The Vertical

From busboy to millionaire: How this Bangladeshi immigrant made his big break in the U.S. restaurant industry

Lunchbox founder Nabeel Alamgir has worked his way up from bussing tables at a fast food chain to being featured on Forbes’s ‘30 Under 30’ list and securing $20 million in VC funding.

Clubhouse co-founder Rohan Seth. Credit: Rohan Seth/Twitter

How Indian American Clubhouse co-founder Rohan Seth started a global audio revolution

Launched in April 2020, the audio-only app Clubhouse now has more than 10 million weekly active users around the world. Its success has led to Twitter introducing Spaces, Spotify launching Greenroom, and Facebook announcing live audio rooms. Despite the Clubhouse boom, few users are aware that one of the app’s co-founders, Rohan Seth, was born in India and raised in its capital city, Delhi.

Joseph Lee (left) and Joe Duarte, co-CEOs, InnoCaption. Credit: InnoCaption

Hear me out: Technology developed by two immigrant entrepreneurs serves 10,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans

Joe Duarte, a Portuguese-American entrepreneur with hearing loss, made it his life’s mission to empower those like him. Together with Joseph Lee, a former engineer at Samsung, he developed technology to make phone calls easier for deaf and hard-of-hearing people. During the pandemic, their app, called InnoCaption, saw a record 65 percent growth in active users.

Hoppers & curry. Photo by Broken Simulacra. Source: Flickr

Sri Lankan immigrant entrepreneurs bring taste of home to NYC’s Staten Island

Demand for spices, curry powder, and the taste of home Sri Lankans crave has kept Staten Island’s restaurants and groceries afloat during the pandemic.

How immigrant investors are rebuilding the U.S. supply chain

Coming from non-traditional backgrounds, immigrant and minority VCs are open to investing into overlooked niches. Three newly-established funds are aiming to foster sustainability within the global supply chain, which has recently been disrupted by the pandemic.

How South Asian women are breaking into the U.S. entrepreneurship scene

Entrepreneurship, especially for women, has traditionally been shunned as “risky” in South Asian culture, but times have changed. A new generation of immigrant women business leaders is rising in the U.S.

Untouchables in Varanasi/Luisen Rodrigo, Flickr

India’s “untouchable” Dalits find liberation in American entrepreneurship

Dalits, the lowest caste in the Hindu hierarchy, are victims of thousands of attacks in India each year. In the U.S., Dalit immigrants are escaping discrimination from fellow Indians by creating their own businesses.

Great Escape to Florida: Is Miami a new destination for international entrepreneurs?

With its warm weather, lack of state income tax, and low coronavirus restrictions, Miami is the latest destination for investors and tech executives. Could the city become an alternative to New York and Silicon Valley?

Protesters outside the U.S. Embassy in London/Alisdare Hickson

Brands who supported immigrants in 2020 and beyond

Immigration has become a hot topic during the last few years of the Trump administration. Many brands stood up to support immigrants with campaigns advocating for social change. Here are just a few companies that took up the cause in these dark times.

Entrepreneurs

Four international entrepreneurs who made 2020 a little less terrible

Although 2020 turned out to be a difficult year in many different ways, things could have been worse without technology keeping us connected, masks protecting us from infection and, finally, vaccines that brought us hope. Here are just a few international entrepreneurs helping to improve our lives in the pandemic.