The Silicon Valley Leadership Group Endorses The Startup Visa

Posted on August 27, 2010 by bfeld| 1 Comment

Following is a letter to Senator Barbara Boxer from the Silicon Valley Leadership Group which recently endorsed The Startup Visa.  The Silicon Valley Leadership Group was founded in 1977 by David Packard, the co-founder of HP, and has over 300 member companies from Silicon Valley along with a very experienced board of directors.

Re: Strong support for StartUP Visa Act (S. 3029)
August 9, 2010
Dear Senator Boxer,

On behalf of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, we are writing in support of the StartUp Visa Act, S. 3029 (Kerry).

As you may know, this legislation is critical to Silicon Valley, as it would help facilitate and prioritize bringing in qualified entrepreneurs, enabling the U.S. to remain a competitive hub of global start up activity. We support the efforts of Senators Kerry and Lugar to create jobs here at a time when the best and brightest can help drive our economic recovery.  Specifically, the StartUP Visa Act would grant three year visas to foreigners who:

  • Have a required amount of financial backing from a qualified investor or venture capitalist
  • Have a commercial business that will generate a predetermined level of employment, revenue or capital investment

The goal of the StartUP Visa legislation is to create an alternate visa system to the H1B program, in which temporary visas are granted to immigrants working in specialized fields including the high-tech industry. Currently, there are 65,000 HIB visas awarded to immigrants and an additional 20,000 H1B visas awarded to individuals who hold an advanced degree. Additionally, this legislation would create a new set of visas that require immigrants to invest at least $1 million dollars in the US and employ at least 10 people.

One hundred and sixty venture capitalists and angel investors support the bill. According to the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), 25 percent of America’s venture-backed and publicly-traded businesses, including: Google, Yahoo!, eBay, Intel, Pfizer, DuPont and Procter & Gamble are examples of American success stories founded or co-founded by foreign born residents. Further, in 2005, these companies netted more than $52 billion in sales and employed 450,000 workers. In 2006, 24% of all filled patents had foreign residents listed as the inventor or co-inventor.

We encourage your support for S. 3029 and to urge immediate action on the Senate floor. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Carl Guardino
President and CEO
cc: Senators Kerry, Lugar and Udall

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The American Bar Association and America’s Lawyers Support The Startup Visa

Posted on August 12, 2010 by bfeld| 1 Comment

The American Bar Association’s (ABA) governing body, the House of Delegates, voted in favor of Resolution 300, calling on Congress to create a new visa program designed to provide a mechanism for immigrant-entrepreneurs to enter or remain in the United States to build bona fide businesses. The initiative known as the “Startup Visa” has legislation pending in Congress that the ABA will now encourage such legislation be enacted into law.

“Immigrant-entrepreneurs face a patchwork of immigration laws which they may or may not be able to piece together to come, stay and build a business in the U.S.,” said Barbara Mayden in her speech to the ABA delegates. “Given the hurdles that exist here [for immigrant-entrepreneurs], many believe that greater opportunity exists elsewhere … this represents a relief well.”

The ABA resolution states that the “American Bar Association urges Congress to enact laws that provide for an immigration classification whereby foreign nationals intending to form businesses are provided a mechanism (such as Startup Visa) under which they can enter or remain in the United States to obtain permanent resident status in order to build such businesses.” This resolution authorizes the ABA to publicly support and advance these efforts to enact this key immigration reform. This support of the Startup Visa was initiated by the ABA’s Section of Business Law and co-sponsored by the Sections of International Law, Antitrust, and Real Property, as well as supported by the Commission on Immigration and the Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities.

“The ABA represents a key voice of the legal community,” said Eric Koester, an author of the Startup Visa resolution. “We recognize that the Startup Visa initiative is crucial to help America continue its place as the center of entrepreneurship and technology. While there is certainly more work to be done to get this enacted, another ally has lined up behind the Startup Visa movement.”

With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

Download a copy of the ABA’s resolution and report on the Startup Visa or replay the speech in support of the Startup Visa to the ABA by Barbara Mayden, the representative of the Section of Business Law.

