A bill introduced today in the Senate by Democrat John Kerry and Republican Richard Lugar proposes a new type of visa for immigrants who create startups and jobs in the U.S. A similar proposal is part of an immigration reform bill in the House. The Startup Visa has been controversial and will no doubt draw fire from anti-immigrant forces and xenophobes. But if we are going to be giving away visas, giving them to people who will help build the U.S. economy and create jobs is hard to argue against.
The Startup Visa Act of 2010 would create a two year visa for immigrant entrepreneurs who are able to raise a minimum of $250,000, with $100,000 coming from a qualified U.S. angel or venture investor. After two years, if the immigrant entrepreneur is able to create five or more jobs (not including their children or spouse), attract an additional $1 million in investment, or produce $1 million in revenues, he or she will become a legal resident.
The bill would carve out a new “EB-6″ class of visas from the existing “EB-5″ class of visas which has a higher threshold for becoming a legal resident. So it’s not really that radical. The EB-5 requires immigrants to invest at least $1 million in the U.S. and employ ten people.
The Startup Visa sends the right message to prospective immigrants: create jobs, get a green card. A group of 160 venture capitalists and angel investors support the bill, including Paul Graham, Brad Feld, Fred Wilson, Dave McClure, Ron Conway, Mike Maples, Reid Hoffman, Chris Sacca, Jeff Clavier, Bijan Sabet, Josh Kopelman, and Chris Dixon. If you agree that the Startup Visa is a good idea, you can find ways to support it here and here.
So any qualified angel or VC firm can essentially get someone citizenship for a measly $1.25 million. Puts a lot of additional power into the hands of a select few.
“Permanent Resident” status, with a “green” card [it is not green] *IS NOT CITIZENSHIP*
That’s why he said “essentially.” A Green Card is essentially same as a citizenship.
You have no clue what you are talking about. It is very different.
Comments below the line will breed hatred and nothing else. Even if you read them, don’t get carried away as this is a tech blog and don’t reply to them.
Be Matured.
And nobody can post above this line under current structure of comments :) :)
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No it isn’t, you ignorant fool.
A greencard holder loses the greencard if they are out of the US for more than 12 months.
A greencard holder also can’t get anything for their spouse.
@ed,
>…bunch of winning beggars
whining?
anyhoo, lets stick to the topic shall we? How many jobs have you created? If you are yet to create a job, the association of whining beggars would like to invite you and join the whining and begging the streets of US along with us.
He was speaking for himself..as much as a “hypocrat” like you don’t represent USA..
Yes, a “measly” $1.25 million.
Hey ed,
Learn how to spell first before you try pretending to be an American. “Hypocrat” huh? LMFAO
Hey ed,
Learn how to spell first before you try pretending to be an American. “Hypocrat” huh? LMAO
WOW. Is this TechCrunch or YouTube? Some of these comments are pretty hilarious.
Kick back, people! This is the Internet, not a boxing ring haha.
Yeah, pretty hilarious. Get back to the topic people.
250 000 U.S. dollars = 11.5950095 million Indian rupees!!….gimme quarter of that money in India and i will employ 20 people
Sunil, you are the POSTER CHILD for what is wrong with you blood sucking creatures. A Green Card is a path to citzenship but it never is enough is it?
I mean, they should give you the citizenship just like that.
Believe me I am writing to congress about all the H1B abusing companies we have in the states.
We are being double taxed by the Indian effect, not only are our jobs being outsourced to India, they ad insult to Injury by allowing a couple of hundred thousand Indians here in the U.S because they have a “specialty skill” something that is being abused like there is no tomorrow.
Lets see what happens when I a done with my class action lawsuit against this type of abuse. (For the record, I am an immigrant myself, who waited in line for 20 years to earn my privilege of becoming a U.S citizen.
Simple instructions for the USA to self-destruct:
1. 1970/80 – USA moved manufacturing offshore
2. 1980/90 – USA moved services offshore
3. 1990/2000 – USA moved IT offshore
4. 2000/2010 – USA brings foreign IT workers onshore
Conclusion: No more jobs left for Americans.
Cry me a river, why won’t you? If that’s the case ease up the border and let the entrepreneurs in.
I like this proactive move, which trades a fair chance at the largest market in the world for insurance against failure.
