Silicon Valley Start-Ups Fueled by Immigrants

The area in northern California between San Francisco and San Jose is known as Silicon Valley.

Some of the world’s most famous technology companies have headquarters there. Apple and Facebook are two big ones.

Besides established companies, there are many small companies trying to get started. These businesses are known as start-ups.

Some of the people behind the start-ups are immigrants from countries like Sri Lanka, Taiwan and China.

One of those start-ups is called Cloud of Goods. It is an online business that links local residents who have things to rent with  tourists who need those things. People who need car seats, strollers, bicycles or camping equipment can use the service to rent these goods.

Punsri Abeywickrema is the founder of Cloud of Goods. He is from Sri Lanka. He says he has based his business on the fact that we all buy goods that we do not use all the time. When they are not being used, they can be rented to someone else.

“The idea was, you know, there's a lot of resources that we all (have) accumulated in our homes, in our garages, in our closets, that (are) sitting idle, and how can we use this to make it better for everyone?”

The company just opened for business. Workers at the company recently celebrated its first $500 of income with a drink of sparkling wine.

There are computer programmers working on Cloud of Goods’ website in Sri Lanka. But in California, there are 10 unpaid employees trying to build the company.

Stacy Tran is part of the start-up. She says the company is trying to start small and then expand. “Similar to how Amazon did it with books,” she says.

Gee Chuang founded Listia with James Fong. They are Chinese-Americans who met at Cornell University in the state of New York. Listia is an online marketplace where people can trade in used items for credit. Then they can use the credit to “buy” other items, like collectible coins, video games or cell phones.

Listia has been in business since 2009 and has 9 million users.

The founders overcame some problems two years ago. The U.S. Department of Labor investigated the business. The founders were required to pay wages to the website moderators who should have been considered employees. Now, 18 people work at their office in Santa Clara, California.

Chuang says it is very important to hire “people that know more than you” to start a successful business.

Neal Gorenflo is a business analyst for a site called Shareable that tracks what is called the sharing economy. He says it is hard for businesses like Listia and Cloud of Goods to find out what it takes to be successful.

But that is not because there are not enough smart and motivated people looking to work in new businesses. Abeywickrema says Silicon Valley provides the perfect mix of people with skills and opportunities.

“All that, you know, different expertise, different skill sets, different talents mix here together, and that is the right recipe for a, you know, successful company.”

I’m Christopher Jones-Cruise.

VOA Correspondent Mike O’Sullivan reported this story. Dan Friedell adapted it for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.

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