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The Story of an Immigrant Entrepreneur

Posted on March 11, 2010 by abheek| 8 Comments

Passageways Inc. is the 27th fastest growing software company in the United States. Based in Purdue University’s Research Park, the company employs 28 people (including 24 US citizens), has over 200 customers and contributes significantly to the local and state economy. Paroon Chadha was one of the two co-founders of the company, and his story is indicative of the issues faced by immigrant entrepreneurs across the country.

“I came to the US in 1999 for an MBA, which is where I met my fellow co-founder, Christopher Beltran. Together we started working on the first business plan for Passageways. Almost immediately, the idea took off. We won at a prestigious business plan competition at Purdue University in my first year, and got convinced to pursue this opportunity full-time after school.

However, my visa situation was tenuous. After graduation, I was allowed to work for a year on this project, after which I would have to get sponsorship from another employer for my H-1B visa. All initial discussions with potential investors were tainted by this uncertainty. To delay the start of the 1 year ticking clock, I took a year off from school as well.

Purdue Employees Federal Credit Union became our first paying customer. In fact, they were so impressed with the product that they agreed to invest $100,000 in our company as seed funding. We spent thousands of dollars of our precious seed capital to explore visa opportunities that would enable me to start my own company, but our attorneys came up empty.

Finally, we worked out a compromise. As part of the Operating Agreement, Purdue EFCU took majority ownership of my business and agreed to sponsor my H-1B application. The Operating agreement allowed for transferring back some equity to me (and Christopher) on meeting certain milestones.”

Paroon’s story is replicated across the country, as bright students continue to try and start their own businesses, only to stumble when it comes to getting a visa. Passageways has been profitable for 5 years running, and was recently named amongst the 50 companies to watch in Indiana. While Paroon was able to trade ownership in the business for a visa sponsorship, this hurdle is too difficult for several others to overcome.

“In 2004, Passageways applied for permanent residency for me, and I finally received my green card this year. For years, our annual strategic meetings listed my lack of permanent residency as amongst the top business risks for our company. It took me 7 years, 4 trips outside of the country solely to get visa renewals, and countless hours spent resolving paperwork that could have been spent focusing on growing my business.

I consider myself one of the lucky ones. I have seen several other startups fall by the way side as they try and resolve the founder visa issue. This country is the only place where a business like mine could be so successful so fast. However, the immigration laws made it harder, and not easier, for me to achieve my entrepreneurial objectives.”

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Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs & VCs Travel to DC to Promote Startup Visa Job Creation Bill

Posted on March 2, 2010 by abheek| 1 Comment

[For Immediate Release]

Grass-roots team behind StartupVisa.com to meet, brief representatives of White House, Senators, State & Commerce Departments, DHS, SBA

San Francisco, CA, March 2, 2010 — A group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists will travel to Washington DC this week to promote the Startup Visa Act of 2010, legislation to spur job creation by enabling startup founders to bring new companies to the US, if they can demonstrate funding from US-based investors. The group plans to meet with a variety of federal representatives to brief them on the bill, including the White House, State Department, Commerce Department, DHS, SBA, and members of congress.

“Job creation is a national priority,” said Dave McClure, organizer of the trip and a venture capitalist and former software entrepreneur. “With the Startup Visa Act, we can create thousands of new jobs immediately, and tens of thousands more as these new startups grow into the next Googles, Yahoos, and eBays of their generation. It’s a huge win-win, and we’re traveling to DC to encourage the quick passage of this much-needed reform.”

The Startup Visa Act of 2010, introduced last week by Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN), would modify the existing EB-5 visa to enable job-creating entrepreneurs to immigrate to the United States. The bill requires each entrepreneur to have a sponsoring US venture capital or angel investor who will invest at least $100,000 in their startup, and total funds raised must be at least $250,000 per company. The legislation is supported by more than 150 venture capitalists and investors who signed a letter urging its passage. While in DC, the group will be meeting with members of Congress, The White House, Commerce Department, State Department and Small Business Administration, and bringing thousands of messages from voters around the country who support the bill.