Contrast this with UK lawmakers and the attitudes of the UK media (http://tinyurl.com/yznekre).
This is leadership and should be admired.
You can support the movement by Tweeting Congress here: http://startupvisa.2gov.org
If actual citizens could setup businesses and be given the same tax breaks that foreigners are given it would spawn more small businesses.
This is just yet another outsourcing citizenship grab. This is especially disgusting with almost 20% unemployment here in the USA.
If you don’t like it in your 3rd world country why not try fixing things instead of hopping the border for the “easy life” in the USA.
USA is still a world leader because NOT all Americans think like you.
The USA is a world leader because of the hard work of the people who built this country. Selling the prosperity we have here in the USA to the 3rd world at the highest bidder to people like yourself is a path to destruction.
Oh dear John!
Which world do you live in?! Be a global citizen and get over your conservative habits. This bill calls for a $250,000 initial investment! Common poor people aren’t going to be “hopping across the border” because they can’t afford the investment! It’s going to be qualified entrepreneurs who are rich and global enough to secure investments from US VC’s!
Trust me this is only going to help your american stupidity!
peace
Did you build this country? I don’t think so. So may be you should just shut up.
‘The USA is a world leader because of the hard work of the people who built this country. ‘
sure. they all were immigrants at some point. if not they, then their parents. the country has been built by immigrants.
nice troll. In reality US citizens have access to more breaks than this particular setup to bring in foreign brainpower. Check out things like inheritance taxes and import tariffs. Americans still have the advantage in America, despite what rednecks like you think.
Luckily with an attitude like yours, no foreign born boss will ever hire you so you’ll be in that 20% (its really 10% across the US at the moment).
Yes prosperity comes from hard work, but what makes you think only those born here did the hard work? You need a better understanding of how this country works.
You do understand that the majority of these hardworking people that built the American economy were immigrants, and America’s economic strength initially came from the fact that early waves of these hard working people were actually slaves, right?
Regarding innovation, specifically, a significant portion of patents filed with the USPTO are filed by immigrant scientists, engineers and inventors. If you were interested in actual facts on this topic, rather than unsupported opinion, here is a rather interesting presentation of the topic. http://www.people.hbs.edu/wkerr/kerr-cfrb.pdf
John,
I’m an Australian citizen trying to do a startup in the bay area. I’ve spent almost all my savings in your country trying to get my product developed and off the ground while not earning $1 of your American money or any of ‘your’ jobs. I have to leave the country every 6 months and fly back and try again at the border for another 6 months on a Business visa. All at the discretion of a border patrol who may or may not grant me entry. If I’m successful, who do I employ? Americans. What do you call this? Job creation!
John, did you also realize 50% of silicon valley startups are founded by foreigners. Trust me, its not due to an easy visa system!
John, here is my suggestion, get yourself a passport, go overseas for a holiday and stop watching Glen Beck. Also, read a bit of history on how the US was founded and by whom.
cheers,
Matt
Hey John Mith,
Your dry cleaner called today and said your white Klan robes and hood are ready to be picked up. White Power to you brother!
There are fundamentally two choices:
1) Entrepreneur stays in home country and creates jobs there.
2) Entrepreneur moves to USA and brings jobs here.
I support choice two. It really is that simple.
Entrepreneurs want to come here are create jobs. LET THEM!
Or
3) Entrepreneur builds company with the minimum amount of workers to qualify for the program and outsources jobs just like every other major corporation does to save cost and drive higher profits.
But it looks like the Government likes to use its whip on companies that Outsource, especially to Beijing and Bangalore.
hahaha that says alot about our american workforce in a global environment.
personally i feel if they can do a better job outside, then they deserve it.
We should discover and maintain our competitive edge and not bitch about how they steal our jobs.
I think this bill brings to the jobs to our front steps and gives us a chance to prove we deserve to keep em.
For sake of argument, even if that’s true in every single case we’re *still* better off because we’ll have those minimum jobs and the economic output from them. Those jobs are already outsourced and kept that way as a result of official US Immigration policy.
Isn’t the “minimum amount of workers” better than none?
This outsourcing argument is red herring.
Any entrepreneur worth a penny of investor money would *know* that you CAN NOT build a business based on outsourcing your core competencies. Too many barriers: time, distance and culture. Banks and even blue chips like Microsoft can get away with it to a degree, but even they would never bet their business on it.
