Podcasts about unshackled ventures

Founder's FAQ: answers to all the possible questions of a founder. Hosted by Ilker Koksal. This episode's guest is Nitin Pachisia. Nitin is a founding Partner at Unshackled Ventures, a pre-seed stage fund to invest in and support immigrant-founded startups in the US.  In this episode, 1-) Advantages of being an immigrant founder 2-) Core skills of founders to cope with challenges 3-) A good founding team structure 4-) Managing fundraising process Founder's FAQ is a book for founders, and you can order through the www.foundersfaq.com

Today's guest is Ankit who is a cofounder and CEO of dev-productivity startup Aviator Technologies and also leads the ex-Google alumni network (Xoogler.co). Previously he led engineering teams at Sunshine, Homejoy and Shippo. Prior to that, Ankit was also an EIR at Unshackled Ventures and an engineer at Google and Adobe. This episode is sponsored by DuploCloud and Montpac. Visit Duplocloud.com/uncharted for seamless DevOps automation and Montpac.com for your finance and accounting needs. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/uncharted1/support

Unshackled Ventures helps entrepreneurs attain the American Dream. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Discover the profound depths of venture capitalism in this week's DWAVC with guest Manan Mehta of Unshackled Ventures. Vik and Bree explore Manan's adoption of 'curious acceptance,' his admiration for ancient and modern stoicism, and his insights on the pivotal role of immigrants in revolutionizing the startup arena and the VC landscape.Links:www.unshackledvc.comRyan Holiday's books on Amazon, here and here.www.creativity.org/ (Museum!)www.trefethen.com (What we're drinking!)

On episode 66 of the GMI Rocket Show, we're talking to our first-ever VC guest: Manan Mehta, Founding Partner of Unshackled Ventures, a VC firm that invests in immigrant founders! What's special about Unshackled Ventures is their commitment to directly supporting immigrant startup founders: “Unshackled Ventures sponsors visas and provides full immigration support. We accelerate your immigration journey so you can focus on building your business.” As for Manan, he's a first generation American who grew up in an immigrant household. He attended UCLA, worked in banking, and then joined a startup called Kno that was ultimately acquired by Intel. He then launched his own startup with a co-founder who was on an H-1B visa, but after 9 months, when no one would fund the company so they could sponsor the co-founder, they had no other choice but to shut down. And so the idea for Unshackled Ventures was born

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha asked: What does breaking into venture capital look like today, and how is it changing? Alex and Becca jumped on the mic to discuss this and start with a refresh on our latest op-ed: "4 views on unpaid venture internships." We talked through three buckets of venture onramps: the traditional route, the new wave and the tourist strategy. Each has their own pros and cons, and includes everything from rolling funds to the real definition of partner.We also covered more on the value of certain on ramps, and if network is the right thing to disrupt (or if its more track record based)We tried not to gang up on Dorm Room Fund too much, but did chat about why their $12.5 million fund that's run by unpaid students irked us and other initiatives we thought were better for those trying to break into VC.For more stories on this topic, read our bevy of coverage:7 first-time fund managers detail how they're preparing to thrive during the downturnEmerging managers should take advantage of the slower fundraising market by courting LPsVC fundraising gets weird as autumn nearsSome institutional LPs have started pulling back from VC, but most won'tEquity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotifyand all the casts.

Manan Mehta of Unshackled Ventures joins Nick to discuss Selection at Day 0, Investing in Immigrants, and Navigating Founder-Problem Fit. In this episode we cover: What is investing at Day 0? What unique challenges do you face in backing immigrant founders? How do you approach sourcing and how you do it differently than other firms? What is Founder-Problem Fit? Missed a recent episode? Go to The Full Ratchet blog and catch up! Also, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Manan Mehta is the founding partner of Unshackled ventures. We cover the thesis behind funding immigrant entrepreneurs- more specifically about their process for funding startups and how they help them with their visa issues. - A high conviction "friends and family" investor that removes immigration hurdles & gives you a network to succeed faster. -- Connecting the unconnected and supporting the startups with capital and customers - Quick decision process and communication with founders even if they decide not to invest. - Focus on customer (entrepreneur) service - Questions they try to look for answers- Why you? Why now? Why this? - Looking for an adversity muscle that gives them confidence that an entrepreneur can persist and win - Incumbent industry insiders are mostly biased about new technologies. Founders & investors need to steer through such experts and persist. - 170 immigration filings across 13 immigration categories (OPT to Green card filings) - Things they consider: Fastest pathway for an entrepreneur to work and as long as they want. - Unshackled takes care of the immigration filings at no cost to the founders- it is an investment they make in them. - For every dollar they invested, their portfolio companies raised 27x on average - Pre-seed is founder-problem fit; seed is problem-market fit; Series A is Product-market fit and beyond that is go-to-market fit - We underwrite people and not businesses - Learn about the Unshackled university fellowship program; EIR/Round table program - Application for University Venture Fellows Program- https://airtable.com/shrlrPthK3IwY1NDC

