How Alma came to be

From the fall of the Soviet Union to a school in Washington

Picture this—a small village somewhere in Kyrgyzstan that was part of almost a century-old Russian Empire, imminently on the brink of collapse. I’m born during a significant paradigm shift in the history of the world and I’m not even aware of it at that moment. Following the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, Kyrgyzstan faced severe economic turmoil as decades of centralized planning and subsidies abruptly ended. The newly independent nation struggled with hyperinflation, widespread unemployment, and the breakdown of vital industrial and agricultural systems.

As the country built itself from the ground up, so did I. There are so many immigrants like me who come from such stories of perseverance, consistency, tenacity, and just a very adaptive ability to deal with things as they come at you.

The seed of my American dream was planted when I had just hit my teenage years and finally had access to a television. Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time” was playing on TV and I couldn’t help but notice this beautiful school in the background. Of course, I didn’t know any of the words back then but this inspired me to one day move from heater-deprived classrooms (in winter it's like - 25C or -4F) to a gym where I could play basketball and wear uniforms in the US.

At the time, the Future Leaders Exchange Program (FLEX) by the U.S. State Department was a highly competitive contest but I was determined to make it through. After a couple of failed attempts, I finally was selected along with 64 other students who got an opportunity to put their foot in the door—a ticket to live the American dream. I was ecstatic. I made it! My childhood dream had come true but this was just the beginning of it all.

Undergrad, back home

Time spent in the US was transformative to me - I saw the world and the unlimited opportunities the US has to offer. I also learned to approach everything—whether it was food, traditions, or perspectives—with curiosity rather than judgment.

My introduction to the US immigration laws began when I was 17. Being on a J-1 visa, I had to go back to my home country after finishing high school but I knew that I had to go back to the US, sooner or later. After all, I still hadn’t met Britney Spears yet!.

Before I knew it, I was doing my undergrad at the biggest Law school in Kyrgyzstan.

After graduation, I found myself working at a law firm for a couple of years. From court hearings to litigation, I learned a lot about what it means to be a lawyer. Not much later, I got invited to be the Deputy Dean at the same law school where I graduated. At 23, I was managing around 100 people and fostering relationships with foreign universities. I was involved politically as well and even ran for the Capital City parliament. Our political party lost, but I learned a lot.

Being so intricately involved with the government was something I always wanted because, no matter what, Kyrgyzstan still runs in my blood. That’s my identity. However, I realized I was too young for politics. I had to go out and get more credibility before I could carry such influential responsibilities (read: be taken seriously). This prompted me to venture outside and get my Master’s degree.

The USA, yet again

Harvard Law School was a 1-year program that was extremely demanding, but I enjoyed every second of it. Good grades, networking, job fairs—this was all I cared about and nothing else.

I did manage to intern for the Law Department of NYC's Mayor's office, but my goal was to work for the United States Senate. This is where my immigration struggles began and the Senate didn’t happen. It was incredibly hard to secure any job while being on OPT that lasted only 1 year, with little chance of winning an H1B. So, I moved to London to work for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). It was easy to get a work visa because of the supranational entity status of EBRD—all I needed was a stamp that exempted me from being subjected to the employment laws of the UK.

I continued working in London for another 2 years until I got married. It's funny how life works sometimes because I had applied for the diversity visa lottery 3 times in a row to no avail, and then married Chyngyz, who actually won the lottery. Also, he got into Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) one year after we married, which was like the cherry on top. Just like that, I was back in the US. Little did I know, my immigration nightmare was just getting started.

Immigration hiccups (for the better)

Everything seemed straightforward; my husband was a green card holder. As meticulous as I am, I didn’t want to risk anything so I approached an immigration law firm to handle my petition. Due to their mistake, I ended up not being able to work for a year and a half. It seemed as though my life’s work had come to a halt—I did volunteer here and there but looking back to that year, there wasn’t any achievement that I would’ve been proud of.

