For an immigrant startup founder, fundraising is probably one of the hardest nuts to crack.
They lack the usual social capital they had back home, which means they can't access the life-saving Family, Friends, and Fools round, fondly called FFF. And I do think they mean Fools in a good way because of what it takes to back an unproven idea.
The sad thing about being in this position is the FFF round is absolutely important. It gives the founder time to test out the idea, hopefully get some revenue going and take the first steps towards product-market fit.
So what to do?
Rebecca Johnson, Investment & Operations Associate at BKR Capital, joined me on The Newcomers Podcast to chat about how we can kick-start the FFF rounds for immigrant startups.
We also talked about:
Why immigrant founders need to learn storytelling
The beautiful things she’s seeing happening in the immigrant founder ecosystem
Why we immigrants need to build things
The differences she’s seen between the Nigerian tech ecosystem and the Canadian tech ecosystem, and more.
Folks, we need to build things. Real things. Economic power is everything. It’s one of the best ways to get a foothold in the society.
P.S. I think Rebecca’s episode is a good follow-up on my interview with Eric Agyemang of Maple Bridge VC earlier this year:
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E48: Rebecca Johnson believes immigrant founders face unique challenges when fundraising