In Episode 13 of Venture Games, my guest Maria Salamanca, Partner at Unshackled Ventures, discusses her transition from politics to venture capital, how Unshackled Ventures invests in immigrant founders and helps them navigate the immigration process, her role as a founding board member of LatinxVC, and her thoughts on the diversity challenges in the VC industry.

Nitin is a founding partner at Unshackled Ventures, a venture fund designed to help immigrant founders in the US succeed faster. […]

Returning from the last episode is Kayla Castañeda, C.E.O. and co-owner of agua fresca company Agua Bonita. She is here to elaborate more on her journey and discuss some topics such as what it was like to launch a company amid the COVID-19 pandemic last year and how the pandemic has impacted her business currently, and she also gives some advice on what the first step should be for someone who wants to launch their own business. Kayla also agrees to a business breakdown round with Andy in which she presents a current challenge that she is having with Agua Bonita and then bounces ideas back and forth with him about how to find a solution to the challenge and what tools will be needed to achieve the desired result. She reveals that her greatest challenge right now is fundraising, and Andy strongly encourages her to come up with a list of 100 dream investors and explains why that is so important. We hope that you enjoyed the second half of our conversation with Kayla of Agua Bonita, and we can't wait to see how Agua Bonita grows and flourishes in the future! Please stay tuned in to Freed Stories as more guests share their stories of entrepreneurship – their successes, their failures, their goals, their hopes, etc.! Be sure to also hit the subscribe button so that you never miss an episode, and remember to free your mind; free your media!   Time Stamps [1:38] – Kayla discusses how she navigated the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has affected her business now. [3:58] – Kayla reveals how she came to realize what her individual skills are. [5:18] – We learn what kind of work Kayla did with previous companies prior to launching Agua Bonita. [6:47] – Kayla advises us on the first step to take if we want to launch our own business. [9:55] – Kayla's greatest challenge lately has been figuring out who to speak to and the structure of her business. [10:15] – Andy explains the three components of the business breakdown model: (1) the pain point, (2) the desired result, and (3) what tools are needed to achieve that result. [13:12] – Andy identifies Kayla's pain point, and Kayla touches upon what her desired result is. [14:28] – Not all money is good money, Kayla asserts. [17:10] – Andy advises Kayla to develop a list of approximately 100 dream investors. [19:55] – Andy offers Unshackled Ventures as an example of a venture capital firm and describes its focus. [21:35] – Kayla reveals that Agua Bonita currently has a dream 50 list but that there is room for growth. [23:54] – We learn where we can find Agua Bonita online and get updates.   Links and Resources Freed Fellowship - Website Freed Fellowship's Twitter Page Email Us: team@freedfellowship.com Agua Bonita – Website Agua Bonita - Instagram Page Unshackled Ventures - Website

Maria Salamanca is a venture capitalist at Unshackled Ventures, a fund that fills a unique space in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, […]

We are so excited to sit down with Maria Salamanca, Partner at Unshackled Ventures, in the newest episode of The Room Podcast. Unshackled Ventures is a pre-seed venture firm focused entirely on investing in immigrant founders. An immigrant herself, Maria came to the United States from Colombia when she was six years old. After attending UC Berkeley, Maria joined the FWD.us team, a political organization supporting immigration reform started by tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. In 2015, she joined Unshackled Ventures and was recently named Partner at the firm. Before Madison and Claudia chat with Maria, our two co-hosts walk us through the pre-seed round from both the founder and funder perspectives. This week’s episode explores the key themes of navigating the pre-seed round, the unique experiences of being an immigrant founder, and the value of time versus money in the early stages. Let’s open the door. This episode is brought to you by Silicon Valley Bank and Cooley LLP.

