Fifty-six percent of the top 25 tech companies were founded by first or second generation Americans, according to a new report from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
That includes companies like eBay, Google, and Apple.
We decided to take a look at some of the most influential immigrants in the U.S. who are launching innovative companies, creating jobs, and growing our economy.
Their stories are impressive: One was forced to fight as a child soldier in Mao's Red Army. Another taught himself to read as a child in a Turkish village with only one teacher. And a third slept in a Taco Bell parking lot in Silivon Valley rather than try to launch his business in Japan.
Taro Fukuyama wants to bring Google-like perks to every company in the U.S.
Born and raised in Tokyo, Taro Fukuyama got his first taste of America when he studied abroad during high school. In 2011, Fukuyama and his team decided to leave Japan and come to Silicon Valley to further grow their dating startup called Mieple. They spent the first three days sleeping in a minivan in a Taco Bell parking lot. But today, Fukuyama and his team are running a hot new startup called AnyPerk.
Eren Bali is trying to democratize online education.
Eren Bali was born in a small village in Turkey. Bali essentially had to teach himself, since his primary school only had one room and one teacher trying to teach 5 different grades at once. Bali went on to earn a degree in both computer science and mathematics at the Middle East Technical University in Turkey.
It was his personal education experience that led to online learning platform Udemy. Today, Bali is the CEO at Udemy, which has raised $16 million from investors including Insight Venture Partners, Lightbank, MHS Capital, 500 Startups, and others.
Mike Galarza wants to make accounting pain-free.
Originally from Mexico, Mike Galarza left in 2009 to pursue an internship in San Jose, Calif. Galarza later went on to work at a larger company, where he was in charge of accounting.
In 2010, Galarza attended a talk by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel at Stanford University, where he shared the story of founding PayPal. Galarza decided it was time to pursue entrepreneurship.
"[...] After that, I could not see the future the same way I was seeing it before," Galarza said via email. "That's when I decided to take the rocky path of entrepreneurship."
Last February, Galarza graduated from The Founder Institute in Silicon Valley and now runs an accounting service called Entryless.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider