Created in 2018, FirstGen is dedicated to providing immigrant and first-generation founders with a comprehensive support experience, bridging the gap that often exists for FirstGen communities. We provide FirstGen founders with a community, resource and platform to build venture scale companies. Our model is purpose built to provide access to social and financial capital that many FirstGen founders lack; while our community brings together founders and supporters who hail from around the world and cultivates knowledge, empathy, support, collaboration, trust and access. Our goal is to unleash the entrepreneurial potential of the immigrant experience by lowering barriers to venture-scale entrepreneurship and providing the resources, training, network, and support to succeed. Our mission is to help First Generation & Immigrant ("FirstGen") founders raise their first $1m in funding and achieve $1m in revenue through the 4Cs.
External link for FirstGen
New York, New York 10014, US
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Are you an international founder looking to build your startup in New York City? Join NYCEDC and FirstGen on Tuesday, July 9th for a deep dive into visa options for immigrant founders, including demystifying the "extraordinary abilities" visa categories. Co-hosted with Forum Ventures, The Knowledge Shop, and Free Agency. Learn more & RSVP below:
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On Tuesday, FirstGen hosted a conversation about the Complex Relationship to Money that many immigrant and first generation founders, professionals and investors have. We had the chance to discuss mindsets and challenges that impact the FirstGen community and the practical ways to overcome and break down those limiting mindsets. We talked about: - The cost of feeling like we owe our parents - The perils of perfectionism and feeling the need to over-prove - The scarcity mindset vs abundance mindset - The impact humble beginnings on decision-making and risk-taking Thank you to our panelists Lei Bely-Cheng 成蕾 David Tswamuno Ray Fu and Evelysse Vargas for such a genuine and vulnerable conversation. And to those who showed up to take part in this conversation. Until next one! Thank you to Sherveen Mashayekhi, Free Agency and Acronym Venture Capital for supporting this event Ines Gramegna James Hueston #firstgen #firstgenfounders #immigrantfounders #nyctech #immigrantentreprenuership
Our historical relationship to money has huge implications on how we think about financial risk-taking. These mindsets, cultural norms and lived experiences have big impact on decision making for founders. Join us in NYC on Tuesday, June 25th as we dive into how first generation and immigrant founders think about money - the mindsets, beliefs and constructs that shape decision-making. Thank you to our panelists for taking on this difficult, but needed conversation: Lei Bely-Cheng 成蕾, David Tswamuno, Ray Fu and Evelysse Vargas Thank you to Free Agency and Acronym Venture Capital for supporting this event. #firstgen #firstgenfounders #firstgenentrepreneurship #nyctech #nycfounders #nycstartups
Join us for our next conversation, this time we'll be talking about FirstGen: A Complex Relationship to Money.
Join us for our next conversation, FirstGen: A Complex Relationship to Money on Tuesday June 25th. Money and our relationship to it influences so much of how we make business decisions. Growing up with less means, often entails that first generation and immigrant founders have a more complex relationship to money than most entrepreneurs. The lived experiences and cultural norms can lead to a number of limiting beliefs or scarcity mindsets that have significant consequences on the decisions founders make and also the emotional burdens they carry. Join us for a conversation as we dive into how first generation and immigrant founders think about money - the mindsets, beliefs and constructs that shape decision-making. Thank you to our panelists which span the lived spectrum of the firstgen experience: ✔ Ray Fu, Co-founder and CEO at Nickel ✔ Lei Bely-Cheng 成蕾, Director, Wealth Advisor at Citizens ✔ David Tswamuno Funder and Managing Partner of Fairbridge ✔ Evelysse Vargas, Partner at BEA Venture Fund Link to register is below, we hope to see you there! Ines Gramegna James Hueston #firstgen #firstgenfounders #immigrantfounders #nyc #nyctech #entreprenuership #immigrant #founders
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Big thank you to Vince Jeong of Sparkwise for speaking at todays FirstGen breakfast. We had a great discussion on buying signals vs noise, navigating early b2b sales and sales channels and bias for action and hyper specific hypothesis vs frameworks and endless experimentation. Thank you for the candid, detailed and tactical conversation Vince! Thank you to Jamie Katcher and the Raise Commercial Real Estate team for hosting us at their beautiful space in flatiron. Ines Gramegna Miao K. Eddie Garcia Tremayne Stewart Niko Arsenidze Marie O. Shuchi Vyas Viktor Ryshkov Mischa Pintchiouk Amita Goyal Diana Mendez Evelyn Yen
Congratulations to 3 FirstGen members on their acceptance into the NYU Tandon Future Labs Catalyst Program! The NYU Catalyst Program is structured mentorship and support to prepare companies for institutional funding and is a public-private partnership between NYU and NY State. 🔸 Manu Stephen and Vishnu Thyagarajan of StageZero working to accelerate R&D for medical device companies. 🔸 Ralph Nanad of 10clear working to automate financial statement compliance for public companies. 🔸 Tae Young Woo of Finestra working to bring price transparency to American health care. Thank you Vadim Gordin, Neta Kestenberg, Craig Wilson for the great work you do and for being wonderful partners to FirstGen!