“Maria Salamanca, a former refugee who came to the U.S. from Colombia at 6 years old, has been promoted to partner at Unshackled Ventures, a firm that invests exclusively in immigrant founders coming to the U.S. She joins a very small group of Latinx female partners at U.S.-based venture firms.” - Crunchbase --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yfm/message

Episode #33 Nitin Pachisia, Founding Partner of Unshackled Ventures, a pre-Seed, pre-revenue, pre-MVP venture fund in Silicon Valley that funds teams with at least one immigrant on the founding team. Discussing their model on how to support founders with capital and hands-on support as well as a specialty of helping companies deal with U.S. immigration issues. Also discussing the specifics of investing via convertible notes, SAFEs, side letter agreements, pro-rata equity rights and the emotional or earned pro-rata equity rights. Video podcast https://youtu.be/-rNsDozQJnc andrew@7bc.vc

On this episode we chat with Maria Salamanca, Partner at Unshackled Ventures; which is an early stage venture firm investing into startups founded by immigrant founders. Visit our website and submit a question/topic here. Hosted by @de_havia and @imessien Recorded: October 2020

History is full of stories where people have committed their lives to helping vulnerable communities. Louis Braille did it 200 years ago, and his impact is still monumental today. Today’s guest is creating a similar experience for entrepreneurs navigating the American immigration system.In this episode of Often Imitated, we talk to Nitin Pachisia about how he’s empowering immigrant founders to do their best work at Unshackled Ventures.Experience: Never take ‘no’ for an answerInspiration: Louis Braille Modern Day Execution: Nitin Pachisia, Founding Partner of Unshackled VenturesThree TakeawaysMake sure your CX helps remove roadblocks from your customers.The best way to serve your customers is to walk a mile in their shoes.Once you identify a problem, pull the thread until you come to the root problem. Then form your solution.Key Quotes“Make sure that you are working on a customer audience that you either understand really well or you've done the work to get to understand really well.”“Stay focused on who your customer is and the real problem. Not just the symptom and not just what you believe is the problem, but really listening to your customer.”“The best way to learn what experience to build is living the life of your customer. ”LinksNitin Pachisia LinkedInUnshackled Ventures__Thanks to our friends This podcast is presented by Oracle CX. Oracle CX helps you build lasting customer relationships, by making every interaction matter. From acquisition to loyalty, and everything in between.Build, protect, and differentiate your brand with Oracle. Learn more at oracle.com/cx.

This week we had on Faye Maidment (@maidmentfaye) with Unshackled Ventures. Unshackled is an early stage fund focused on partnering with and supporting immigrant-founded startups. The fund invests agnostically across verticals, and Faye spends most of her time within AR, VR, Gen Z, and internet culture. Outside of work, she also co-authors a weekly newsletter (High Tea) that dives into the topics she is interested in. In this episode, we discuss: The explosion of the creator economy and the secondary effects of this transition The art of curation and audience building Why AR/VR is poised to get over the adoption issue Evaluating timing risk as an investor

In this episode we talk to Maria Salamanca about her journey into politics and investing, her views on diversity at the funding and portfolio level, innovation trends that excite her the most and the women who inspire her.Maria is a Principal at Unshackled Ventures, a fund that fills a unique space in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, funding teams with immigrant founders at pre-seed stage. During her time there, she has been involved in 40+ investments and seen ~1,500 deals a year. She was the first Latina named Forbes 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital and Business Insider’s Under 30 Rising Stars. Maria started her career at FWD.us a bipartisan political organization focused on immigration and criminal justice reform. The group was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Ron Conway, Reid Hoffman and other tech leaders. She was also the founding COO at Swing Left and supported Higher Ground Labs with the first-ever political technology landscape.