There is a third option David, go overseas with American ideologies and either take American soldiers or sell American weapons, cock life up for others then head hunt that countries for their best.
Its just another scam to bring in low wage slave visas. That’s all. The stuff about creating jobs is pure BS.
That is ridiculous! If more Americans were willing to help themselves versus waiting for a handout then we wouldn’t be in this mess!
I have started multiple businesses on very little money. You know some of the names. It is about being PC Persistent and consistent and very little of much else!
Stop waiting for your opportunities to present themselves to you. Go ahead and find them. Take a chance.
That’s just a story you made up. Stop compounding your own personal desire for fraud with lies. It only makes you look bad.
I agree with one condition: deport all Americans who are on social security out of the country. They take away a working man’s pay and spend it on drugs, alcohol or other stuff. If you don’t, then let these people in, at least they work hard and pay taxes so less is taken away from my paycheck to pay for social security.
Yes. Either start deporting all Americans on government welfare out, or import job-creating people in. What we have currently is unsustainable as each day hundreds or thousands of future welfare dependents cross the border illegally while entrepreneurs can’t get in.
My parents are retired and on social security after paying into it for decades with their jobs. So are your parents and grandparents, if you any. So are most people over the age of 65 in the US.
You, Sir, are an idiot. You and your music should be deported instead.
Entitlements is simply unsustainable as people live longer and cost of living is sky rocketing, while less people work in the private sector. Let’s just begin with denying social security for anyone under 65 who is physically and mentally healthy, ok?
Deport to where? :)
Mexico, along with 30% of California’s prisoners who are illegal aliens and clearly do not contribute to job creation unless we’re talking police ones. Let’s pay Mexico $5,000 for each one we deport. Huge savings for productive Americans.
I agree with one condition: deport all Indians who are on H-1b visas out of the country. They take away a working man’s pay and spend it on curry, fake resumes or other stuff.
Dude – the market is here in the US.
What tax breaks are you exactly talking about? Really, which section of the IRS code you are referring to? I would really like to know.
As a person who started my company overseas and later on moved to Silicon Valley (because that’s where you want to be if you do software, right?), I am now subject to a quite steep cap gain tax when I sell my company (especially now with Obama letting the tax breaks expire). In my home country I would pay zero tax on cap gains on long term investments. As much as I love California, I keep asking myself more and more often if it is worth to pay this “fee” to remain a U.S. resident if I am lucky enough one day to sell my business after many years of hard work. Low taxes, especially on cap gains, are a huge motivational factor, not a cliche told over and over again by conservatives. Take it from a person who rather works than posts comments on blogs.
And I can’t believe how many fellow commenters here are so short sighted. The future “wealth of nations” will be determined by the brain power not human manufacturing. It is a good thing that all the manufacturing jobs are going oversees because that way the U.S. will face the hard choices first. Unless liberal politicians screw this country up completely with high taxes and unsustainable debt, the U.S. will reinvent itself and attracting global talent is essential to that (smart people are born more or less uniformly around the globe, the last time I checked).
Thanks to the technological improvements driven by the Moore’s law human factor in manufacturing of anything will be a thing of the past in coming decades. Future factories will be run by a small group of highly trained engineers. The cheap labor in Asian countries where people plug cables and complete gadgets is therefore a temporary advantage. Manufacturing will move to countries with the best pro-business climate (e.g. low taxes, light regulations).
Just out of curiosity, how exactly do you propose getting rid of the unsustainable debt you refer to without raiding taxes?
Tie the government spending to the overall growth of the economy. If the salaries in the private sectors are not growing or decreasing, the same has to happen in the public sector, not the opposite.
Please try to take off your xenophobia helmet for just long enough to notice that this is common sense legislation that will CREATE jobs not take them away. The US will have a much healthier economy if it imports entrepreneurs instead of finished products.
spot on, larry. i’m the son of immigrants from india living in the USA. i do not support this bill for a variety of reasons (i don’t think it is good for USA and definitely not good for the countries that will lose talent because the USA can simply buy it….a privilege they get from global monetary policy, which is inherently biased to the US since the US dollar is the world reserve currency). people who do not support this bill are not automatically racist xenophobes. folks should explore all sides and come to the conclusion they think is best. remember that US investors and publications that cater to US investors (like TC) are inherently biased on this issue.
