I work for one of the SV companies and have recently been serious about one of the ideas I have on my mind. I am currently working on an MVP and plan to take it to investors in a month or two. I have a positive feeling about it, and I am much motivated to continue in that route and make it my full-time affair.
The only, and only obstacle I see is immigration. I am married and my wife is on her own H1b as well. I've gone through countless articles, spoken to people, researched the internet, but still do not have a 100% coherence on all the twists and gotchas involved here. Similar discussions went on here quite a while ago (> 5 years), but I am willing to see what it's like today. I can think of the following options:
- Get a H4EAD and be dependant and legally found the company, and run it, while taking the risk of being hit by the shaky executive actions for purported to be unleashed at any point.
- Find a cofounder on GC or with an American Citizenship and have them hire me. The risk I see here is that I only get to remain as a "worker" for the very company I founded who can be fired at any point for any reason or no reason. I have heard horror stories that happened to people in the past and I just cannot trust this path 100%.
- Move to Canada, the country that welcomes immigrants with arms wide open. I will be able to run my company with a GC there no problem. I am just slightly concerned about finding talent and VC access there. Shouldn't be too much of a problem I guess though.
Has anyone of you been through a situation like this? what was your path? What risks did you have to take? What were the factors that resulted in whatever decision you made?
Your answers and insight will be incredibly valuable to me, all help is truly appreciated.
Thank you so much in advance!
Your question has come up any times in his AMAs. Those who were in your situation and are now successfully into their own startups now have replied in the comments. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22769789
Canada is also very do-able. In general, ignore the nay-sayers on this thread.
I don't know about VC access but you shouldn't have any issue with finding talent in Toronto or Vancouver. And, there is an option to recruit remote employees too.
It would help tremendously if the rules are amended to allow H1B people to start businesses - say after 5 years on the visa or something. Not that I see any progressive action happening in this area in the current political climate ...