Ruben Harris is the Co-Founder & CEO of Career Karma ( https://careerkarma.com/ ). Career Karma is a community of peers, mentors, and coaches that will help you land a dream career in Tech. You never pay a dime. The only cost is to help people behind you. Career Karma is always free for students because after they coach you to prepare and get enrolled in a bootcamp in their network, the school pays them a placement fee for helping you. Here are some cool investors that have joined them: Michael Seibel (CEO of Y Combinator), Betsy Ziegler (CEO of 1871), Jewel Burks (CEO of PartPic), Arlan Hamilton (Backstage Capital), Unshackled Ventures, Paul Judge (Tech Square Labs), Prakash Jankiraman (Nextdoor), Justin Rosenstein (Asana), Erik Torenberg, David Phillips (Hackbright), Sten Tamkivi (Skype, Teleport, etc), Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon (Founder Gym), Edward Lando, Kevin Lee (Product Manager HQ), Kevin Olusola (Pentatonix), Anarghya Vardhana, and more About Our Partner This episode is also brought to you by Hawke Media. Hawke Media is a full-service Outsourced CMO based in Santa Monica, CA, providing guidance, planning, and execution to grow brands of all sizes, industries, and business models. Hawke Media was recognized by Inc. as the country’s fastest-growing marketing consultancy and is proudly one of Glassdoor’s “Best Places to Work”​, 2019 #893 on the Forbes 5000 list, UpCity Top Los Angeles Digital Marketing Agency. Hawke’s collaborative process, à la carte offering, and month-to-month fee structure give clients the flexibility they need to boost digital revenues and marketing ROI. Hawke Media The company has serviced over 1500 brands of all sizes, ranging from startups like Tamara Mellon, SiO Beauty and Bottlekeeper to household names like Red Bull, Verizon Wireless and Alibaba. Listen to our interview with Erik Huberman, Founder and CEO of Hawke Media, in episode 23 of the Just Go Grind Podcast. Some of the Topics Covered by Ruben Harris in this Episode What Career Karma is and what it's like to work with them How Ruben and his Co-Founders decided to start Career Karma Sending 1,900+ cold emails to break into investment banking and the process behind cold outreach Ruben's experience going through Y Combinator and what he did after getting rejected from YC the first time The importance of not lying to yourself and staying laser-focused Ruben's experience raising funding in the seed round for Career Karma What's fueled the growth in the last year (2020) Why user-generated content has been a key driver for Career Karma How Ruben and his team approach partnerships at Career Karma and what they look for in coding bootcamps How Ruben and his team manage so many different relationships The business model behind Career Karma How Career Karma will become a $100B company What Ruben and his team are doing with Reskill America The book Ruben is reading right now Sign up for The Weekly Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/

Manan Mehta, founding partner at Unshackled Ventures, shares his personal journey as the son of immigrants and how he built a venture capital firm with a mission to support foreign born founders. His authentic stories describes unfair barriers and his solutions to overcome them. Great teams are also self-aware on their blind spots The only VC with immigration attorneys as partnersHamilton - Immigrants (we get the job done)Non-profit: Playworks

Nitin Pachisia is a founding partner of Unshackled Ventures, an early-stage fund he conceived to help US immigrant founders succeed faster. He has invested in 50+ startups across industries. Previously, he built an experiential e-commerce startup, and ran finance and strategy for ed-tech startup Kno (acquired by Intel) that raised over $90M. Nitin Pachisia "At Unshackled Ventures we invest in immigrants. Having built companies on visas ourselves, we knew there were no resources or a support structure specifically for US immigrants. We don't just have to figure out the complex immigration issues but also how we become a part of the mainstream ecosystem here. We saw that as an opportunity to solve an inefficiency in the system and started Unshackled Ventures." --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/theindustryshow/support

Nitin Pachisia, Founding Partner at Unshackled Ventures explains how does immigrant-focused investing work, how does Unshackled Ventures source its deals and how should immigrant (and local) founders start building their network during COVID-19. We also discuss the best ways to identify if the investor is a good fit for your specific company. Nitin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/npachisia/ Unshackled Ventures: https://www.unshackledvc.com/ Office hours with Make it Studio: https://make-studios.typeform.com/to/bUvZoSwl - it's time to get some extra questions answered.

Kartik Tiwari has a background in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and was the CTO and co-founder of Starsky Robotics, a driverless truck startup that aimed to make roads safer and allow truck drivers to work closer to home. Starsky began moving freight on the highway in early 2017, and one year later became the first company to take the safety driver out of a truck when it drove fully unmanned for seven miles on a closed road in Florida. In June 2019, Starsky did the first-ever fully-unmanned test on a public highway with live traffic. But was shut down in early 2020 after raising over $20 million in venture capital from the likes of Shasta Ventures and Unshackled Ventures. In today's episode you will learn: 1. What was Kartik's journey from India to the US, and his leap of faith into the startup world 2. What is the entrepreneur's dilemma and how to go about it? 3. What are the challenges of starting a startup in the unmanned vehicle sector? 4. How does the team impact the development of products and technology in a space where things have not been built before? What kind of dynamic should exist? Contact: Linkedin, Kartik Tiwari You can follow me on Twitter, Linkedin, or email me at mindgravity2020@gmail.com.

