Advice and Resources for AAPI Business Owners, From AAPI Business Owners Welcome to Breaking the Blueprint — a blog series that dives into the unique business challenges and opportunities of underrepresented business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn how they’ve grown or scaled their businesses, explored entrepreneurial ventures within their companies, or created side hustles, and how their stories can inspire and inform your own success. Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities, originating from around 20 diverse countries, have a long history of exclusion, strict immigration laws, and discrimination. When immigrants, like my grandfather, from East and Southeast Asia made it into America in the 19th and 20th centuries, most of the available jobs were backbreaking labor. When access to employment was slim, or wages were low, many newcomers relied on building small businesses to provide for their families. Those businesses have become deeply rooted in the day-to-day life of American society–restaurants, nail salons, doughnut shops, dry cleaners, spas, markets, and many others. Still, obstacles have continued to exist. The National CAPACD analyzed federal and membership data on AAPI small businesses and noted gaps in access to funding, a recent rise in hate crimes, and language barriers. Despite these challenges, the U.S. Census Bureau has reported around 2 million AAPI-owned businesses across all industries, from entertainment, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, real estate, tech, and more. Countless household names, like YouTube, DoorDash, Old Navy, Peloton, and Notion, were founded by Asian Americans. Another roadblock that prevents entrepreneurs from growing successful companies is the...

Resources for Indigenous Entrepreneurs: Start on the Right Foot Welcome to Breaking the Blueprint — a blog series that dives into the unique business challenges and opportunities of underrepresented business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn how they’ve grown or scaled their businesses, explored entrepreneurial ventures within their companies, or created side hustles, and how their stories can inspire and inform your own success. Aspiring Native entrepreneurs face many challenges in growing small businesses. Complex land lease laws, strained infrastructure, and a chronic lack of credit access all inhibit Indigenous success. However, thanks to growing federal, organizational, and tribal support, potential business owners have more resources available than ever. Navigating new financial mechanisms, tribal incubators, and government programs can still present a challenge. By appraising available resources, and when to leverage them, Native entrepreneurs gain a great head start in launching new ventures. Starting on the right foot, with the right tools, can make all the difference – especially when climbing over systemic barriers. Native Community Development Financial Institutions Native access to capital can prove a complex and frustrating obstacle for up-and-coming business owners. Chronic systemic discrimination, along with general confusion around complicated land laws, can stymie new businesses before they ever get started. Generational poverty often means that Natives don’t have alternative means of obtaining start-up capital, either. A May 2021 report by the National Indian Council On Aging states that 16.3 percent of Native households don’t use banks.  The same report notes that high poverty rates, systemic racism, and a lack of...

Five Lessons I Learned About Scaling a Business With Reid Hoffman How great would it be if you had a panel of successful entrepreneurs and business leaders you could turn to whenever you needed help getting unstuck, or needed a daily dose of inspiration? Fortunately, that's exactly what the new Masters of Scale Courses App offers — expert advice from some of the world's best and brightest minds, guided by Reid Hoffman. The first course is all about The Mindset of Scale. Here's what I learned from the first two lessons. 1. Ask "Why not?" and "What if?" Start by asking two important questions — "Why not?" and "What if?" — whenever you encounter something that makes you feel a strong emotion. For instance, think about the last time you experienced sticker shock or frustration over waiting in a long line. Those simple questions have sparked countless successful products and businesses — including Virgin Airlines. In his own words, here's Richard Branson: "35 years ago, when we started , the big carriers were dreadful. And on one of those flights coming to the Virgin Islands, I got bumped, which is a sort of typical thing that airlines did in those days." Of course, being Richard Branson, he didn't pass the time by staring woefully at the departures board. Instead, he asked one of those powerful questions: What if? What if he didn't have to wait for the next flight? What if he created a flight of his own? "So...