e03: Marcelo Ribeiro thinks Canada has so much potential because of immigrants

Welcome to Unfiltered w/ PORCH, where we explore what it means to be an immigrant entrepreneur from the POV of the immigrant.

In this episode, I'm speaking with Marcelo Ribeiro, founder of LovShield, a startup that protects seniors from fraud in real time.

Marcelo initially moved to Canada from Brazil in 2016 to study English. A few months later, he fell in love with the Canadian way of life and decided to move here permanently. The first few years were primarily focused on the going from student permit to work permit to permanent residency.

In 2019, he launched his first Canadian business, a construction firm.

In this conversation, Marcelo and I chat about the balance between passion and survival as an immigrant entrepreneur, doing business in Brazil versus Canada, why he left construction to launch LovShield, and more.

Key Takeaways

• Talk about your ideas early and often: Treat your community as a sounding board to pressure test your ideas. You gain nothing from keeping your ideas secret. Execution is everything. You’re better off aerating your ideas and validating your business model in the process.

• Find your community: Local resources like city programs, community forums (like PORCH), and accelerators are great places to find support as an immigrant entrepreneur. Especially because we often lack the traditional social safety nets.

• Think global from the start: Yes, you should start with your local market. But who says you can’t scale to international markets. Build with that in mind. Marcelo sees the senior protection business as one that addresses a global market of approximately 1 billion seniors. And I agree, my late father wouldn’t have been scammed if Marcelo’s solution existed six years ago.

• Immigration is a business opportunity: Immigrants aren't merely a new source of demand, they are also a new source of supply. Supply of ideas, innovations, and products. Canada has a lot of untapped potential, we just need to unlock it.

Official Links

• Connect with Marcelo on LinkedIn

• Check out LovShield

Marcelo’s Media Diet

1. One newsletter you’d never miss: Ground News

2. One immigrant entrepreneur that inspires you: Ash Maurya, Founder/CEO of LEANSTACK

3. One podcast you regularly listen to: Autoline Daily

4. Any books or resources that have significantly shaped your entrepreneurship journey:

   1. Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan

   2. Atomic Habits by James Clear

   3. Deep Work by Cal Newport

   4. Running Lean by Ash Maurya

One Ask

If you got value from this episode, please forward it to one immigrant entrepreneur you know.