Produced by Foundersuite.com, "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with entrepreneurs and VCs who have raised capital. This episode is with Nitin Pachisia of Unshackled Ventures (www.unshackled.vc) a San Francisco based venture capital fund that invests in early stage startups led by immigrant founders. In this episode, Nitin talks about why investing in "immigrant founders" is an opportunity, why VC pattern building is important, how he transitioned from raising money from individuals for his first fund to family offices and SPVs for his second fund, why even VCs need a "unique value prop," questions he asks founders, what he's seeking when sourcing new deals, and much more. This series is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $2.2 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

Immigrant founded startups have challenges to overcome over and above other startups. For one, dealing with immigration can be a full-time job in itself. In this episode, Adam Torres and Nitin Pachisia, Founding Partner at Unshackled Ventures, discusses how Unshackled Ventures is helping immigrant founders succeed. Follow Adam on Instagram at  https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule.Apply to be interviewed by Adam on our podcast:https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/

Venture capital (VC) has been a highly visible part of the growth of many well-known companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Rent the Runway, 23 and Me, among many others. But, while VC has been very helpful for some entrepreneurs, the industry is focused on a small percentage of businesses with high growth potential: in fact, only 0.6 percent of businesses ever raise VC. Venture Capital is also very concentrated, out of all the venture capital spent, 78 percent is spent in three states New York, Massachusetts, and California. But as these areas become more and more saturated, venture capitalists are starting to pay attention to startups located outside traditional tech hubs.Last week, we hosted a fireside chat with two of these venture capitalists who are traveling across the country to meet with entrepreneurs, investors and key stakeholders in the startup community. Join us as we talk startups and early-stage investing with Nitin Pachisia, Founding Partner of Unshackled Ventures, a Venture Firm that recently raised its second $20M fund and is investing exclusively in immigrant founders, and Ben Bayat, Managing Partner of NextGen Venture Partners, a network-driven venture capital fund whose latest fund is $60 million dollars.

Nitin Pachisia is a Founding Partner at Unshackled Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in and helping immigrant founders to succeed faster. After Nitin moved to the U.S. in 2005, he was ready to make the leap and create his own company but was faced with confusion and uncertainty. He was determined to find the answers to starting his new company and so he sought out advice from over two dozen different immigrant attorneys - all of which told him not to leave the company he was currently working for. The perceived dilemma? To start his own company, he may have to leave the country. Fortunately for Nitin, this simply wasn’t true, but it took him a lot of time to get to find the truth in the nuance. “I think the bigger problem than the immigration policy is the misinformation about immigration that's out there.” Nitin found that immigration attorneys didn’t fully understand the immigration laws. One good thing did come out of the confusion; he found the inspiration for his company. He decided to start Unshackled Ventures, a service dedicated to helping other immigrant founders experiencing the same frustration. “Our mission is to take care of founders who are immigrants to the country, and they can focus their time on building the company while we take care of nuances that are unique to immigrant founders.” Because of these unique challenges for immigrant founders, Nitin is looking for founders with a “strong adversity muscle” and he points out that many of the fastest-growing companies in the world are immigrant founded such as Google and Tesla. “Their own willingness to raise their hand that ‘I want to be in the United States’, gives them a purpose. They are also going through a journey that gives them that grit, that adversity muscle. We think that is what adds that slight advantage to an immigrant founder.” Unshackled Ventures is now 5 years old, with over 38 investments and about 100 successful immigrant filings under their belt. Because Nitin has lived the immigrant founders' journey himself, he understands that “it's not just about immigration, it's the whole package. A big component of what we get to do with our portfolio companies is working on access.” Nitin and his team at Unshackled Ventures not only help with capital allocation, access to investors and mentors but even help with securing leases and getting credit cards for founders. In this episode, Ian and Nitin discuss how Unshackled Ventures was founded, what Nitin and his partner are looking for in immigrant founders, and how they are uniquely positioned to attract the best founders from abroad. – Mission Daily and all of our podcasts are created with love by our team at Mission.org. We own and operate a network of podcasts, and brand story studio designed to accelerate learning. Our clients include companies like Salesforce, Twilio, and Katerra who work with us because we produce results. To learn more and get our case studies, check out Mission.org/Studios. If you’re tired of media and news that promotes fear, uncertainty, and doubt and want an antidote, you’ll want to subscribe to our daily newsletter at Mission.org. When you do, you’ll receive a mission-driven newsletter every morning that will help you start your day off right!