The silver lining, however, was that I did have quite a bit of time on my hands so I started attending classes with my husband at GSB. Here I was, a lawyer, fascinated by the world of business and how things work. This was a pivotal moment in my life and a lot of credit to why Alma started goes back to this phase in my life.

Of course, Alma didn’t happen right away but the idea of starting something of my own was deeply ingrained in my mind. I went to work for Cooley, where John Hale, my boss has been a cornerstone of my journey. He not only hired me at Cooley and worked alongside me, but even after I left, he remained invested in my growth and became one of Alma’s early investors.

Although this was a difficult time in my life, I am grateful for it. If I could, I would tell my younger self that life isn’t always linear. In fact, the ups and downs are what give life meaning. You need the bad days to appreciate the good ones. Sometimes, you need to take a leap of faith and trust the process. A lot of these efforts don’t yield immediate rewards but they will collectively shape your future in ways you can’t even imagine.

A lawyer turned entrepreneur

After my amazing run at Cooley, I decided that if I wanted to get into business, I needed to understand operations and how startups function. I had 2 options: either attend a business school or try management consulting. I decided to go with the second option for practical reasons: they would pay me a salary vs. me paying tuition for a business school! This brought me to the next stage of my life as a consultant at McKinsey for a while and helped lay my foundation in understanding business from a practical approach.

After my time at McKinsey, I spent a lot of time exploring ideas, meeting founders and entrepreneurs, and understanding the landscape of how the startup world works. Me and my husband hosted quite a few dinners in our backyard being a part of SV Icons—an initiative to host some of the biggest speakers in Silicon Valley and share their learnings. I used this opportunity to learn a lot about Generative AI, of course.

LLMs and NLP were about to bring unprecedented changes, and I wanted to understand how to capture value as a startup founder. It was clear that legal space will be disrupted significantly by LLMs — they have the potential to make legal professionals exponentially more productive. Initially, my plan was to sell the product to immigration law firms because, from the customer discovery calls I had, there was clearly a productivity issue that attorneys faced.

Around this time, I approached my now co-founder Assel Tuleubayeva and we ended up raising half a million from investors to build out a minimum viable product (MVP).

This is how Alma was born.

Alma—Your partner on the Path

Alma started as a product that was meant for law firms but in the process, we realized, we needed to solve the immigration problems ourselves. This is bigger than us, this is a problem that can be a turning point for immigrants working in the US. Alma eventually evolved into a legal tech company in itself, providing immigration legal services to individuals and companies. We also found our third co-founder Shuo Chen. This is what Alma is today.

Me and my co-founders are immigrants who’ve together held around 15 different visas so we deeply resonate with the problems that come with it. It shouldn’t be difficult for immigrants to work in a country that thrives on them. And I’m so glad that our investors share the same vision as we do to make this hassle a thing of the past. I’m proud to say that today, we’ve successfully raised $5.5 million in funding to solve a problem that we had trouble solving for ourselves.

Put in the work, rest will follow

This year, my primary goal was to successfully raise seed funding for Alma and to hire an exceptional core team to drive our mission forward. As the year comes to a close, I’m proud to say we’ve achieved that. We’ve built a strong, capable team that I’m incredibly excited about. Things move fast at startups and that’s what makes it all the more worthwhile.

Looking ahead to next year, my focus will be on building significant awareness about Alma and the services we offer. I want to ensure that more people can benefit from our immigration services, which prioritize speed, excellence, and care. Too often, I hear people say, “I wish I’d known about Alma before,” and my goal is to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore. We want Alma to become a trusted name for high-quality immigration legal services while continuing to deliver exceptional results for our clients.

I’ve come a long way and there’s a longer way ahead. At the end of the day, you never know what can happen but only make the most of whatever does happen. Alma wouldn’t be what it is if it wasn’t for the immigration nightmares I had to go through. I guess I’m grateful now more than ever—for the people who believed and supported me, for the hardships, for the opportunities that I got, and for the opportunities that I didn’t.

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