Real stories. Real journeys. Immigrant entrepreneurship, told by those who have lived it.
thenewcomers.substack.com (https://thenewcomers.substack.com/s/unfiltered-w-porch?utm_medium=podcast)
e10: Matrix Venture Studio founders on why you must fall in love with the boredom
Host explores immigrant entrepreneurship with Abhijitt Sankar Roy and Dev Mitra of Matrix Venture Studio, discussing embracing routine and building networks in Canada.
13 Aug 2025
e09: Patrick Findaro on moving to the U.S as an immigrant entrepreneur
Host Patrick Findaro interviews Founding Partner Patrick Findaro about navigating the E2 Investor Visa process for immigrant entrepreneurs, offering insights into business types and investment strategies.
30 Jul 2025
e08: Kingsley Madu on why he doesn't believe in work-life balance
CEO Kingsley Madu discusses why work-life balance is a myth for entrepreneurs, sharing his experiences building Expedier and the realities of fundraising in Canada in an interview with PORCH.
16 Jul 2025
e07: Katherine Li on the mental game of immigrant entrepreneurship
Katherine Li, Co-Founder and COO of Pulse FX, discusses the mental challenges of immigrant entrepreneurship, including self-doubt and the importance of supportive communities, in an interview with PORCH.
2 Jul 2025
e06: Ben Su on why some of Canada's best founders are leaving for the US
Ben Su, Co-Founder of Capita, discusses Canada's startup ecosystem and why some of its best founders are moving to the US due to misaligned incentives, in an interview with PORCH.
11 Jun 2025
e05: Asli Kahraman turned broken English into an advantage
Host PORCH interviews Asli Kahraman, Founder of Operations Mavenue, who shares how she turned her disadvantages into advantages as an immigrant entrepreneur, emphasizing authenticity and resilience.
28 May 2025
e04: Mario Meyer on doing business in Canada
Host PORCH interviews Mario Meyer, Reyem Tech Founder & CEO, about the double leap of faith required to become an immigrant entrepreneur in Canada, emphasizing the importance of networking and understanding Canadian business culture.
14 May 2025
e03: Marcelo Ribeiro thinks Canada has so much potential because of immigrants
Welcome to Unfiltered w/ PORCH, where we explore what it means to be an immigrant entrepreneur from the POV of the immigrant.
Join us as we explore the world of the immigrant entrepreneur.
In this episode, I'm speaking with Marcelo Ribeiro, founder of LovShield, a startup that protects seniors from fraud in real time.
Marcelo initially moved to Canada from Brazil in 2016 to study English. A few months later, he fell in love with the Canadian way of life and decided to move here permanently. The first few years were primarily focused on the going from student permit to work permit to permanent residency.
In 2019, he launched his first Canadian business, a construction firm.
In this conversation, Marcelo and I chat about the balance between passion and survival as an immigrant entrepreneur, doing business in Brazil versus Canada, why he left construction to launch LovShield, and more.
Key Takeaways
* Talk about your ideas early and often: Treat your community as a sounding board to pressure test your ideas. You gain nothing from keeping your ideas secret. Execution is everything. You’re better off aerating your ideas and validating your business model in the process.
* Find your community: Local resources like city programs, community forums (like PORCH (https://www.porchcommunity.ca/)), and accelerators are great places to find support as an immigrant entrepreneur. Especially because we often lack the traditional social safety nets.
* Think global from the start: Yes, you should start with your local market. But who says you can’t scale to international markets. Build with that in mind. Marcelo sees the senior protection business as one that addresses a global market of approximately 1 billion seniors. And I agree, my late father wouldn’t have been scammed if Marcelo’s solution existed six years ago.
* Immigration is a business opportunity: Immigrants aren't merely a new source of demand, they are also a new source of supply. Supply of ideas, innovations, and products. Canada has a lot of untapped potential, we just need to unlock it.
