I can build enterprise software but I can't charge for it

I am not a lawyer or diplomat or expert on trade, but I can make some general observations from an American/Western perspective:

First, the sanctions on Iran are such that any partnership with an Iranian person for business reasons is effectively impossible in the West, without the resources of a multi-million or billion-dollar company to circumvent them. The author says "I am not looking for anyone to bypass sanctions" but that is very obviously exactly what they are asking for.

Second, circumventing sanctions is illegal, and people regularly go to prison or are given massive monetary fines for this. OP, I don't question your motives, but you need to understand that people have literally gone to prison and lost their whole livelihoods for doing exactly what you are asking.

Therefore, posting this on a Western platform (Github) and advertising it on a Western message board (HN) is unlikely to help. I don't think the author's intentions are poor; I think they may simply not understand the intensity of the legal regime that makes working with them impossible.

There is also the matter of Westerners' general opinions on Iran, which - general attitudes of multiculturalism and tolerance nonwithstanding - is typically quite negative. The sanctions didn't come from nowhere.

I would recommend the author look into partnerships with persons from countries that are more sympathetic to their situation. The ones with strong tech industries would be Russia, China, and India. Vietnam is another example of a country with some tech industry which also has mostly positive relationships with Western countries, these days. I realize this is not as attractive as the West, but there are good people even in places whose governments I may as a Westerner may not particularly like, and English is a lingua franca the world over. I'd strongly recommend those places as a starting point.

Honestly I would, but I’m already helping this Nigerian prince.

> Go ahead. Talk to the avatar for 2 minutes. Ask it anything in English. Watch how it responds in real-time with synchronized lip movements and natural conversation.

There's nothing.

> The product works. You just tested it.

I didn't, there's nothing to try.

Thank you for this thoughtful response. You're raising legitimate concerns I may not fully understand.

Let me clarify my understanding (and please correct me if I'm wrong):

My assumption was that a structure like this would be legal: - Partner in US/UK registers their own company - Opens Stripe under their company name - Hires me as a remote contractor (like any distributed team) - I hold equity as a foreign shareholder (which I thought was legal for non-US persons)

Is your point that even this structure violates sanctions because I'm Iranian? Or that the risk/complexity makes it impractical for anyone without massive legal resources?

I genuinely don't want anyone to break the law. If what I'm proposing is illegal even in the structure above, I need to understand that.

Re: Russia/China/India - that's solid advice I hadn't seriously considered. Russia and China have their own complexities, but India makes a lot of sense. Do you know if Indian tech companies face similar restrictions when working with Iranians, or is it more open?

I appreciate you taking the time to explain this clearly rather than just dismissing it. If the Western partnership path is genuinely impossible (not just hard), I need to know that.

It's a very unique cofounder pitch! I hope you bootstrap this idea as far as you can.

You should encourage any potential founder to talk with a lawyer, though, too!