​Both Men and Women are welcome to our event.

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💡 What’s the Unspoken Reality of Immigrant Founders

​Most people only see the outcome:
the company name, the traction, the headline, the visa that “worked out.”

​What they don’t see is everything underneath.

​The uncertainty.
The tradeoffs.
The distance from home.
The pressure to make it work—not just for yourself, but for everyone who believed in you.

​For immigrant founders, the journey isn’t just about building a startup.
It’s about building stability, identity, and belonging at the same time.

​This is the space where ambition meets constraint.
Where resilience is learned, not branded.
Where progress often happens quietly, without applause.

​This night is for founders living that reality—to share what they’re building, speak honestly about the struggle, exchange real knowledge, and connect with others who understand it firsthand.

​💭 What This Gathering Is Really About

​This isn’t a polished demo day.
It’s not a hype room.

​It’s a fireside-style conversation and rapid pitch social for immigrant founders who are deeply committed—founders who are sacrificing comfort, certainty, and sometimes geography to build something meaningful.

​We’ll talk about:

• ​What it actually takes to keep going when the path is unclear

• ​Lessons learned the hard way—across visas, fundraising, hiring, and identity

• ​What’s working right now, not what sounds good online

• ​How community changes the journey when you stop doing it alone

​Because for immigrant founders, progress is rarely linear—but it is shared.

​🙋 Who This Is For

• ​Immigrant founders building startups, products, or communities

• ​Builders navigating uncertainty, pressure, or isolation while still showing up

• ​Founders who want honest conversation over polished narratives

• ​People who value knowledge-sharing, real feedback, and mutual support

• ​Anyone who wants to connect with others who understand the cost—and the courage—of building far from home

​Agenda:

• ​​​5:00 pm - 5:30 pm: Registration: Networking w/ Food and Drinks!​

• ​5:30 pm - 6:00 pm: Startup Lightning Pitches - Apply to Pitch

• ​6:00 pm - 6:30 pm: Fireside Chat: Alissa Miky

• ​6:30 pm - 7:00 pm Startup Lightning Pitches - Apply to Pitch

• ​7:00 pm - 8:30 pm: Networking w/ Food and Drinks!​​​

​Alissa Miky, Seaweed Tech Pioneer | TV anchor | Milken YLC
Alissa Miky is a serial entrepreneur born in New York and raised in Japan. While studying at Waseda University, she co-launched a floral brand that became the No.1 brand on Rakuten. After working with a sake venture, Fujimaki Department Store, and a trading company, she founded Aqua Theon Inc. in Los Angeles in 2019. Aqua Theon is a seaweed technology company developing innovative and sustainable products across multiple sectors, including food, alternative plastic containers, medical capsules, and proprietary seaweed processing technologies.

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​Investor Bios

​Get feedback from the following judges

​Olga Bogomolova: Three-time founder. Product leader who’s built 0-to-1 products at Mastercard Labs, scaled conversion at LTK, and led CRM strategy at Gorgias. Olga co-founded two edtech startups to bring CS education to kids who didn’t have access — her last startup, touch.ai, is a Techstars NYC graduate. Currently on sabbatical after summiting Kilimanjaro and running the NYC Marathon — now channeling that energy into what’s next in AI and platform ecosystems.

​Sagnik Dey is a Bay Area-based seasoned operator, investor, and General Partner Co-Founder of RoundTable Ventures — a Silicon Valley-based, operator-led Venture firm backing early-stage startups across AI, Healthcare, and DeepTech. 

​With a career spanning Google, Apple, Yahoo, and Samsung, Sagnik brings deep product and technical expertise to the founders he backs.He's known for working hands-on with portfolio companies on infrastructure, strategy and growth.

​Drink Sponsor:

​OoMee is a marine plant beverage powered by Seabiotics™, our proprietary blend of marine plant fibers that helps naturally curb cravings.

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​Message from Startup Grind

​Startup Grind welcomes Immigrants to the Bay!!

​Unshackled Ventures + One Way Ventures will be talking (and are the biggest supporters of immigrant founders) so if you can make it down or share with any immigrants in the Bay, here is a code for 20% off April 2, 4-7pm

​https://luma.com/i8wglqle?coupon=IMMIGRANTSG

​

​Catering Sponsored by:

​Jack & Jill (link to jackandjill.ai) are human-first AI recruiting agents, recently expanded to San Francisco after a $20m Seed. Jack knows 100k+ hard-to-find candidates, coaching careers and matching people to dream jobs via voice AI. Jill helps 1,000+ VC-backed companies win the talent war for top operators and engineers. Their focus: thoughtful hiring experiences, not transactional recruiting.

​provided by The Loaf Story

​Hosts:

​Funding Breakthrough Lab is a 501(c)(3) women-led nonprofit pre-accelerator with a mission of creating a supportive community to build a better tomorrow. We empower founders with education, networks, and resources to unlock their potential while championing diversity, inclusion, and authenticity. Founded by Natalie Pan, an engineer, community builder and executive coach. Apply for the next cohort starting March 21st 2026 here https://fundingbreakthroughlab.org.

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​Are you an internationally backed startup coming to the US to raise funds? ​​OpenSphere maximizes your visa-approval chances with our personalized AI-powered assistance and legal guidance. Immigrants can book a free consultation 🛂

​Space Sponsored by Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP:

​Cole-Frieman & Mallon LLP (CFM) is a leading investment management law firm known for providing top-tier, innovative, and collaborative legal solutions for complex financial services matters. CFM services start-up investment managers, multibillion-dollar funds, and everything in between.

​ The firm’s corporate and intellectual property (IP) practice groups also advise early-stage startups to later staged companies valued in the billions and the business innovators and investors who run and fund them, including: global comprehensive and strategic IP counsel and legal services, delivering tailored solutions and robust protections for developments and inventions, brands, digital assets, AI technologies, designs, know-how, and more; and advising companies and investors during all stages of the corporate lifecycle across emerging industries, from formation to exit, such as fundraising rounds, mergers and acquisitions, securities compliance, joint ventures, corporate clean-up and due diligence, employment matters, corporate tax matters, etc.​
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