You can also add your own story (anonymously if you’d like) here:
http://startupvisa.com/2010/02/03/immigrant-startup-founders-whats-your-story/
I like the part about becoming a resident after two years if certain requirements are met. It would be a mad storm for lots of people in those last few months and weeks to hit the targets.
Excellent!
It is smart to have both a Democrat and a Republican introduce this bill. Lets hope it makes it through.
Let’s hope it does not pass. We need to deal with the massive unemployment here in the USA rather than let in foreigners for the false hopes they will hire US employees.
I think instead of this bill a bill banning outsourcing outright would be more helpful to the American economy. Third world countries are getting rich on technology invented by Americans!
I don’t want to abuse anybody, but could you please remind me few names of a native-american inventors? I mean really those whose are native here and not the sons or daughters of people immigrated into the USA.
I do remember some others: Einstein, Fermi, von Neumann, Sikorsky, Sergey Brin, ….
Oh wait, were they all immigrants ???
And the “native” Americans came from Asia, so what’s your point? By that measure there are no native Americans at all.
There are and we are not talking about European decedents
Best. Thing. Ever! Love you USA!
I hope you are sarcastic.
I hope you are sarcastic.
@above nested sarcasm
Sounds like a good idea, but it’s still way too hard to get a working Visa in the States. (In comparison with Canada for example…)
It is exactly the same process, need to find an employer/pay for your H1B (or other visa – around 3k)/get the visa in your country. what is so different from getting a work visa for canada?
You mean as an accredited angel investor I can pay $1.1MM over 2 years to guarantee my international buddies lifelong citizenship? Talk about a mail order bride! This is too hilarious.
Sounds like a good idea. (I am on a H1-B).
Some points I am still not clear about :-
1. If you miss some of the requirements after 2 years.Say you only made $750k/revenue instead of 1 Mill … what happens ?
2. How would someone in a foreign country have access to VC/Angels ? Or can the VC/Angels be based off from other countries as well ?
I think a person on H1-B based in US, can definitely jump to this Visa and expedite his 5-6 year wait into 2 years.
well VCs will build that into their risk model for your funding ;)
@ashu — your #2 comment was my first thought — let’s face it, no VC or Angel is going to coin-in on a venture where the Founder may be deported or exit the Country easily. The Catch-22′s are endless.
So, what (I’m guessing) this means is that the Immigrant/entrepreneurs is going to have to route some of their dollars through a US-based Angel/VC, where that group will pocket a few bucks from processing the paperwork but taking no actual risk. i.e. the immigrant has $250K, they route $100K of it through a US (so-called) Investor. They’re in.
But, there’s no incentive for non-US money to flow to US entrepreneurs in this mix — no “treaty coproduction” type structures to encourage collaboration and help to US entrepreneurs who are in search of the allusive dollars – UNLESS, the non-Resident routes their money through the US partner (not VC/Angel)? Could work? Marrying-up these relationships could be a business.
The real problem is that this looks like a step in the right direction on paper but it may not work so well once put into practice.
lol…there you go…another “jugaad” for an american visa… cmn!!
This is great news. $250k, 5 jobs and $1M in the first five years aren’t small hurdles for a founder to overcome but out of the things that could have been chosen seem very sensible.
Great work to the guys who’ve been pushing this.
Oh my… now all the internationals have another reason to break in!
Free hand outs to all the foreigners. How about building up your own damn countries instead of coming here?
Do you seriously have any clue how much scientific and economic progress in the past 50 years has been made in America because of immigrants and foreigners? Seriously, do you?
Uh, where does it say anything about free handouts?
“Free hand outs to all the foreigners. How about building up your own damn countries instead of coming here?”
Those meddling foreign kids, foolin’ around and messin’ up the States in the same destructive way as Sergey Brin, Pierre Omidyar, Marcus Goldman and Max Levchin did.
Bloody foreigners with their ambition and work ethic. If only they’d bugger off America could focus on homegrown talent like Chrysler and GM.
:)
You Rule!
Albert Ko, your last name would indicate that somewhere in your lineage you too were an immigrant?
