How do you define the American dream?

For most, it’s the belief that anyone, regardless of where they were born or what class they were born into, can attain their own version of success in a society where upward mobility is possible for everyone.

But for others, it’s a pipe dream, a fairy tale, a false hope. 

Because no matter how hard they work or how much time and effort they put into something, it is virtually impossible for them to achieve success.

And that’s due to the country and societal class they were born into; there are too many barriers for upward mobility.

But the silver lining in all this is that it builds grit, and when grit meets opportunity, well, you’ve got a force of nature.

On this episode of First Pitches, we talk with an entrepreneur who became just that.

Elias Torres is the co-founder and CTO of Drift, a conversational marketing platform valued at over 360M dollars.

Elias arrives in the United States in 1993 as a poor 17-year-old from Nicaragua; his family home was destroyed the year before.

But with this new opportunity, he hustles his way into a college scholarship, works at IBM, and at the start of the great recession--upends his security to follow his dream of starting a startup.

And even then, success isn’t guaranteed. He fails again and again until he finally lands on an idea that would become Drift.

Drift and Elias’s overnight success has been 10 years in the making, and his story will leave you speechless. 

Listen to find out why.

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