What East Asian Startup Founders Can Learn From The Immigrant Community At Large
By Lex Zhao
Although they make up the majority of Silicon Valley’s tech workforce, people of Asian descent remain significantly underrepresented in leadership roles: 27% at Apple, 30% at Google, and 25% at Facebook, according to MarketWatch.
The disparity is even starker for East Asians, who face pronounced barriers to advancement due to pervasive stereotypes around leadership style and cultural biases that favor Western communication norms.
This bias extends beyond corporate leadership and into venture funding. Despite their strong track record, East Asian founders don’t receive investment proportional to their success. If they’re excelling at building and scaling tech companies, why aren’t more of them household names?
In my experience, unconscious bias persists in entrepreneurial communities, making it harder for East Asian founders — whether foreign-born or native-born — to break through. The paradox is clear: East Asians are instrumental to Silicon Valley’s success, yet they remain overlooked when it comes to leadership and venture funding.
One community that understands these challenges best is the broader immigrant entrepreneur ecosystem. Many immigrant groups, such as South Asians and Middle Easterners, embrace assertive, risk-taking and relationship-driven norms that align more closely with U.S. entrepreneurial culture.
By learning from these approaches — whether in self-promotion or investor rapport — East Asian founders can better navigate the biases that have historically held them back.
Tackle cultural myths
The experiences shared by the broader immigrant community can help East Asian founders face certain unique challenges. These two biases often create obstacles.
- Bias #1: The “Model Minority” Myth: The perception that Asians are self-sufficient and don’t need support, which leads to fewer targeted opportunities and mentorship.
- Bias #2: Weaker leadership and sales skills: The assumption that East Asians lack the charisma, decisiveness or persuasion needed to lead companies.
Overcoming these stereotypes requires founders to recognize how they may be perceived and proactively amplify their strengths, but that doesn’t typically happen in a vacuum.
When I was in business school, I took a course on “cross-cultural communication” and learned how cultural norms can heavily shape how you present yourself. In an exercise where we lined up students from different countries by outward confidence, it was no surprise that the Israeli and Lebanese students were ranked the highest.
Spending time with founders from other cultural backgrounds can offer East Asian entrepreneurs insights on leaning into and embracing one’s own identity as an asset in the founder journey. The community is also an understanding space for them to seek out more guided mentorship.
Meet investors who acknowledge your potential
As a VC focused entirely on immigrant founders, I’ve seen firsthand how difficult it can be for this group — especially those from East Asian backgrounds — to communicate certain aspects of their vision and leadership potential. Many come from cultures where humility is a core value.
Seeking out VCs who are immigrants themselves, or who actively support immigrant founders, can provide both practical guidance and psychological support. These investors understand the cultural nuances that shape founders’ communication styles and can offer tailored advice on how to navigate investor meetings, refine storytelling and emphasize leadership potential in a way that resonates with their audience.
They may also be more inclined to back you but, even if they don’t invest, building relationships with these investors is invaluable. Good places to start include funds that focus on immigrant founders, as well as Asian American-focused firms such as Gold House Ventures and Hyphen Capital.
The broader immigrant community in the U.S. has been shaped by shared struggles, creating a close-knit network that thrives on mutual support. East Asian founders can learn a lot from how immigrant groups have overcome barriers in business and beyond.
Lex Zhao is a general partner at One Way Ventures, a VC firm backing exceptional immigrant founders. He specializes in supply chain tech, fintech and digital health.
Illustration: Dom Guzman
