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The Founder Visa (again)

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: The Founder Visa (again)

#3

Post by iambateman »

It's crazy to me that countries like Chile are courting (read: begging) entrepreneurial talent and the US acts like we can throw a wall up around the country and pretend like that's still a good thing.

NOT allowing a few thousand talented, motivated, educated, english-speaking entrepreneurs seems foolish.

Re: The Founder Visa (again)

#5

Post by danielharan »

This is a terrible idea.

VCs have proposed the same solution in Canada; the government canned the old investor visa and allowed founders to get a startup when they receive investment from some of our VCs. (There were many more investor visa than VCs can even process. We'll end up with less total job creation. You have to be careful what you lobby for, and how it will be implemented!)

What was once a process over which government had visibility is now in the hands of the private sector, with firms that have historically discriminated on age, ethnicity, gender, etc.

I'm not saying I wouldn't trust Sam Altman. I just wouldn't trust most VCs with this task.

Re: The Founder Visa (again)

#8

Post by johnrob »

Here is a counter proposal: the government should approve this request, but stipulate that the immigrants relocate to somewhere other than silicon valley (so all of the created jobs don't end up in the once place where they aren't needed).

Re: The Founder Visa (again)

#9

Post by jw2013 »

Some points on my mind:

a) Most adventurous student entrepreneurs don't really MUST need a founder visa, they can use OPT. I think founders of Stripe did that.

b) Most non-immigrants already working (mostly with H1 visa) needs a founder visa. To work on a startup you founded in H1b visa is hard, consider H1b visa needs some funding/salary requirement on your startup, and that is hard to get by on the early stage of a startup. Giving these people the visa may be important to the U.S. economy consider that group of budding founders are with the most experiences.

c) Maybe approval of founder visa won't be in the near future. Right now that is really tangled with other messes in the Immigration Act, which seems hopeless at the House in the stage.

d) Really +1 for founder visa. Can't afford to lose foreign entrepreneurs to Canada.

Re: The Founder Visa (again)

#10

Post by danielharan »

johnrob wrote: post #8

Here is a counter proposal: the government should approve this request, but stipulate that the immigrants relocate to somewhere other than silicon valley (so all of the created jobs don't end up in the once place where they aren't needed).

So you get a visa, with fewer rights? How long would that restriction on their freedom of movement last?
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