Well. Lets not go overboard here…
This could lead to even more offshoring of jobs. Five jobs in US that create 200 jobs in China. Not good for the US economy.
We need to get off the cheap Chinese labor addiction.
Can you explain your point a little more please.
I’m would love to setup a business in the US.
Here in my country a big wave of american retired citizens are moving (check Boquete in Panama).
What is the potencial harm if I decided to apply to open a business there? (asking in the good way so I can clearly understand your point of view).
Thanks
USA is awesome!
Excellent bill! It will help the USA to become a stronger world leader in technology.
I hope americans will support this bill.
This visa seems ok, but I wonder if these so-called ‘anti immigrant’ and ‘xenophobic’ forces referred to here are unemployed American engineers thrown out of work by H1Bs and L1s. Mmm?
This is nothing new. I’ve been involved in deals with entrepreneurs from other countries that came to the US on similar visas. This seems like political window dressing. Someones giving an old brand a new image. There needs to be more policy that protects the employees, and other investors from loosing everything when an individual jumps back home if things go sour…
Nothing like chasing someone down half way across the world for answers :)
Its about freaking time! We’ve gone far too long in this country without this sort of thing.
This is not really that new. You can get a green card today if you invest in the US and create jobs. I think the minimum is $500K and 6 jobs in the first year…
It’s an EB5 green card: http://usimmigration.visapro.com/EB5.asp
EB5 requires $1M investment of the individual’s own money (or $500K in certain areas) which is a tall order for most entrepreneurs.
@Nima – It doesn’t have to be the individual’s own money. It simply has to come from a lawful source.
Jimmy, you are wrong. The law requires the entrepreneur to invest his own money (AND prove its lawful origin). 8 USC 1153 (b) (5): http://bit.ly/9Pu2BV
Please read the law carefully before you misquote it. One lesson I learnt from selling my first start-up is that small details are all that matters in the end.
That provision to invest your OWN money is actually the *crux of the problem*, and the reason why an alternative to the current EB-5 is needed. $1M represents an enormous amount of money for the overwhelming majority of the young PhDs/post-docs from MIT/Stanford who develop the real, hard-science, cutting-edge technologies that will power the next wave of innovation.
The general H-1B mess and the endless pathetic trolls about offshoring, indians v. Klanmen and rednecks v. liberals etc. simply *don’t matter* here. What matters is how Silicon Valley can make sure that the very, very best entrepreneurs from the world over will choose its shores for their endeavors.
The reality is that the very small set of extremely talented engineers and scientists (maybe ~200, at most ~1000 for every class) who are inventing the future, and for all intents and purposes hold the future of the world in their hands, all face an excruciatingly hard choice: flying back home after graduation, and settle for an environment where one direly lacks the human and financial capital, the drive and the social fabric needed to make startups blossom, and where scientists strictly stick to academia and never even dare dreaming of ‘changing the world’; OR risking everything to launch their company in Silicon Valley, but with no assurance whatsoever that they will be able to navigate the current immigration law without endangering their company, their employees and their investors.
Today, if you’re an entrepreneur with zero money, little connections but an earth-shattering technology, you are left in a dire position: you shouldn’t technically sponsor yourself for an H-1 visa (though some try, or cross-sponsor their co-founders); you technically can’t be a CEO on a TN-1 (though some try it too); the O-1 visa is extremely hard to secure and can’t be counted upon; and the most prestigious scholarships offered to international students (Fulbright, etc.) force people to go back for 2 years in their home country before being eligible for a green card.
If the challenges of launching a company weren’t trying enough, you also have to navigate the intricacies of immigration and citizenship law in a new country, while attracting investors, building a team and a technology, and reassuring everyone that you will somehow find a solution to convince the Department of State of letting you stay in the country. That is a surefire recipe for massive cognitive dissonance and precocious bankruptcy filings.
The bill currently under consideration in the Senate solves a very specific problem: those young scientists with no money but a technology that has enough world-changing potential to get VCs interested [odds of successfully closing a series-A round for startups which seek VC funding: ~.15% -- we're talking of the cream of the crop here], you are allowed to stay in the US, launch and manage a company in the open, and give the world a chance to see your technology come to fruition (and California a chance to reimburse its debt thanks to your future corporate income tax payments).
