Immigrants Built Half of America's Billion-Dollar Startups

Immigrants have founded or co-founded more than half of America's billion-dollar startups, according to Carnegie. That statistic frames an essay published by Entrepreneur in which a Fortune 500 executive and startup investor argues the habits driving immigrant entrepreneurship are choices any founder can make.

The author writes from direct experience. His family immigrated from Cyprus to the United States when he was eight years old. He did not speak English.

"We arrived on a Friday night, and by Monday morning, I was sitting in an American classroom trying to make sense of words I couldn't understand," he writes.

Communication at first meant listening, watching and relying on gestures. A few words became sentences. Sentences became conversations. The author says that experience produced a lasting curiosity and a love of learning that shaped his career.

His father brought his mother and six children to America believing the country offered a better life. But, the author writes, there was never an expectation that opportunity would be handed over. The family had to build its future itself.

Years later, after leading Fortune 500 companies and investing in startups, the author identifies five transferable habits that he says entrepreneurship demands and that his childhood as an immigrant taught him.

What are the five habits?

The essay organizes its argument around five practices:

• Become a student before you become an expert. Learn continuously, because experience has a shelf life.
• Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Solve problems inside uncertainty rather than waiting for certainty.
• Make resourcefulness a competitive advantage. Move forward with the resources you have, not the ones you wish you had.
• Balance high standards with empathy. Raise expectations while creating an environment of respect and trust.
• Replace "I can't" with "I'll figure it out." Treat obstacles as problems that focus and persistence can solve.

Why does continuous learning matter more than experience?

The author draws a straight line from language acquisition to business leadership. Before he could make friends or participate in school, he had to learn English. Once he could read, books became a foundation of his career.

Business, he argues, works the same way. Experience matters, but markets evolve, customers change, and technology reshapes industries faster than ever. "The leaders who continue learning long after they've become successful are usually the ones who stay successful because they never stop asking questions," he writes.

How do entrepreneurs handle uncertainty?

Immigrants do not have the luxury of waiting until everything feels familiar, the author notes. They solve problems while living inside uncertainty. Entrepreneurs face what he calls a remarkably similar challenge: there is rarely enough information, enough capital or enough certainty to eliminate risk.

The winners are not necessarily the ones with the perfect plan. They are the ones who make thoughtful decisions, learn quickly and adjust without losing momentum. The author's warning is direct: waiting until every variable is known means spending more time watching opportunities than pursuing them.

Can a small budget beat a big one?

Through startup investing, the author says he has learned that the founders with the biggest budgets are not always the ones who build the best businesses. The strongest entrepreneurs find ways to move forward with what they have.

Immigrant families develop that habit out of necessity. They stretch every dollar, solve problems creatively and maximize every opportunity because nothing feels guaranteed.

Every business leader can adopt the same mindset, the author argues, by asking one question: "What can we accomplish with what we already have?" That shift in thinking, he writes, often unlocks more innovation than a larger budget ever could.

Do high standards and empathy conflict?

Hard work remains a defining characteristic of entrepreneurial success, the author says, but it is not enough on its own. His parents taught him to care about other people, give them the benefit of the doubt and understand that everyone carries challenges that may not be visible.

He has brought that lesson into every leadership role. "The best leaders don't lower expectations because they care about people," he writes. "They raise expectations while creating an environment where people feel respected, supported and trusted."

Accountability and empathy, he argues, are not competing ideas. They reinforce one another.

What does the eight-year-old's lesson amount to?

The author returns to his first days in an American classroom. Someone would ask him a question, and he could not answer. So he listened carefully and repeated words and sentences, building confidence with each conversation.

That experience permanently changed how he approaches difficult problems. When people say they cannot do something, his instinct is to believe they can. They may not know how yet. It may take more work than expected. But with focus, intentionality and persistence, he writes, there are very few challenges people cannot learn to overcome.

Is this really a story about immigration?

Not ultimately, the author concludes. Immigrants have helped build some of America's most successful businesses because entrepreneurship rewards resilience, adaptability, optimism and hard work — qualities common among immigrants because their experiences often demand them.

But the mindset is not exclusive to immigrants. The author's prescription: stay curious enough to keep learning, be resourceful instead of waiting for perfect conditions, treat uncertainty as part of the process, and hold yourself and your team to high standards while leading with empathy.

He still thinks about that eight-year-old boy from Cyprus. The lesson he draws: most people are capable of far more than they think. The question is not whether founders will encounter obstacles. It is whether they will decide to keep learning, keep adapting and keep moving forward — a mindset that, in business as in life, often makes the difference.