The grass-roots effort to create the bill began last year, prompted by a blog post by Paul Graham of venture capital firm Y Combinator. Brad Feld, a venture capitalist with Foundry Group based in Colorado, took the next step and began promoting the idea on his website and blog. McClure and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Eric Ries and Shervin Pishevar then joined the effort by creating the StartupVisa.com website after a previous trip to DC by Silicon Valley geeks in September, and producing a video featuring Ries and Canadian entrepreneur Eric Diep, who had been unable to get a visa to start his company in the US. Feld worked together with congressman Jared Polis (D-CO) to draft legislation introduced in the House last fall, and was later joined by Kerry and Lugar in introducing similar legislation in the Senate last week.

As McClure and others joined in, the Startup Visa movement became an example of how technology innovation can inspire change, and quickly gathered thousands of supporters in just a few weeks. The group has relied solely on the use of social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and blogs to promote its ideas, and have generated over 2,000 letters in support from voters across the country. “There are no lobbyists, no campaign contributions, no PR agencies,” McClure said. “This is a 100% grass-roots movement of citizens who want to encourage job creation and innovation in the United States.”

“America and the American Dream has attracted the world’s immigrants and their dreams for centuries, ” said Shervin Pishevar. “Our country has been reinvigorated and reinvented by a stream of humanity from all parts of our world. Increasingly, it has become harder for the best and the brightest minds to come to America and write the next chapter of the America Story. The StartUp Visa Act is about winning the race for the very best of the world’s brains and startups who will in turn create jobs and opportunities for all Americans.”

Support Job Creation in the US by  Supporting StartupVisa.com!

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[PR Contact Dave McClure - 650-743-4738 - dave.mcclure@gmail.com]

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Senators Kerry & Lugar Introduce the Startup Visa Act in Washington, DC

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Dave McClure| 30 Comments

We are thrilled to announce Senators John Kerry (D-MA) & Richard Lugar (R-IN) today introduced The Startup Visa Act in Washington.

The full text of the proposed legislation is here.

This new legislation is also supported by signatures from over 100 US venture capital and angel investors.

The Startup Visa Act proposes legislation to modify the existing EB-5 Visa in order to drive job creation in the US and increase American global competitiveness.  This would enable immigrant entrepreneurs who are creating new companies to secure visas to come to the United States, if there is investment capital available from a sponsoring US venture capital or angel investor of at least $100,000 in an equity financing of not less than $250,000.

Earlier legislation had been proposed last year by US Representative Jared Polis (D, CO-2), H.R. 4259, the Employment Benefit Act of 2009, also known as the StartupVisa.  Later, HR 4259 was included in the overall House Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill.

The folks here at StartupVisa.com are all very proud of this moment, and we ask for your support as the proposed Startup Visa Act legislation moves closer to a vote. We will provide more information from the sponsoring legislators as it becomes available.

—

Relevant documents are available below:

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Immigrant Startup Founders, What’s Your Story?

Posted on February 3, 2010 by shaherose| 12 Comments

Entrepreneurship, the primary engine of our prosperity in the last two decades, is endangered by our immigration policy, which makes it very difficult for some of the brightest and most motivated individuals to stay in our country. The StartupVisa movement is trying to unleash the power of immigrant entrepreneurs to create jobs, wealth and innovation in the United States. We are a group of entrepreneurs, technologists and venture capitalists passionate about creating visa reform that allows immigrant entrepreneurs to contribute to the US economy by starting new companies.

As part of our mission, we are visiting Washington DC to meet with notable congressional representatives to brief them on the proposed StartupVisa legislation. We have received positive feedback from a number of members of Congress and this trip will help us advance the legislative reform process.

You can help! Tell us your story!

We want to use your stories to paint a picture in Congress about the potential impact of this legislation. Have you battled visa issues while starting your company? Tell us about your immigration woes. Maybe you were almost kicked out of the US? Or perhaps your financing rounds were affected adversely due to visa risks. Maybe you lost out on a fair amount of equity? Maybe you were trapped in your home country and your company suffered. Maybe you are just twiddling your thumbs, and limited from creating real value because you cannot start your company today? We know there are many stories and situations behind being an immigrant entrepreneur in the US. Tell us your story! Quantify the loss. Qualify the distress.

