Neri Karra Sillaman is an adviser and speaker who was recently recognized on the Thinkers50 Radar list for 2024 as one of the top 30 emerging management thinkers. She is an adjunct professor and entrepreneurship expert at the University of Oxford, and founder of Neri Karra, a global luxury leather goods brand that has been manufacturing for leading Italian labels for over 25 years. A former child refugee, she brings a powerful perspective on resilience, cultural innovation, and ethical business to her work. Her insights have been featured in Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Forbes, and Fortune.
Whats the big idea?
Its no coincidence that immigrant-led businesses have better survival and long-term success rates. Common threads of the immigrant experience tend to naturally strengthen the necessary skills to build a thriving business. Qualities such as personal resilience, commitment to a greater purpose, and authentic community building give many immigrants an edge as entrepreneurs.
Below, Neri shares five key insights from her new book, Pioneers: 8 Principles of Business Longevity from Immigrant Entrepreneurs. Listen to the audio versionread by Neri herselfin the Next Big Idea App.
1. Start with who you are, not just whats missing
Most entrepreneurs are told to scan the market for gaps to fill. But immigrant entrepreneurs often do something radically differentthey begin by looking inward. They build businesses rooted in their personal stories, cultural legacies, and lived experiences.
When Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp, remembered the fear of phone surveillance in Soviet Ukraine and the costs of calling his family from America, he didnt just see problemshe envisioned a solution. WhatsApp became a free, ad-free, encrypted service that now connects nearly three billion people.
This principle of inside-out entrepreneurship isnt just more humanits more resilient. When the origin of your idea is deeply meaningful, your motivation is more sustainable. Youre not chasing trends. Youre building what only you can build.
2. Necessity is the fuel of endurance
Immigrants often dont start businesses because they want to. They do it because they have to. This is what I call necessity entrepreneurship.
Companies started by immigrants tend to grow faster and survive longer.
Necessity isnt a disadvantage. Its a source of grit. When youve fled war, rebuilt your life from nothing, or supported your family with little more than hope, you develop a drive that doesnt quit when things get hard.
This endurance often makes immigrant-founded businesses outlast their peers. In fact, companies started by immigrants tend to grow faster and survive longer. In a world where 90% of startups fail, that kind of staying power is worth paying attention to.
3. Community is the business model
Long before stakeholder capitalism was a buzzword, immigrant entrepreneurs were practicing it. Many come from collectivist cultures or grew up relying on informal networks of support. That mindset shows up in how they build companies.
Take the story of my own business: we got out of a refugee camp in Istanbul thanks to a distant relative who took us in. Today, her children are my factory manager and accountant. We didnt just build a brandwe built a family business, sustained by trust.
Community is not a nice to have. For many immigrant founders, it is the secret to longevity. They succeed because they lift others as they rise.
4. Build with legacy in mind, not just profit
Immigrant entrepreneurs tend to have a long-term lens. Perhaps its because theyve witnessed how quickly everything can disappear. Or because theyve felt the weight of whats been lost and the responsibility to create something that endures.
Companies that last are the ones rooted in purpose.
Luis von Ahn, founder of Duolingo, grew up in Guatemala, where access to education was limited. He didnt just build a tech company; he built a free tool to democratize language learning worldwide. Thats what legacy looks like.
Profit is important. But the immigrant entrepreneurs I interviewed showed again and again: the companies that last are the ones rooted in purpose.
5. Connection is the true currency of success
Success stories are often told in isolation, but nobody does it alone. Immigrant entrepreneurs understand this better than most. Theyve seen how invisible networksfamily ties, community trust, shared experiencecan shape their futures.
In the book, I write: Forests appear to be made up of individual trees, but each one thrives only because of the vast, interconnected root system below. Thats what Ive found in immigrant-led businesses, too.
Whether its a factory built with childhood friends or a mentorship that changes everything, the unseen connections are what make a business resilient. Theyre also what make it human.
This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
