Foreign Founders

Archer Chiang had just $100 and 30 days to pay his college tuition when he landed his first client—a 70-year-old casino owner. That desperate moment launched a journey from building IoT companies with Panasonic in Japan to creating Giftpack.ai, an AI platform helping Fortune 500 companies measure something no one else tracks: emotional trust. In this episode, Archer shares why he builds AI in NYC...

Nikhil Teja Kolli built mokSa.ai after witnessing small retail businesses lose 10-15% of their revenue to theft. His solution? Privacy-first AI that catches shoplifters without facial recognition - and small business owners are obsessed with it. From collecting 20,000+ theft videos to building patent-pending AI technology, Nikhil's journey shows how turning a massive problem into data can create g...

Joseph Lee went from selling electronics in parking lots at age 14 to building Supademo, the world's fastest-growing AI-powered demo platform. Born in Seoul, raised in Vancouver, and now thriving in NYC, Joseph shares his journey from creating multiple ventures to fund university, building North America's first demand-driven seafood marketplace, to discovering the power of interactive product demo...

Anna Ratala went from running major tech events in Singapore to building Zvook, a venture-backed podcast advertising platform that she ultimately had to shut down after 4+ years. In this deeply honest conversation, she shares the emotional journey of letting go, rebuilding her identity beyond "founder," and finding her next chapter at a former competitor. What You'll Learn: How to recognize when i...

Jose Carlos "Charlie" Sarmiento went from corporate finance executive in Guatemala to extreme triathlete competing on the world stage, ultimately building VTX Athlete - a platform that connects endurance athletes with funding and brand sponsorships. In this episode, he shares his incredible journey from losing his father at 14, overcoming depression through ultramarathons, and creating a revolutio...

Supercharge your existing KYC with e-IDs Polish born  Jarek Sygitowicz  is co-founder and CSO at YC backed and London based Authologic. Founded in 2020, Authologic is a digital ID startup bridging legacy KYC systems and AI-era identity verification, helping businesses stay compliant, secure, and user-friendly. As traditional verification methods like plastic IDs and photo...

Startup Founders Can Accelerate Their Fundraising with Boxsy Elisabeth Bykoff went from aerospace engineering in France to building Boxsy, an AI-powered platform that helps startups scale operationally while connecting them with investors and ecosystem partners. In this episode, she shares her 20+ year journey in the US, the challenges of being a non-technical founder in AI, and why she believes t...

Nestor Castillero went from having just $51 in his pocket to building Maera, a seven-figure company that helps global entrepreneurs launch US businesses. In this episode, he shares the raw truth about bootstrapping a business, the power of content marketing, and why US LLCs are game-changers for international founders. What You'll Learn: How to build a business with almost no capital Why US LLCs g...

Helping immigrants navigate life in the U.S. From Nepal to New York City, Liesel Vaidya is the co-founder and CEO of Imera, a venture-backed platform focused on expanding access and opportunity for immigrants. Liesel previously served as CTO of a digital health startup, where she built award-winning products that transformed access to care for survivors of sexual assault. Originally from Kathmandu...

Measure and manage all your ad campaigns with RedTrack.io Vlad Zhovtenko is the CEO and co-founder of RedTrack, the AI-driven analytics and automation platform for media buyers. He has been an active player in the digital advertising space since 2000, and has held multiple marketing and managing director roles in the industry. Beginning in 2008, Vlad worked as an independent consult...

See how Endeavor Elements is architecting the future of flight $100 Per Line of Code? How This Aerospace Founder is Disrupting Aviation In this eye-opening episode, we sit down with Yves Remmler, the visionary Co-Founder & CEO of Endeavor Elements, who's bringing Silicon Valley innovation to the traditionally slow and regulation-heavy aerospace industry. Yves reveals how his aerospace startup...

Engage your fans with Fanlist Pat Cheung discovered his passion for audience building in 2011 while serving as Head of Product at EQAL, one of Los Angeles' first celebrity and influencer networks, where he designed a social platform driving fan engagement for over 40 influencers and 20 million monthly fan interactions. Currently the founder and CEO of Fanlist, a platform enabling podcasters to cre...

Watch The Flamingo Effect using TODAQ Micro’s technology Hassan Khan is a co-Founder and the CEO of TODAQ Micro, a fintech that enables instant micropayments for producers of movies, shows and documentaries that want a direct-to-consumer, frictionless, pay-as-you-do experience where they can control their customer relationship, control their content, and have better real-time monetization. Consume...