Again, I know that the H-1B issue is the ultimate third rail issue. Rest assured that no one is happy about it: neither the immigrants who suffer through its maze of bureaucratic non-sense, nor their employers who spend millions of dollars on legal services billable hours, nor the American citizens who see its abuses and fear the competition for their jobs.
What is at stake, and what really calls for an alternative solution (again, not a reform – just a new alternative solution), is the current burden of administrative hardships that the small crop of entrepreneurs with actual world-changing, meaningful, deep-science technology IP and the potential to bring them to the marketplace are facing today.
The StartUp Visa solves this issue masterfully (except for repealing the two years home residency requirement of J-1 visa holders who came to the US on a Fulbright scholarship). One day your grand children will learn about the Kerry-Lugar Act of 2010 with as much awe and as much gratitude as we Europeans learn about the Marshall Plan of 1945.
There are lots of unclear definitions.
What if several people co-found a company, funded with 250K, are they all eligible for a legal status ?
You should connect this to the news from this morning, where an immigrant launches what could be one of the most important energy companies we’ve seen in a while.
Sergey Brin was an immigrant too.
I disagree with your claim that 23andme is a “bad” investment. It is a company ahead of its time, and is facing some hurdles. I think its a very good investment for Sergey Brin.
Doesn’t that just prove that there’s no need for a new special visa?
No, because the it’s been getting even harder for these entrepreneurs to come here and create jobs. More is more.
This is awesome news! a great step forward…
I find this whole Startup Visa concept flawed. I’ll simply repeat what I asked Dave over at the Hacker News:
I certainly can’t understand what is gained by bringing the entrepreneurs to a market already saturated with too many competitors? If you need more entrepreneurs from abroad, they can do as much from their own countries as from the US. And once their companies grow they could easily open an office in the States, allowing them to travel easily on a simple work visa.
WHY should non-US entrepreneurs need to come to the States to start businesses? Just because the US VC’s are too lazy to take their money overseas?
The point is job creation inside the US. Is it that hard to grasp ?
And on what basis are you saying that the market is saturated? Which market?
Maybe he is referring to the “jobless” market :-p
Haha..good one.
There can never be a saturation of good ideas. I support this move. Why send the inventors away from American.
WWII saw many german scientists settled in US. This move sounds very similar.
Or, maybe he is referring to the market of close-minded, ignorant Americans who hate people that are “different” than them, and who have no clue about what’s going on outside the USA. Now, that market is definitely saturated. :-P
and what you gonna call worldcom, enron, Lehman Brothers bankruptcy? they were all American company.
City is also making loses and it’s share price treading at $1 then why any company around the world is not cumming to buy it? and for your information Satyam got acquired by Techmahindra.
The Satyam CEO did use the money, not like your American companies who spent all the money because of mismanagement and file for bankruptcy to court for protection or ask to Ford , GM, Chrysler and AIG why they need bailouts?
http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2008/11/20/gm-ford-and-chrysler-act-like-aig-while-asking-for-a-handout/
I know now why you are unemployed – good luck and keep posting your comments on TC.
They need to get rid of ALL guest visas NOW
Not add new categories. Typical John Kerry.
It’s NUTs to object to this!
Has everyone forgotten that this country was BUILT on hard-working immigrants?
What would you rather have? Intelligent, creative, hardworking immigrants starting businesses here, employing Americans…
Or illegals pouring over the border daily, stressing public services?
Start-up Entrepreneurs are Exactly what America needs MORE of.
I can’t see how any thinking person could object to this bill!
Halle-bloody-lujah ! ‘ ;)
Thought you’d say that Kosso
The funding requirement seems arbitrary. What about bootstrapped businesses? Those create jobs too.
Sounds like a good bill. America was built on people from other countries coming here, willingly or unwillingly. Why not create an insensitive. As long as the number of jobs created are based on local people hired. I’d vote for it.
While this visa is a good step, it is a half assed attempt at best.
1. Something like this already exists right now, except with a higher threshold.
2. More importantly, many businesses don’t start off with $250K in capital and venture investment. They start off with one or two passionate founders with little in savings and are built over time to when they hire people. The basis that if you bring money, we will give you a green card is flawed.