Hello listeners, and welcome back to Tech Forward! This week, I've reissued my conversation with Maria Salamanca, a venture capitalist at Unshackled Ventures. She was named 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital. Unshackled Ventures fills a unique space in the entrepreneurial ecosystem by funding teams with immigrant founders. Maria’s own journey — she immigrated from Colombia at age 7 and became a citizen at 18 — has motivated her to uplift others by eliminating barriers to entrepreneurship and education.  Due in part to her history, Maria has a deep understanding of the challenges immigrants face when starting a business in the United States. She and Unshackled Ventures have identified the barriers that immigrant entrepreneurs face: Access to capital Office space Lack of support network Immigration support These barriers are what led them to specifically support immigrant founders. “It’s hard to be an immigrant entrepreneur and jump into that full time while also juggling concerns about who will sponsor your visa.” As 45% of Fortune 500 companies have immigrant founders, there’s clearly a high level of entrepreneurship among immigrants despite the significant barriers to the tools and resources which would enable them to fully execute that entrepreneurial spirit. When it comes to the immigration process, Maria says, “Usually immigrants have to figure all of this out on their own, and most of them do. But that really takes away from the time they could be spending on their projects. They have to keep on top of deadlines and court dates, and struggle with the instability of,Will I be here in 3 months? What about my family? That stress puts a burden on founders.” That’s why some of the funding at Unshackled Ventures supports an in house counsel, allowing entrepreneurs to work closely with an immigration lawyer. “We fund only a small percentage of immigrant founders, but we want them to focus on their product as much as possible.” Research has shown that cross cultural experiences lead to innovation. “As an immigrant, you come into a new country where there’s a different context for a variety of things. Many times, that means you can see a gap where a need isn’t being met.” To really foster those cross cultural experiences, Unshackled Ventures has created an ecosystem of universities, mentors, advisors, and investors who really believe in the value that immigrant entrepreneurs bring to the table. Maria and I also discussed the possible future of immigrant entrepreneurs in the current political climate, as well as the advice she would offer to immigrant founders in search of funding. Thank you so much to Maria for joining me, and to all of you out there for listening. See you next week! Connect with us Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

Interview starts: 06:15This conversation took place on the third Comeback Cities tour on May 15, 2019, aimed at connecting venture capitalists from the East and West Coasts with investment opportunities in the heartland. It also had stops in Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Youngstown.This conversation includes:Ashley Brasier and Janou Gordon from Lightspeed Ventures Partners, a Bay Area VC firm focusing on early stage investments in the enterprise technology and consumer space.Learn more about Lightspeed: https://lsvp.com/Courtney Buie Lipkin from First Round Capital, a Bay Area and Philadelphia based early stage VC fund specializing in technology based around real estate, manufacturing, logistics, agriculture, and transportation, among other industries.Learn more about First Round: https://firstround.comEzra Galston from Starting Line Ventures, an early stage Chicago based Venture Capital fund investing in premier consumer startups & brands.Learn more about Starting Line: https://www.startingline.vc/Nitin Pachisia from Unshackled Ventures, a Bay Area based early stage venture capital fund for immigrant founded startups.Learn more about Unshackled Ventures: https://www.unshackledvc.com/Patrick McKenna from HighRidge Venture Partners, which invests in early stage companies and focuses on tech startups bases outside of Silicon ValleyLearn more about HighRidge: https://www.highridgevp.com/Peter Rojas from Betaworks Ventures, a seed stage venture capital fund based in New York and the Bay Area investing in network-focused, consumer-facing media businesses.Learn more about Betaworks Ventures: https://betaworksventures.comRoy Bahat from Bloomberg Beta, an early stage venture capital fund based in the Bay Area and New York focused on investing in the future of work.Learn more about Bloomberg Beta: https://bloombergbeta.comFollow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefm

Maria Salamanca is an Associate at Unshackled Ventures, a Venture Fund for Immigrant Entrepreneurs. Maria migrated with her family from Colombia at age seven and went on to UC Berkeley where she started her passion for tech and activism. At Unshackled Ventures she is committed to help immigrant startup founders launch their companies at early stages assuming risks that other funds are not willing to take. Maria Salamanca es una socia del Fondo de Capital Unshackled Ventures que se dedica a fondear emprendedores migrantes en los EEUU. Maria migro de Colombia a los EEU con solo 7 anios de edad y fue en la UC Berkeley mas tarde donde comenzo su pasion por la tecnologia y el activismo. En Unshackled Ventures, Maria esta comprometida a ayudar a startups fundados por migrantes para comenzar el proyecto en las primeras etapas donde hay mas riesgo y que otros fondos no estan dispuetos a asumir.

