Despite President recently imposing a $100,000 application fee on new H-1B visas, San Francisco remains a for international AI founders keen to tap into the epicenter of innovation.

I was one of those wide-eyed entrepreneurs back in 2017, when I first packed my bags and moved from my native Ukraine to SF to scale my startup, . Unfortunately, I ended up returning home demoralized and depressed as my trip had led to so many rejections.

However, I eventually realized that the problem wasn鈥檛 my tech 鈥� it was that I hadn鈥檛 understood the unspoken rules of Silicon Valley.

After spending years trying to break into the Valley, things finally turned around for me. Now, as a startup mentor at and , and founder of Raisable Founders Hub, I鈥檝e made it my mission to help founders, especially immigrant entrepreneurs, avoid the unnecessary mistakes I made.

My approach boils down to a few simple steps: shift your mindset, build a relevant network, validate your idea deeply, and then build your strategy. This is critical for founders navigating today’s funding frenzy.

Here鈥檚 what I wish I鈥檇 known when I first set foot in Silicon Valley:

Understand the principles by which the Valley lives

Silicon Valley runs on trust, and trust is something that needs to be earned. Therefore, it鈥檚 best to start building it long before you arrive: Do your research and connect online with people you鈥檇 like to meet up with. Make sure you have something to offer. The Valley rewards those who contribute first.

Building a startup here is different from anywhere else due to extremely high costs, relentless competition and a generally much faster pace of doing things. All of this will test your adaptability 鈥斕齱hich is a key skill investors will be on the lookout for.

The right mindset can鈥檛 be bought, but it can be developed by immersing yourself in the ecosystem and engaging with the right people.

Surround yourself with like-minded people

Silicon Valley is filled with people who will challenge everything you do from day one. The people you surround yourself with can either fuel your growth or drain your momentum. Don鈥檛 waste time chasing generic networking opportunities. Instead:

• Be intentional. Engage with communities that align with your mission 鈥� founders in your vertical, fellow immigrants, AI enthusiasts and so on, who are a few steps ahead of you and have already walked the path you are on, made their own mistakes, and know the best way forward.
• Offer value first. Share your expertise, contribute to discussions, and offer your participation or help at events. Don鈥檛 lead with an ask, lead with insight.
• Engage smartly. Attend events where meaningful conversations happen. Research speakers, ask sharp questions and follow up with genuine interest.

The bottom line is: Focus on nurturing authentic connections that can flourish into long-term collaborations.

Ask for advice first, then intros

Many founders obsess over getting investor introductions. But an intro without the right preparation is a wasted opportunity.

Instead of fixating on warm intros, focus on validating your ideas. Explain to everyone you meet how your solution solves a specific problem and why your team is the best to do it. Absorb their feedback and use it all as an opportunity to refine your pitch. Every discussion helps you understand how to frame your value proposition more effectively. Seek out great mentors. The best ones don鈥檛 give you answers 鈥� they help you ask better questions.

Finally, not every interaction needs to lead to fundraising, the goal should be to build a sustainable company 鈥� so be open to any and all opportunities or connections that come your way. You never know, the next person you meet could become a future co-founder, adviser, customer or even a lifelong friend.

听 is a startup mentor at and , and founder at Raisable Founders Hub.

Related reading:

• Are H-1B Changes 鈥楢 Strategic Opening鈥� For Startup Creation Or An 鈥業nsurmountable Founder Tax鈥�?

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To make the immigration process less opaque for entrepreneurs, Seattle-based startup Legalpad has raised a $10 million Series A led by Amplo. Other investors such as Global Founders Capital, 8VC, Liquid 2 Ventures, Tekton Ventures, Gaingels and Collate Capital filled the round.

The startup, founded by Sara Itucas and Todd Heine, uses a mix of software and attorney aid to navigate the visa process for startup employees. Hailing from , works with other early-stage startup accelerators to help talent stay in the country after they graduate from programs.

