We bring together immigrant business owners and the allies who believe in them — with financial literacy, digital tools, and real paths to paying customers.
The small business ecosystem operates in two lanes. Lane one teaches. Lane two lends. Nobody gives the business owner the system to run their business — and nobody generates their first customer.
We fill the missing middle between education and capital — the operations layer and the revenue layer that make everything else work.
The ecosystem has Learn organizations and Lend organizations. Nobody provides the operating infrastructure that determines whether a business actually functions day to day.
Financial literacy nonprofits, SBDCs, SCORE, community organizations. They teach. Support ends at graduation.
CDFIs, micro-lenders, community banks. They provide capital. But require documentation most micro businesses can't produce.
Digital tools to run the business daily. Vendor-readiness to land the first customer. Real data that makes everything else possible.
Three pillars, one path. No one else puts all of them under one roof.
Practitioner-built financial literacy — cash flow, credit, pricing, capital readiness. In-language and in-community.
Every participant gets a digital back-office — invoicing, payments, inventory, CRM. The education and the tool arrive together.
We match you to your first paying customer through vendor procurement — not advice on how to find one.
Wealth creation that starts with one business and ripples outward — to families, neighborhoods, and the broader economy.
A business owner walks in with a side hustle and walks out with an operating business, a financial track record, and a customer.
When participants run their business on our platform, every invoice, payment, and transaction generates verified outcome data — not surveys, not self-reports. The measurement is embedded in the infrastructure.
For the first time, a funder investing in economic empowerment can know — with real data — whether their investment actually created lasting change.
Real invoices, real payments
Unbanked to loan-eligible
Vendor-ready connections
12, 24, 36-month tracking
The restaurant owners, home caregivers, flower shop owners, food truck founders, and neighborhood storefronts building the American dream from the ground up.
People with a skill and a side hustle who need the infrastructure to make it a real business.
Running on paper and cash, ready for the digital tools that create a financial trail and open doors to capital.
Navigating U.S. financial systems for the first time, with limited English and no banking relationship.
Have the product but need help navigating vendor onboarding to reach institutional buyers.
Every member of our board came to this country as a child and watched their parents sacrifice everything to build a life here. We built this foundation so the next generation doesn't have to do it alone.
Fintech founder and payments veteran. Former JPMorgan, SVB, Wells Fargo, and Union Bank. Built a digital platform serving small and micro businesses across the U.S. First-generation immigrant from China. Founded Linkun in honor of her father.
Founder & CEO of LiquidTrust, a global payments platform. Lecturer at UCLA Anderson School of Management. MIT engineering graduate. Investor in female-led startups. First-generation immigrant from South Korea.
Founder & CEO of Penelope, a retirement infrastructure platform for generational wealth creation. Small business advocate. Former executive at Schwab, Citi, and UBS. UC Berkeley graduate. Multi-board director. First-generation immigrant.
The Linkun Foundation is named for Linkun Huang — a teacher, small business owner, and immigrant who came to the United States with nothing but grit and a belief that this country would give his family a fair chance. He worked two day jobs, sold goods at the flea market on weekends, and unloaded truck containers at night.
He didn't struggle because he lacked effort or intelligence. He lacked infrastructure — the tools to run his business professionally, the financial knowledge to access capital, and the connections to find customers beyond the weekend flea market.
His story is not unique. It belongs to millions of first-generation entrepreneurs who arrive in this country and build from zero — the restaurant owner, the in-home caregiver, the childcare provider, the flower shop owner, the seamstress, the cleaning service operator, the food truck founder, the flea market vendor. Every early morning, every late night, every moment of powering through when it would be easier to stop — that's one step closer to the life they came here to build.
The Linkun Foundation exists because the gap Linkun faced still exists. And because at the core, we are all inspired by the people we love and motivated by the dream of something better. Entrepreneurs, allies, mentors, funders — this is a community for anyone who believes that a fair shot and the right infrastructure can turn ambition into a life worth the sacrifice.
Insights
Practical, daily reading for small business owners, plus free toolkits on cash flow, hiring, fraud, getting found online, and selling channels, 21 calculators, an invoice builder, and printable checklists in our resource hub.
Why we're writing every day, who it's for, and what you'll find here, from cash flow and getting paid to a day in the life of the businesses that hold our neighborhoods together.
Half a day on his knees, a carbon-copy card slip, and a pile of payments to chase. What one tradesman's day teaches every owner about collecting at the moment the work is done.
Every invoice paid 30 days late is an interest-free loan from you to your customer. Here is how to see what it really costs, and five ways to get paid sooner.
Whether you're a first-gen founder finding your footing or someone who sees yourself in this story — there's a place for you here. We all have someone who inspired us to dream bigger. This is how we pay it forward.
Open your supply chain to qualified, vendor-ready micro businesses
Back a model with real-time, verified impact data — not surveys
Mentor, volunteer, or extend your programs with our tools and network
No spam, ever. We'll reach out within a few days.