In this episode, Mike Suprovici (Founder Institute EIR) is joined by Lucas Rocha. Lucas works with deal sourcing and portfolio management for Unshackled Ventures, a firm that leads pre-seed rounds for teams with immigrant founders. Here, they discuss the different tactics required for securing venture capital investment and common mistakes. They conclude with a Q&A segment, where pre-series A founders ask company-specific questions about funding strategy, securing investment, and more. Are you launching your own startup? Join our global accelerator get feedback from experts like Lucas: https://fi.co/join/podcast

Unshackled Ventures isn't like other venture capital funds. The firm invests in immigrant founders and helps them secure visas so they can ditch their corporate job and launch the startup of their dreams. Today, Unshackled is announcing its sophomore fund of $20 million, topping its debut effort by $15.5 million.

In this episode, Andrew and I speak with Manan Mehta, Managing Partner from Unshackled Ventures.  Unshackled Ventures is a venture capital firm betting on immigrant founders. Not all the great talent comes from Harvard and Stanford and they don’t all live in New York or the Silicon Valley. This was one of my favorite conversations as we get into the immigrant mindset as well as the similarities with veterans and the work Manan is doing there. We talk about the disconnect between VCs and founders and how that impacts technical debt. What the VC model might look like in the future. What Manan thinks about Hype funding. A term we created about Funding the latest trends and fads. Then we wrap up with an outlook for 2019.

Este episodio destaca a María Salamanca, quien comparte su trayectoria personal y su profesional para convertirse en inversionista en Unshackled Ventures. María fue la primera Latina nombrada bajo Forbes 30 Under 30 en la categoría de Venture Capital. Ella comparte ideas sobre este espacio y consejos para aquellos interesados ​​en unirse a una VC. Estos son algunos de los recursos mencionados durante este episodio y cómo conectarse con Maria: http://www.unshackledvc.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/learning/search?keywords=mindfulness%20meditation https://www.salamancamaria.com/ https://www.counselingandtraumatherapy.com/latinxtherapy/ http://bookofjoy.org/ https://www.cbinsights.com/

This episode highlights Maria Salamanca who shares her personal journey and her professional path to becoming an investor at Unshackled Ventures. Maria was the first Latina named Forbes 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital. She shares insights about this space and tips for those interested in joining a VC.  These are some of the resources mentioned during this episode and how to get in touch with Maria: http://www.unshackledvc.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/learning/search?keywords=mindfulness%20meditation https://www.salamancamaria.com/ https://www.counselingandtraumatherapy.com/latinxtherapy/ http://bookofjoy.org/ https://www.cbinsights.com/

Hello listeners, and welcome back to the Tech Forward podcast! This week, I spoke with Maria Salamanca, a venture capitalist at Unshackled Ventures. She was named 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30 for Venture Capital. Unshackled Ventures fills a unique space in the entrepreneurial ecosystem by funding teams with immigrant founders. Maria’s own journey — she immigrated from Colombia at age 7 and became a citizen at 18 — has motivated her to uplift others by eliminating barriers to entrepreneurship and education.  Due in part to her history, Maria has a deep understanding of the challenges immigrants face when starting a business in the United States. She and Unshackled Ventures have identified the barriers that immigrant entrepreneurs face: Access to capital Office space Lack of support network Immigration support These barriers are what led them to specifically support immigrant founders. “It’s hard to be an immigrant entrepreneur and jump into that full time while also juggling concerns about who will sponsor your visa.” As 45% of Fortune 500 companies have immigrant founders, there’s clearly a high level of entrepreneurship among immigrants despite the significant barriers to the tools and resources which would enable them to fully execute that entrepreneurial spirit. When it comes to the immigration process, Maria says, “Usually immigrants have to figure all of this out on their own, and most of them do. But that really takes away from the time they could be spending on their projects. They have to keep on top of deadlines and court dates, and struggle with the instability of, Will I be here in 3 months? What about my family? That stress puts a burden on founders.” That’s why some of the funding at Unshackled Ventures supports an in house counsel, allowing entrepreneurs to work closely with an immigration lawyer. “We fund only a small percentage of immigrant founders, but we want them to focus on their product as much as possible.” Research has shown that cross cultural experiences lead to innovation. “As an immigrant, you come into a new country where there’s a different context for a variety of things. Many times, that means you can see a gap where a need isn’t being met.” To really foster those cross cultural experiences, Unshackled Ventures has created an ecosystem of universities, mentors, advisors, and investors who really believe in the value that immigrant entrepreneurs bring to the table. Maria and I also discussed the possible future of immigrant entrepreneurs in the current political climate, as well as the advice she would offer to immigrant founders in search of funding. Thank you so much to Maria for joining me, and to all of you out there for listening. See you next week!