We will use these stories make the case for StartupVisa reform on our trip to Washington DC – March 3rd through 6th. If you wish, we can also anonymize personal information to ensure confidentiality.

Share this with your friends

More stories directly lead to more potential impact of our movement in Congress.

Round 1 Call for Stories Deadline: Feb 27, 2010, 11 PM

Submit your story here.

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The Race for the Next Google

Posted on January 2, 2010 by Dave McClure| 3 Comments

Advanced countries are competing to attract the world’s best entrepreneurs — the US should too.

by Eric Ries

Entrepreneurship is one of the most significant contributors to a nation’s prosperity [6]. In an increasingly globalized economy, many of the advanced nations in the world are racing to attract the brightest entrepreneurial minds, regardless of their country of origin. The startups created by these highly skilled immigrants will generate most of the jobs and wealth in these countries in the future [3]. This is a race we cannot afford to ignore.

The case of the United Kingdom provides a good example of such a program. Launched last year, the tier 1 “Entrepreneur Visa” category [1] allows entrepreneurs to enter the country to create new startups. The eligibility criterion for this visa is based on the point system used by the UK to evaluate new immigrant applications. In addition to traditional attributes, such as language proficiency and educational qualifications, applicants are awarded points for access to capital (above £200,000) and for adhering to appropriate financial regulations. While the initial program allows entrepreneurs to stay for 2 years, it is subject to a review whereupon the applicant may be eligible to be granted immediate permanent residency.

Several other advanced countries have very similar programs. Canada requires users to demonstrate access to $300,000 CDN of capital, and to create at least one full-time job as a result of their startup [2]. Australia, Germany and New Zealand have similar categories to encourage entrepreneurs to start businesses in their country. While several of these programs are relatively new and therefore there is a lack of data to demonstrate efficacy, the impact of startups on generating new jobs in an economy has been proved repeatedly [3].

The United States has a similar program – the EB5 visa category, which allows immigrants to invest $1 million or more and generate ten jobs as part of that investment [4]. However, that category is limited to investors, and not the entrepreneurs who are going to drive that value creation. The impact of this visa category could be dramatically increased if we focus on the entrepreneur who creates the business, as opposed to focusing solely on the investor holding capital. Small changes can dramatically increase the efficacy of this program and increase our economic competitiveness in the future.

Bibliography

[1] UK Border Agency. Entrepreneur Visas.(accessed 10 16, 2009).

[2] Citizenship and Immigration Services, Canada. Entrepreneurs and Investors. 03 31, 2007.  (accessed 10 16, 2009).

[3] Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Business Dynamic Statistics. 2009.  (accessed 10 16, 2009).

[4] USCIS. Employment-based Immigrant EB-5. USCIS.  (accessed 10 16, 2009).

[5] Wadhwa, Vivek. “America’s Immigrant Brain Drain.” BusinessWeek. March 5, 2009.  (accessed October 12, 2009).

[6] Wadhwa, Vivek, AnnaLee Saxenian, Ben Rissing, and Gary Gereffi. ” Skilled Immigration and Economic Growth.” Applied Research in Economic Development 5, no. 1 (May 2008): 6-14.

[7] Wadhwa, Vivek, AnnaLee Saxenian, Richard Freeman, and Salkever Alex. Losing the World’s Best and Brightest. Research Report, Ewing Marrion Kauffman Foundation, Ewing Marrion Kauffman Foundation, 2009.

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Immigration and Entrepreneurship: Executive Summary

Posted on January 1, 2010 by Dave McClure| 4 Comments

US Immigration policy is harming the primary driver of wealth creation in our country: entrepreneurship.

by Eric Ries

America is in danger of losing its competitive position as the pre-eminent country for innovation and prosperity. Entrepreneurship, the primary engine of our prosperity in the last two decades, is endangered by our immigration policy, which makes it very difficult for some of the brightest and most motivated individuals to stay in our country. Unless we take steps to rectify this situation, we risk a “brain drain” that can severely impact the long-term competitiveness of the United States in the global economy [7].