Official Links
* Connect with Marcelo on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/marceloribeeiro/)
* Check out LovShield (https://www.lovshield.com/)
Marcelo’s Media Diet
* One newsletter you’d never miss: Ground News (https://ground.news/)
* One immigrant entrepreneur that inspires you: Ash Maurya, Founder/CEO of LEANSTACK (https://leanstack.com/)
* One podcast you regularly listen to: Autoline Daily (https://www.autoline.tv/daily/)
* Any books or resources that have significantly shaped your entrepreneurship journey:
* Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan
* Atomic Habits by James Clear
* Deep Work by Cal Newport
* Running Lean by Ash Maurya
One Ask
If you got value from this episode, please forward it to one immigrant entrepreneur you know.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thenewcomerspod.com (https://thenewcomerspod.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)
23 Apr 2025
e02: Nida Ateeq is building her agency one referral at a time
Welcome to Unfiltered w/ PORCH, where we explore what it means to be an immigrant entrepreneur from the POV of the immigrant.
Join us as we explore the world of the immigrant entrepreneur.
In this episode, I'm speaking with Nida Ateeq, fractional CMO and Founder of Anagar Media, who decided to launch her business one year after moving to Canada.
Talk about cojones.
In this conversation, Nida and I chat about planning and how it gives you a better chance at succeeding, building her business via referrals, her biggest challenges as an immigrant entrepreneur, why not every immigrant will make a great entrepreneur, and more.
Key Takeaways
* Referrals are gold in North America: Cold outreach works, but warm intros shorten the sales cycle and help you leapfrog the trust gaps you’ll often face as an immigrant entrepreneur.
* Small is an advantage: Big agency is great. But being small can mean nimbleness and faster response times that clients can come to appreciate.
* Find your community: You can’t do this alone. Find communities like PORCH. Speak to fellow immigrant entrepreneurs. But don’t limit yourself by chatting with only immigrant entrepreneurs. You can learn from everyone and anyone.
* Automate, automate, automate: The rise and rise of AI means it’s easier than ever to delegate a lot of tasks to the robots. Focus on what you know how to do best - building the business.
Official Links
* Connect with Nida on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nidaateeq/)
* Get a quote from Anagar Media (https://anagarmedia.com/contact/)
One Ask
If you got value from this episode, please forward it to one immigrant entrepreneur you know.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thenewcomerspod.com (https://thenewcomerspod.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)
9 Apr 2025
e01: Neil & Hunter Weitzman are tackling the human side of immigrant entrepreneurship
Welcome to Unfiltered w/ PORCH, where we explore what it means to be an immigrant entrepreneur from the POV of the immigrant.
Join us as we explore the world of the immigrant entrepreneur.
They say entrepreneurship is hard. Well, try doing it in a country where you weren’t born, sometimes in a language that isn’t your first, with a social network you’ve had to build from scratch. That’s the story of the immigrant entrepreneur.
Together with Hunter Weitzman and Neil Weitzman of PORCH, we are launching the Unfiltered w/ PORCH podcast, where where we explore what it means to be an immigrant entrepreneur from the point-of-view of the immigrant. Real stories. Real journeys. Immigrant entrepreneurship, told by those who have lived it.
In our first episode, I'm speaking with my co-creators Neil and Hunter, who recently refocused PORCH on the personal side of the immigrant entrepreneur's journey.
If you sat down with a group of entrepreneurs today, they would probably be talking about the tariffs and the various steps each of them is taking to manage the chaos.
If you sat down with a group of immigrant entrepreneurs, the conversation would be a mix of the tariffs and how to handle the thousand and one things that come with moving to a new country.
As Neil puts it, "The business journey of an immigrant entrepreneur matters not one iota if we can't take care of and handle the personal journey."
In this conversation, we explore:
* Why they launched PORCH
* Biggest lessons from running an immigrant entrepreneur community
* Why stories matter way more, and a lot of other good stuff.
Official Links
* Follow Hunter on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/hunterweitzman/)
* Follow Neil on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilweitzman/)
* Check out PORCH’s website (https://www.porchcommunity.ca/)
* Sign up for PORCH’s Talk newsletter (https://www.porchcommunity.ca/porch-talk-newsletter)
One Ask
If you got value from this episode, please forward it to one immigrant entrepreneur you know.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thenewcomerspod.com (https://thenewcomerspod.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1)
Who has been a guest on Unfiltered w/ PORCH 🎙️
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
Abhijitt Sankar Roy
Dev Mitra
Patrick Findaro
Kingsley Madu
Katherine Li
Podcast Authority Score: 24 / 100
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