FirstGen is dedicated to providing immigrant and first-generation founders with a comprehensive support experience, bridging the gap that often exists for these communities.
For Members Inspired by the excellence of accelerators like Techstars and communities like YPO, FirstGen furnishes its members with invaluable benefits, tools, courses, and both online and in-person events to amplify their potential.
For Public We proudly organize a range of educational and social events to foster unity and growth within the broader community of immigrant and first-generation founders.
Our Events
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Our Events |
FirstGen Founder Breakfast w/ Victor Zhang: ABCs of Raising a Seed Round
This event is exclusively for FirstGen members.
FirstGen Founder Breakfast w/ Miguel Fernandez (Capchase): Getting Fundamentals Right
This event is exclusively for FirstGen members.
MVPs: the Secret to Turning Them into PMF
This event is exclusively for FirstGen members.
About the event: Everyone talks about Minimum Viable Products but the truth is very few MVPs are actually (a) built to test the right assumptions, (b) find the right balance between too many or too few features, (c) turn into actual products. This is a unique opportunity to dive head first into a framework by which to build out your MVP (including RAT) for early product testing, extension-building or pivoting.
Fundraising in Today's Market When You Don’t Fit the Traditional Mold
Generic fundraising advice rarely works if you don't fit a specific founder profile. That is especially true in today's market.
Advice like "running a tight process", "warming up your network", "creating FOMO", etc. is basically a catch-22 (Ex: how do you create FOMO when there is zero interest to begin with?). This kind of advice is irrelevant and not helpful to many founders.
Join FirstGen for an evening conversation with early stage VCs, who are also firstgen, as we discuss what investors need to see to have the conviction to invest and real examples of how founders got an investment from them.
FG Breakfast: FirstGen Breakfast: Founder Resilience in the Midst Of Industry Meltdown
Join us for a breakfast conversation with Cyril Berdugo, founder of Landis ($222M raised), for an authentic guide into what it takes to keep a business alive and thriving through difficult times. Landis is a prop tech startup and Cyril had to navigate rising interest rates, bank failures and funding dry up while managing a growth stage startup. Prior to 2022, there were 23 startups building in the Landis' space. Now, less than half of those companies are still operating. We'll discuss what Landis did to survive and thrive.
What Makes AI Products Different: Defining, Building and Launching Them
AI has been seeping into software all around us in the last decade. The latest headlines on generative AI and LLMs have further grabbed the world’s attention. But as a founder and builder, what does it mean to incorporate AI into your product strategy and development? This will be a super interactive session designed for founders with early-stage product strategy in mind.
FirstGen's Immigrant Founder Appreciation Happy Hour
June is Immigrant Heritage month and we're organizing a happy hour to bring together amazing immigrant founders building companies in New York City.
FG Breakfast: FirstGen Breakfast: Raising Capital in an Unsexy Industry
Join us for a breakfast conversation with Sherveen Mashayekhi, CEO and founder of Free Agency. Sherveen successful raised for a services heavy startup in the HR tech space. Free Agency raised over $20m in funding, including a Series A led by Maveron. Free Agency provides tech professionals with Hollywood-style representation for the first time ever. Free Agency manages “the business end” of its clients' careers, helping them find, win, and succeed at top-of-market roles.
Creating Urgency with VCs: Roleplays with Ami Kumordzie of Sika Health
We all know how frustrating it is to have conversations with investors that drag on, go stale or worse, ghost you. Everyone talks about running a process and playing the VC game, but how do you actually do it?
In this conversation, Ami will walk through & role play what she did to to create urgency with investors, strategies for writing emails to VCs and other hacks that she learned when she raised $6m pre-seed as a solo female founder. This will be an extremely tactical session focusing on exact language and tone to use, strategies for creating FOMO, and tangible step-by-step playbooks.
Ami Kumordzie of Sika Health raised $6.2m.
Fundraising as a FirstGen Founder: Challenges, Mindsets and Cultural Differences to Overcome
Fundraising is never easy, especially as an immigrant or first generation founder. The immigrant experience creates incredible resourcefulness and resilience, but also comes with its own set of mindsets, cultural norms and challenges when it comes to fundraising. These can be set-backs or sometimes your biggest strength if leveraged well.
Join us for an evening conversation as we explore these unique challenges. During the panel, you'll hear from immigrant and first generation founders that have successfully raised venture funding and immigrant and first generation venture investors.
FG Breakfast: Building Vertical Saas Companies, Marketplaces and Fundraising
Join us for a breakfast conversation with David Olk, currently the General Partner at Junction Venture Partners. Prior to co-founding Junction, David co-founded ShopKeep and ran the business day to day while raising close to $200m before it was acquired by Lightspeed. Before ShopKeep, he was Director of Mergers and Acquisitions at IAC and also co-founded Voray, a platform to help people build more authentic networks and grow their careers.
FG Breakfast: Building a SaaS Enabled Marketplace
Join us for an FG breakfast discussion with Raad Ahmed, CEO and co-founder of Lawtrades, a marketplace for on-demand legal talent. Lawtrades recently raised a $6m Series A, surpassed $10m in revenue for the year, and became cash-flow positive while building a remote company.