New immigrants to the United States do not represent a threat to “American” jobs, they represent potential, and lots of it. Manan Mehta and the team at Unshackled Ventures believe that immigrant-founded startups are one of the most amazing sources of incredible innovations that can change the course of the country and impact the world for good. I invited Manan on the podcast to hear what is happening at Unshackled and was not disappointed to find that the way his VC company has been able to help new immigrant-led startups is more encouraging than I realized. You’ll be inspired and motivated by what you hear, so I invite you to listen. The amazing talent and resources of this generation’s Ellis Island From 1802 to 1954, Ellis Island was the gateway through which over 12 million immigrants came into the United States. For many non-native born Americans, it symbolizes the hope of new opportunity and the possibility of personal achievements they've only dreamed of before. Manan Mehta of Unshackled Ventures believes the Ellis Island of today is the American university system. The nations of the world have come to the United States seeking education, training, and a way to utilize their innate talents and intelligence. The United States is poised to benefit from this influx of competent, entrepreneurial bent individuals. In this conversation, you can hear the enthusiasm and delight in Manan’s voice as he describes the way Unshackled Ventures has been able to set many new immigrants on their way to startup success. It’s a great conversation I hope you’ll gain inspiration from again and again. The idea of startups was born in the hearts of immigrants New immigrants to America come with a built-in entrepreneurial spirit. Think about it, every immigrant is willing to take the risk of leaving his/her home in hopes of building a new life in a strange land. THAT is the stuff entrepreneurs are made of, and is one of the reasons Manan Mehta and the team at Unshackled Ventures, a Venture Capital firm that backs immigrant-led startups has put such stock in immigrants in the first place. During our conversation, I asked Manan to share some of his most encouraging stories and he blew me away with his accounts of the innovation and drive the immigrant founders he works with possess. These amazing people are creating world-changing technologies you'll want to know about, so don’t miss their stories. New immigrants have a powerful recipe for success: Long on ambition, short on things to lose If you are not an immigrant you don’t really know what it’s like to come to a country like the United States with nothing but ambition and opportunity. It’s a dream come true, but a very hard road at the same time. Manan Mehta says the combination of being long on ambition and short on things to lose is exactly what spurs immigrant founders toward success. They are willing to work hard, learn their craft or area of expertise, and apply it in ways that are often unheard of in the industries they are in. That's how immigrants are disruptive in all the best ways. Find out how Unshackled Ventures is supporting and equipping new immigrant founders in tech, fashion, sports, grocery, logistics, and more on this episode. When you are a first-time, no-name founder, your greatest advantage is going to be your grit. ~ Manan Mehta Once a person has achieved success, traction and momentum are on their side. Rupert Murdoch and Sir Richard Branson are examples of entrepreneurs who no longer need to hustle in order to find open doors of opportunity. But those who are just starting out, who are unknown and inexperienced have to possess a determination that enables them to find and make the best use of the opportunities that are out there in the marketplace. That’s where Manan Mehta says that immigrants shine because sometimes all they have is a brilliant idea and lots of grit. It's that combination that enables them to stick it out until doors of opportunity open. His advice to immigrant founders in that position is simple: “The more you can capitalize your grit into humility and coachability, the faster you’re going to succeed." Topics Featured In This Episode [1:47] How Manan went from marketing to running a Venture Capital firm [7:43] Why immigrants and veterans are an amazing source of talent and drive [15:38] How Unshackled Ventures has helped immigrants attain success [21:53] Identifying the amazing ideas and individuals who need VC support [29:00] 100% in terms of betting on the right people [32:19] Manan’s dream for Unshackled Ventures 10 to 20 years from now Resources & People Mentioned Prateek Joshi, founder of Pluto.ai Yojik Khasin Co-Founder of Togg Purva Gupta, Co-Founder of Lily Rupert Murdoch Greg Popovich Bill Belichick Phil Jackson Connect with Manan Mehta Unshackled Ventures Connect With Max Borges www.MaxBorgesAgency.com LinkedIn Subscribe to Unconventional Genius onApple Podcasts, Otto Radio, Player FM, Soundcloud, or Spotify  

Nitin Pachisia, Founding Partner at Unshackled Ventures, discusses pre-seed and seed investing.

This week, Ben and Carter welcome Nitin Pachisia, Founding Partner at Unshackled Ventures. We’ll talk about common challenges facing early stage founders, as well as difficulties unique to those founders facing immigration issues in the US. As always, you can reach out to us—or to our unrestrained studio audience—here on Facebook, or via Twitter or Instagram (@gtwyinc) with questions or comments using the hashtag #GatewayOH.