On Monday night, FirstGen had the pleasure of hosting the second installment in our series of selling into health systems. We heard stories, experiences and candid and tactical advice from 5 founders who have successfully sold into a range of health systems across the US. Thank you to Dave Kerwar, John Hui, Samson Magid, Carl Madi and Chaitenya Razdan for sharing their time and experiences with us.
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After a successful first event, FirstGen is hosting PART II in its series about Selling into Health Systems. Join us on April 29th in NYC as we continue the conversation, this time from the seller's perspective, the founders. We'll talk about: value prop positioning, navigating healthcare sales cycles, building trust & credibility, deploying and scaling solutions and mistakes made and lessons learned. We'll be hearing from both serial founders and long-time healthcare specialists who've also been in the buyer's seat themselves: ✅ Dave Kerwar, Co-Founder and CEO of Inbound Health (Series B led by HealthQuest Capital with participation from Flare Capital Partners and McKesson Ventures) ✅ John Hui, Co-founder of Twiage and Rendr (Used by 100+ Leading Hospitals, EMS, and Health Networks Across the US) ✅ Samson Magid - Co-founder and CEO of HealthSnap (Series B led by Sands Capital with participation from Comcast Ventures and Acronym Venture Capital) ✅ Carl Madi - Co-founder and CEO of Stepful (Series A led by AlleyCorp) ✅ Chaitenya Razdan - Founder and CEO of Care+Wear ($2.5M raised, selling into many main hospitals) Thank you to Chris Errico + Maya Uchima at Dentons, John Bryson at Banc of California and Joshua B Siegel at Acronym Venture Capital for supporting this event. Link to register below. Ines Gramegna James Hueston Anish Patel #firstgen #firstgenfounders #healthcare #healthtech #digitalhealth #nyctech #nycstartups #nychealth
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Last night FirstGen hosted a workshop on Visa Options for Immigrant Founders. Huge thanks to Jonathan Grode, US Practice Director for Green and Spiegel, for a thoughtful, tactical and empowering session. Key takeaways for immigrant founders: ✅ Be as pragmatic about your immigration as you are about your business. ✅ Find ways to carve your own path and not be reliant on others for your status. ✅ Everyone is extraordinary and any one can work to get an extraordinary talent visa. Let's keep more amazing founders building the future in the US! Thank you to Chris Errico, Dentons and Acronym Venture Capital for supporting this event. Ines Gramegna FirstGen Fernando Montejo #firstgen #firstgenfounders #immigrantfounders #nyctech #nycfounders #immigrants
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Did you know there is more than one visa option to start a company in the US? If you're an immigrant founder or prospective founder in the US trying to figure out how to start a company on a visa, join us on Thursday April 18th for a workshop and Q&A session with Jonathan Grode, Immigration Practice Director at Green and Spiegel. We'll cover: ✔ Visa strategies & options for immigrant founders ✔ The +/- of each type of visa ✔ The "how to" of the most common visas ✔ Next steps and where to take it following the workshop The format of this event will be a 45 min presentation followed by a 45 min Q&A session. It is designed to be informative but also informal so bring your questions. See you on Thursday! Register here: https://lnkd.in/dJmpSHyb If you know a founder thinking through this right now, please share with them! Ines Gramegna Vadim Gordin Emily Wazlak Neta Kestenberg Geri Kirilova James Hueston #firstgen #firstgenfounders #immigrantfounders #nyctech #immigrants #immigrantsintech