Unshackled’s Immigrant Entrepreneurs Get Unprecedented Access to the Bad Ass Advisors Network

Palo Alto, CA - (October 15, 2015) – Today, Unshackled teams up with Bad Ass Advisors to bring two generations of Americans together to solve the future. In an incredible form of validation, Unshackled portfolio companies will now have unique access to some of the most successful entrepreneurs and advisors ever assembled for early stage founders.
 
Founded by Nitin Pachisia and Manan Mehta, Unshackled’s debut fund, which brought together 81 highly influential investors together for one mission — to support immigrant founders in the U.S.  —  is on the precipice of scaling and has identified the perfect partner. The fund has made over a dozen investments in nearly 30 founders born in 6 different continents, with 5 different visa types.
 
“We’ve been saying it from day 1, the unfair advantage in entrepreneurship is surrounding the founders with the right people from the earliest stages. That’s the difference between success and failure. Three of our portfolio companies Shortlist, Geospago and Sporple are already in deep conversations with their Bad Ass Advisors and it’s clear that everyone wins.,” said founding partner Manan Mehta.
 
Founded by Mark Goldstein, Bad Ass Advisors brings together over 250 former tech company CEOs and co-founders who have experienced meaningful successes (exits of $50M or more). Advisors include people like Mark Pincus (CEO of Zynga), Ariel Poler (Current Director, Strava), Mike Nuttal (Co-Founder of IDEO) and Heidi Messer (Co-Founder, Linkshare). Bad Ass Advisors gives these luminaries the opportunity to form advisory relationships with a curated group of the best and brightest minds in America, specifically the immigrant entrepreneurs of Unshackled.
 
“Unshackled supports the strongest immigrant teams and Bad Ass Advisors brings expert, targeted advisors---not the same advisors working the incubator circuit. We match the right skills, industries, and expertise to what every company needs to get to the next level,” said Mark H Goldstein, CEO of Bad Ass Advisors.
 
In just the first week of their partnership, nearly 70% of Unshackled’s portfolio teams were successfully paired up with relevant advisors and are now in the early days of their relationship. This partnership is a significant milestone for Unshackled as the firm looks to scale its impact in 2016.
 
“Bad Ass Advisors quickly connected me with a mentor in an area I needed a lot of help in,” began Ryan Borker, Founder of Shortlist. “Getting help so quickly is going to be a game changer for me and for Shortlist"
 
As part of this partnership, Bad Ass Advisors is creating a number of unique and special features for Unshackled, which it plans to expand over time. Every founding team that applies to Bad Ass Advisors via Unshackled will be pre-approved. In addition, Bad Ass Advisors will curate a dedicated resource pool of advisors that the founders can tap into. This will be a subset of advisors that believes in the power of immigrant entrepreneurs, and understands their influence and needs. There will also be private events that keep get the immigrant founded teams at front of this community of advisors to forge more organic relationships.
 
This partnerships empowers people on both sides -- immigrant founders and expert advisors -- to easily connect with a top-tier talent pool. Immigrant founders can find the advisors they need to succeed, and advisors can seamlessly find founders who can dramatically benefit from their expertise. Everybody wins.
 
About Unshackled
Unshackled is an innovative fund designed to extend the entrepreneurship opportunity to an untapped pool of entrepreneurs in our country — immigrant founders on work visas. By changing the way venture funds deploy capital, Unshackled is the only fund in the country enabling top immigrant entrepreneurs at the earliest stage possible. This unique model allows us to retain and invest in brilliant founders on visas (H1-B, TN, OPT, E3, H4, etc.).
 
Unshackled is supported by 80+ highly influential investors, including Brad Feld, First Round Capital, Jerry Yang and Laurene Powell Jobs. The fund has made over a dozen investments in nearly 30 founders born in 6 different continents. For more information on the investors, investments and team, please visit us at www.unshackled.co
 
 

Contact Information

Patrick Czapla

PR for Unshackled

VSC and Wareness.io

Contact via E-mail