- “Ever faced rejection from VC 76 times but still build your ideas? 💪” - “Wondering if you can kickstart your startup while on OPT status? Or worried about immigration hurdles? 🌍” - “Struggling to build your network as an immigrant? 🌍 Want to leverage your multilingual skills to stand out? 🤔” ✨This is Alec's journey. ✨ The 22-year-old immigrant turned his school project into Afforai when, he was raised by Sputnik ATX VC, Plug and Play Ventures, and angel investors. Buckle up for an inspiring tale of innovation, perseverance, and the American Dream 2.0. This is a story you won't want to miss! ✨Chapters ✨ 00:00 Welcome to Future BuilderZ 00:02 Afforai: Revolutionizing research with AI 04:30 Global perspective: Living in 3 countries 09:03 From school project to startup: Overcoming 76 VC rejections 14:35 Navigating visa challenges as an immigrant founder 18:50 Scaling to 100K users: Securing the first investment 24:40 Networking tips: The power of persistence 28:54 Immigrant experiences are a unique strength for founder's journey

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About Startup -1 to 1: Our mission is to accompany immigrant founders who shape the future, from -1 to 1. 0-1 is the process of building your MVP to PMF. What happens before 0? What to prepare, how to pivot? We define this process as -1 to 0. We are here to bring startup stories from -1 to 1 and accompany immigrant founders to go through this path.

✨In this episode, we interviewed Gilbert Wai, who embarked on his entrepreneurship journey in 1980 (when EECS was still a single major :D), transitioning from a hardware startup to a software startup. His journey includes three exits, two IPOs, and one acquisition (the first IPO occurred in 1995, followed by an acquisition by Dell Technologies).

0:00⁠ Path to an immigrant startup leader

13:10⁠⁠ The first thing in PMF is where the market is

28:33⁠⁠ How to scale your product and team from 1 to 100?

36:36 Navigate cultural differences as a minority leader in Tech

51:30 How to live with the technology cycle

01:00:39 Manage a big engineering team and hire the right people

Subscribe to our ⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ for more content and insights!

Follow Gibert: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gilbertwai/

About Startup -1 to 1: Our mission is to accompany immigrant founders who shape the future, from -1 to 1. 0-1 is the process of building your MVP to PMF. What happens before 0? What to prepare, how to pivot? We define this process as -1 to 0. We are here to bring startup stories from -1 to 1 and accompany immigrant founders to go through this path.