Research by preeminent scholars at universities such as Harvard, Duke and UC Berkeley has convincingly shown the contribution of immigrants to our economy. Nowhere is this impact more dramatic than in the technology and engineering industry. For example, over 25% of the technology companies founded between 1995-2005 had a key immigrant founder. These companies produced over $52 billion dollars in sales in 2005, and employed 450,000 workers that year. Similarly, 24% of all the international patents filed in the US in 2006 had a foreign resident as inventor or co-inventor [6][2].

While work by these scholars has demonstrated the positive impact of immigrant founders on our economy, our immigration policy actively discourages this trend. Designed primarily to introduce high barriers to illegal entry into the country, these laws make it difficult for highly qualified individuals, including ones that we train at some of our best institutions, to stay in the country. Lack of visas for entrepreneurs, restrictive visas that tie immigrants to employers, and long wait times for permanent residency (up to 10 years) leave many no option but to return to their home country to start their ventures [5][3]. These are often some of the brightest and most well trained members of our workforce. For example, over 50% of immigrants returning to India and China in recent years have advanced degrees (masters and PhDs), many were educated in the United States, and as a group are statistically likely to start new companies [1][4].

Legal reforms that encourage entrepreneurial immigrants to stay in our country are key to ensuring our global competitiveness. While immigrants make up only 12% of the US population, they constitute over 24% of our science and technology workforce, over 47% of our science and technology PhDs, and have founded iconic companies like Google, Yahoo, eBay and Intel. Startups are the lifeblood of our economy: they account for nearly all the net job growth in the US over the last two decades [8][9]. Unless we take active steps to encourage our smartest, most creative, and most motivated immigrants to start companies in our country, we risk losing unprecedented wealth creation and economic prosperity to other nations.

References

[1] Fairlie, Robert W., Estimating the Contribution of Immigrant Business Owners to the U.S. Economy. Research Report, Santa Cruz, CA: Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, 2008.

[2] Saxenian, AnnaLee. Silicon Valley’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, 1999.

[3] Wadhwa, Vivek. America’s Immigrant Brain Drain. March 5, 2009.  (accessed October 12, 2009).

[4] Wadhwa, Vivek. Immigrants are more likely to be entrepreneurs. November 25, 2008.  (accessed October 12, 2009).

[5] Wadhwa, Vivek. The Reverse Brain Drain. August 22, 2007.  (accessed October 12, 2009).

[6] Wadhwa, Vivek, AnnaLee Saxenian, Ben Rissing, and Gary Gereffi. “Skilled Immigration and Economic Growth.” Applied Research in Economic Development 5, no. 1 (May 2008): 6-14.

[7] Wadhwa, Vivek, AnnaLee Saxenian, Richard Freeman, and Salkever Alex. Losing the World’s Best and Brightest. Research Report, Ewing Marrion Kauffman Foundation, Ewing Marrion Kauffman Foundation, 2009.

[8] US Census Bureau. Business Dynamic Statistics.  (accessed October 12, 2009)

[9] Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Business Dynamic Statistics: Tracking Annual Changes in Employment for Growing and Shrinking Businesses.  (accessed October 12, 2009)

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A Tale of Two Erics

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Dave McClure| Leave a comment

Here is a short video about two entrepreneurs named Eric:

(thanks to Eric Ries & Eric Diep)

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Make a Donation to StartupVisa.com!

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Dave McClure| 3 Comments

Want to help the StartupVisa.com movement? Great!

Donate $50 to StartupVisa.com & make some change happen:
-> http://2gov.org/contribute

If you are a US Citizen, you may contribute $50 to support efforts to enact #StartupVisa legislation. These funds will be used to communicate the StartupVisa message and lobby candidates that support this cause. Reports of where the money is spent will be posted on http://2gov.org/contribute.  The amount is contributed anonymously; your name will not appear on any public documents, and @2gov will track donations internally to ensure you do not exceed the reporting threshold.

If you wish to contribute more than $50 or have other questions contact donate@2gov.org to explain other options and reporting requirements.

Thanks for your support!

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