Legalpad may be pricier than a traditional law firm, but it is faster, said Itucas, the company鈥檚 co-founder and an immigrant herself. Traditional law firms can take between four and six months to put together a competitive application for a visa, she said. Legalpad claims to take two months.

The Price Problem

During an interview I did last year on the topic, general counsel and lawyer for Seattle鈥檚 Ideoclick, explained how the high expense would likely keep that startup from going through the process of hiring foreign talent in the future.

鈥淲e鈥檙e a relatively small [company], Microsoft and Amazon locally here have a ton of foreign [talent] and full-time lawyers who help them manage resources,鈥� he said on the phone. He estimated that Ideoclick spent upward of $6,000 to help one worker navigate the process to get work authorization.

Then, when Ideoclick was met with the potential bill of $8,000 to $10,000 more due to a documentation requirement, the company was unable to support the employee any longer. While some entrepreneurs say price isn鈥檛 a factor, a number of foreign entrepreneurs I鈥檝e chatted with point to the hefty fees as a pain point – it depends on the size of the company. And as venture capital firms, for the most part, don鈥檛 explicitly cover immigration fees for portfolio companies, that鈥檚 a notable missing part of the puzzle.

Clear Interest In (and Need For) Legalpad

A few months ago, I attended a packed immigrant entrepreneur happy hour hosted by Legalpad in San Francisco.

It stood out for a few reasons. First, there was a sense of diversity in the room that wasn鈥檛 tokenized. This felt like a rarity in and of itself. Second, and perhaps more telling, there was a consistent stream of people, mainly students, in line to talk to Legalpad鈥檚 founders. They weren鈥檛 chatting about jobs or investments or AI, they were asking for advice on how to navigate the immigration process, explaining their stresses, or sharing their confusion.

Clearly, there was and is a need for the type of service that Legalpad provides — a fact that Itucas plans to build on. During the event, she told me that Legalpad intends to develop an open source solution to help answer such questions on its site.

With the new funding, it鈥檚 likely that those conversations (and confusion) could translate into customers.

Illustration:听

In this second swing, Janczer has been met with a “” commonly known as an RFE, a document the United States government sends out to candidates looking to secure a visa as an added step in the immigration process. Simply put, an RFE request means the government wants more proof of someone’s candidacy before denying or accepting a visa application that allows a foreign national to work in the United States. And according to Janczer, if you’re not a “Forbes 30 under 30 or a Nobel Prize Winner, it’s hard” to prove.

A few days ago she filed the RFE. If she is denied, moving to Canada, a country with less stringent immigration laws, is an option, she said. But the lack of clarity impacts more than just a paycheck from Splunk鈥攊t touches on every part of her future.

“You can’t plan anything,” Janczer said. “You can’t plan to, you know, buy nice furniture because you don’t know if you’re going to be here next year… being uprooted is like this dooming sword hanging over you.”

Janczer is not an exception. Over time, the United States government has quietly increased how many RFE demands it sends out to candidates looking to secure an H-1B visa. In 2015, (USCIS), there were 67,315 visas with RFE documentation processed. In 2018, 150,606 visas with RFE documentation were processed鈥攁n increase of 124 percent.

And with more RFE demands have come more denials for visas. The acceptance of visa petitions with RFEs dropped by almost 15 percent in January 2017, when President Donald J.听 Trump was inaugurated. The chart below unpacks the decline in acceptances over time:

A number of professionals pointed to Trump鈥檚 鈥溾�� Executive Order as a catalyst for the increase in denials. His administration鈥檚 mandate to 鈥減revent fraud within the immigration system鈥� imposed policies to ensure H-1B visas are awarded to the 鈥渕ost-skilled or highest-paid beneficiaries.鈥�

Per an RFE obtained by 附近上门 News, a tech worker would have to prove their worth through extensive documentation, such as a 鈥渓ine-and-block organizational chart鈥� and a detailed statement from an industry expert. You can parse through a redacted version below:

by on Scribd

Tahmina Watson, a lawyer who has been working on immigration cases since 2006, said that vague language in RFEs is intentional. Although the demand for documentation has increased, transparency on how to satisfy those increased demands has remained elusive, she said.

