What does it take to become a successful entrepreneur in the US?

Through reflective narrative, Yoni Medhin documents his father’s traumatic upbringing in war-torn Ethiopia, and escape to the US. Medhin tells the inspirational story of his discovery of personal validation and purpose at the Colorado School of Mines, and how he established his first business, Grain4Grain.

This book explores the successes and challenges Yoni and his co-founder faced in establishing their business, from discovering the necessary technology, to making a critical pivot during the covid pandemic, to closing the business and consolidating their learnings for future ventures. It details the development of Yoni’s family’s entrepreneurship, from barely making ends meet to launching successful health care services, real estate, and businesses.

A story of family, community, and identity, this book is ideal reading for students of Entrepreneurship and Business studies, Sociology, Migration, and Forced Migration Studies.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Learning objectives
• 1 Why am I doing this?
  • Fateful phone calls
  • Pitch night
• 2 Origin stories
  • The morning that changed everything
  • My father’s escape out of the country through education
  • My mother’s escape from the country to the West
• 3 The problem
  • Stumbling into upcycling
  • The basics of upcycling
  • Working my first “big boy” job
• 4 Coming to (North) America
  • Escaping the Soviet Union
  • My father’s arrival in the United States of America
• 5 The solution
  • My exploration of entrepreneurship
  • Finding a co-founder and defining what our business would be
  • Developing the technology and use cases for commercial upcycling
  • Eureka! Discovering the technology that would lead to the launch of our startup
• 6 Foundations
  • The beginning of our family and the start of the long journey out of poverty
• 7 Launch
  • Maybe we were really on to something
  • Raising money for the first time and a few lessons learned on the way
  • Making the move to San Antonio, TX
  • Choosing our name and gearing up for the launch of our business
• 8 The American dream
  • My parents’ exploration of business
  • The making of my parents’ next venture
  • A few lessons from my parents worth noting
• 9 I hate to blame Covid, but it really did mess things up
  • HEB giving us an early shot
  • Initial cracks forming between Matt and I
  • HEB Quest for Texas Best competition
  • Fulfilling our first “real” order
  • Shooting for the stars and almost landing on the moon
• 10 Growth, “failure”, and what the future holds
  • Financing falling into place and building our first production-scale plant
  • The launch of the first commercial product made with our ingredients and attempting to scale
  • One final attempt to pivot
  • Lessons learned on partnerships and investors
  • Lessons learned on finding your lane as an early-stage venture
  • Lessons learned on the partners and people we worked with
  • Lessons learned from mismanaged finances and failed strategy at Grain4Grain
  • Parting thoughts
• Notes
• Suggested questions and assignments
• Reference
• Recommended further reading
• Index

Yoni Medhin is the Founder and CEO of Grain4Grain, an upcycling firm that uses innovative technologies to convert food manufacturing by-products into functional, healthy, and sustainable ingredients.

On Thursday April 10, 2024, we held a seminar in our Topics in Emergent Entrepreneurship series:

A Tale of Two Generations: Parallel and Divergent Paths of a Family of Ethiopian Immigrant Entrepreneur

This free seminar was a conversation between author Yoni Medhin and Drew Harris, Lived Places Publishing Collection Editor. They talked about how Yoni's entrepreneurial journey as a second generation immigrant was shaped by, but different from, his parents’ entrepreneurial journey as first generation immigrants.

>> VIEW SESSION REPLAY