3. Simply having access to 250K of investment does not a guarantee startup success. Only a fraction of all Angel and VC funded companies have successful exists that help fund more ventures.
4. After 2 yrs, an additional $1mil investment and 5 or more jobs? What startup can hire 5 people (most of them will be qualified experts in a startup’s early days) for 250K? That’s peanuts. This whole bill is entirely focused on *if* the entrepreneur can raise money.
Unfortunately, just a half baked attempt and an unintelligent solution.
I completely agree. This bill is more like a hand-out to the VCs as it makes their job easier when they need to bring in a talented founder from overseas.
It does absolutely nothing to a real deal entrepreneur who is willing to pull himself up by the bootstraps. I understand you need some sort of a bar so that not any Schmoe can apply, so the 250K is reasonable…. but the 1M in revenue/investment in 2 years is not.
Why not 5 jobs in 2 years, 1M in 4 years. That seems more like a doable strategy.
Everyone knows about the “hockey stick” graph, where there is little or no revenue in the early years followed by the hypergrowth part. Expecting the hockey stick to take off at yr 2 is unreasonable.
re: based on if an entrepreneur is able to raise money
Think of this as those 160 VCs will be around the world looking for best ideas and will be bringing capable people to the US to develop those ideas. It will be more of a pull by 160 VCs, and less of a push by “those who can raise money”.
You’re right – it’s half-baked…
And to expect Politicians to create anything fully baked would be optimisitic in the extreme…
Businesses are built by passionate people, and VCs and the like follow later… And to expect a start up to raise another mil, or generate a mil in revenues in 2 years may be a bit far-fetched: Sure it will happen sometimes, but to set it as a requirement shows that it’s been a long time since these politicians worked for a living…
BUT….
That having been said, it’s half-baked. Which I take to be ‘half-way decent’…
And for politicians, that’s Half-way further than I thought they’d ever get.
At least they’re finally Thinking In the Right Direction – and just like a child who inexpertly clears their dinner plate, they should not be discouraged, when they’ve finally got something half-right.
thanks Vin, appreciate the support.
I look forward to gearing about your efforts over the past 6-12 months to create an alternative, better-drafted legislation that addresses your point above.
srsly dude, light a fucking candle instead of pissing outs into darkness.
get off your ass in the TC comments and do something.
Sorry Dave that you have such a fcuked up view point.
Clearly you haven’t felt the pain and hence cannot relate. It’s alright, you go draft your half baked version.
Get off my ass and go do something – hmm yes, definitely, when I make my first million and have free time like you to draft half assed legislations, I sure will.
Now for a nicer suggestion that I hope you *listen* to – I think you need to talk to more immigrants and skilled foreigners with advanced degrees from US univs and understand their pain points. By talking of VCs and angel investors with sit high up there on their golden throne, you’re just making it worse.
I’m sorry, but this is a seriously messed up bill that lacks an understanding of the reality.
I just have one question to you and if you don’t have a good enough answer, I suggest you consider your 6 mos of effort useless – how does this help entrepreneurs who wish to bootstrap a businesses? Someone who has no proven exit? But is passionate and hopes to build something real? Not the next stupid social network media thingy.
It is not all about bringing people from other countries or outsourcing anything.
What about the super creative people who are already here? Students on f-1 visa or people who are employed and have h-1b visa! If they want to start companies – it is freakin’ hard. But this will allow them to take the risk and we will all reap the rewards (consumers, nation, investors, and the risk-taker). No?
You are not allowed to start a company on H1B.
you can’t start a company with an H1B visa,
@Troy & @LA31 You sure can start a company but need to hire a US CEO!
How about the talented, hard working Americans who were thrown out of their IT jobs by fraud H-1B’s with fake resumes? Where is their “startup” visa? It’s freakin’ hard.
Huh. $250k investment. 2 yrs. $1million revenues or VC round.
1mil revenues? Wonder how many of even silicion valley’s most hyped up social gaming network media thingies generate 1mil revenues in under 2 yrs?
The right solution would be to let qualified, talented, intelligent, and educated people just stay without hassles (no long drawn out GC process) and expiry dates and contribute to technological/scientific/economic progress, either by being employed or starting companies. Free market capitalism and entrepreneurship would work itself out in creating more jobs.
Human capital is an asset. It will automatically lead to more jobs and progress.