn’t exclusively chase profits: they followed their passions and delivered practical solutions to real-world problems.
For example, Jorge Pérez pursued his mission of increasing low-income housing opportunities. Over time, his focus expanded into more significant financial opportunities, which he reinvested back into local communities.
Or take Jan Koum, who became a billionaire by creating a messaging app that celebrated his freedom in the United States (versus his censorial upbringing in the U.S.S.R.).
Liz Claiborne fused her eye for fashion with the needs of modern women, Rashmi Sinha modernized aging technology for the digital epoch, and Pierre Omidyar channeled his software skills into creating a digital marketplace.
Of course, it’s important to note that hindsight always makes things seem inevitable and “fated.” That can make the aforementioned stories rather intimidating to read, especially if you’re in the early stages of your entrepreneurial journey.
As Dostoyevsky put it, “The causes of human actions are usually immeasurably more complex and varied than our subsequent explanations of them”.
Everyone who has ever succeeded in business has also endured periods of doubt and uncertainty. You’re not the first person to hit roadblocks, and you certainly won’t be the last.
Continue on your path, and maybe one day, someone will write about your journey to inspire the next generation of immigrant success stories. Even better: you can write it yourself.
Get Closer to Your Dreams With uLinkbusiness
It’s a great time to be a small business owner.
Thanks to the advent of digital technology, you can connect with people around the globe in a fast, affordable, and secure manner.
At uLinkbusiness, that’s our primary goal: link your small business to the world at large. More specifically, we specialize in making your international B2B payments as seamless as possible.
And perhaps most importantly, we want to see you succeed.
