Femigrants is a network of nearly 3,000 female immigrant entrepreneurs and business leaders, based in Silicon Valley. Its founder, Ika Aliyeva is originally from the small city of Lankaran, Azerbaijan and now lives in the Bay Area. Femigrants—a mash-up of “female” and “immigrants”—was launched one year ago.

Although she has a contract Data Integrity Specialist position at Instagram/Facebook, Aliyeva was compelled to create Femigrants in order to help female immigrant entrepreneurs and leaders.   Femigrants’s first forum, Femigrants of Silicon Valley, will take place on March 22, 2018, in San Francisco.

NR: How did you end up in San Francisco working for Facebook? And why launch Femigrants?

After Middle Tennessee State University, I got an internship at New America Media in San Francisco; my husband got an internship at the City and County of San Francisco. Although there are professional opportunities in San Francisco, looking for a job with no network was a challenging experience.

NR: Is that what motivated you to launch Femigrants?

IA: It was the experience of being a female immigrant, wife, mother of two kids and previously a business owner, that led me to the idea. I want to help female immigrants become successful leaders. There are various immigrant related organizations, but they are community based. I wanted to build a meaningful network of diverse women—religion, race, culture, ethnicity—where we can give and get support.