Learn more about how PolyGone Systems is removing microplastics Yidian Liu is the Co-founder and COO of PolyGone Systems and a Forbes 30 under 30 Fellow. PolyGone Systems is a Princeton University spinout cleantech company with a mission to remove microplastic pollutants from our waterways. Yidian was a trained designer with a Master’s degree in Architecture from Princeton University. Since 2021,...

Try Ohai.ai - a personal assistant for your family Sheila Lirio Marcelo is a Filipino-American entrepreneur with over 20 years of leadership experience in internet consumer marketplace businesses. She founded Care.com in 2006, taking the company public in 2014 and serving as Chairwoman and CEO until its sale to IAC in 2020. Currently, she is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ohai.ai , an AI technology sta...

I’m so delighted to have my friend, Elizabeth Tishchenko. Elizabeth was previously on episode 10 of the show, as the co-founder of her company, Nevemind, a consumer facing application using AI to manage your life. She shut down the company in 2024, so I wanted to reach out to her again and talk about her experience. Elizabeth is a Ukrainian nomad, serial entrepreneur, and AI consultant, currently...

Every couple needs a smart, shared brain space I’m happy to have my friend, Abdullah “Ax” Ali, on Foreign Founders. Ax’s story starts as a war refugee arriving in Baltimore with just $20, working his way through community college to one of the top PhD programs in Human-Computer interactions and publishing over 20 award-winning peer reviewed papers along the way. With stints at Microsoft, Apple, Am...

Get your own AI Phoenyx to learn a new language Originally from Paraná, a small town in Argentina, Carolina is on a mission to help kids learn a second language at the optimal age—when they are young, their brains are most receptive, and they have the time to explore and grow. After building a successful corporate career in Argentina, she sought a new challenge and moved to the US to ear...

Feedback on the episode? https://forms.gle/Nn7Cyk5rPsfjm5399 Hong Kong is one of the commercial and finance capitals of the world. Strategically located in the South China Sea, Hong Kong boasts several advantages including hosting over 9,000 international and Chinese companies with more than half using the city as their regional headquarters and offices. The city hosts a variety of advantages incl...

Want to integrate Web3 into your product? Work with MetaKeep With stints building products at Microsoft, Twitter, and Meta, Naga Samineni knows a thing or two about serving millions and billions of customers. Naga is taking all the knowledge of how to scale high impact global products, and bringing that to Web3 and the next generation of web infrastructure as co-founder of MetaKeep. In this episod...

Try Authentic Loose Leaf Taiwanese Tea Founded in 2019 by Shanghai-born, NYC-based millennial entrepreneur Maggie (Ranmu) Xue, Us Two Tea is a premium farm-to-cup purveyor of Taiwanese tea. After noticing a lack of widely known and distributed Asian-owned tea brands in the United States, Xue founded Us Two Tea with a clear mission to make Asian tea culture—and Asian culture at large—more acce...

Get Unstuck with your class work Sidhant Bendre is the Co-founder of Quizard AI, a Neo VC-backed consumer AI startup that has built a portfolio of products for students and professionals. Since launching out of a college dorm room in 2023, Quizard AI's suite of products has rapidly grown to serve over 4M users globally, generating more than $6 million ARR, and achieving profitability within its fi...

Welcome to Foreign Founders. We're creating slightly different programming where we highlight innovation ecosystems around the world, the first is with Yokohama, Japan. Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan, and only 45 minutes from Tokyo, and home to many large Japanese companies, and many startups. Yokohama has historically been ahead of their time, as they were the first port city to ope...

Make Engaging Shopping Experiences For Your Customers with PlayAbly Angelo is the co-founder of PlayAbly, a gamification platform that drives deeper customer engagement. Online brands generate excitement and curiosity using our playable ads and onsite games. Founded by veterans from mobile gaming and e-commerce marketing, PlayAbly's mission is to make shopping fun again. In this episode,...

Waste no more with FridgeGuide AI Delian Petrov is the CEO and co-founder of FridgeGuide AI, where he’s driving a mission to revolutionize grocery management and reduce food waste. Born in Bulgaria and raised in the U.S., Delian’s journey from earning his B.S. at UC Irvine to leading successful tech ventures like SeaStatus has been fueled by a relentless passion for innovation and sustainability....