Through her practice, she has learned that this grey area has effectively (and legally) sorted out otherwise deserving candidates.

鈥淏y October 2017, we started to see denials in cases that would have been approved two months ago with the same documentation,鈥� she said.

She added that some groups have been impacted 鈥渄isproportionately.鈥�

鈥淔inancial analysts and computer programmers were some of the first casualties of these RFEs,鈥� Watson said. Tech startups are specifically at risk, she said, because businesses 鈥渃an鈥檛 grow if the talent itself is at risk.鈥�

Plus, smaller startups feel the burden of fees more significantly, Watson said.

But according to one investor, of , the cost of the immigration process still shouldn鈥檛 deter a startup from investing in an employee.

Unshackled Ventures invests in immigrant-founded startups and has done north of 100 immigration filings for the firm’s portfolio companies. Mehta said that, in his experience, about four out of five visas done with premium processing鈥攁n accelerated version of the filing process often done by entrepreneurs that are on a tight deadline鈥攚ill face an RFE. And that鈥檚 not 鈥渆ntirely a negative thing.鈥�

鈥淚 think this definition of high-skilled work has to be modernized, and because it has not been, a Department of Labor challenge has been to update that definition,鈥� Mehta said. According to him, H-1B applications for IT outsourcing jobs were flooding USCIS, 鈥渁nd it was just making a kind of mockery of the immigration system.鈥�

Mehta added that 鈥渨e鈥檙e still getting a hundred percent of our visas secured and approved.鈥�

, who has been practicing immigration law for 27 years, has not seen a change in the approval rate for the visas he receives since the transition from the Obama administration to the Trump administration. That said, he has found other flaws with Trump鈥檚 mentality around immigration,

The amount of taxpayer money, manpower, and hours, that Trump is spending on 鈥渇ighting and fighting and fighting in court鈥� is 鈥渁 disgrace,鈥� said Goldman. 鈥淸Trump is] fighting any kind of progressive immigration that creates jobs.鈥�

Still, Goldman said he tells his clients to not 鈥渂e alarmed鈥� or 鈥渟top pursuing your dreams in America. The U.S. is still a place that 鈥渁ll of the world鈥檚 entrepreneurs would like to be.鈥�

However, Watson said there is reason to remain weary.

鈥淲ith each RFE, another brick [is added]. Which each paragraph they add, it’s another brick added to the wall. With each memo, it’s another brick.鈥�

鈥淯ltimately,鈥� she said, referring to the Trump administration, 鈥渢hey’re trying to make sure immigrants don’t come to the United States.”

And that鈥檚 a wall that many young, ambitious professionals鈥攁nd the early startups that employ them鈥攎ay not be capable of breaking down.

Editor鈥檚 note: The article has been updated to note that Barbara Janczer has filed two separate visa applications, with the Splunk visa request being denied by the government due to the lottery system.

, in vacation mode,听, so I鈥檒l keep this one short, sassy, and sweet.

Want this email every weekend? Subscribe here to 附近上门 News emails!

This week听听highlighted听amazing immigrant founders, covered听treadmills, and pulse checked听upcoming IPOs, so let鈥檚 get right into it.

Starting with the big one, Peloton, an exercise equipment company which sells 鈥渉appiness,鈥� filed its S-1. Here鈥檚 a听deep dive on the big numbers, and then听skim this for talking points听so you sound smart at your next networking event.

After that, keep reading along with our piece on how听early-stage international transportation startups aren鈥檛 intimidated by Uber. And in an odd turn of events,听a 7-year-old startup bought Lord & Taylor, a 193-year-old department store chain.

Moving to some nine-figure funding rounds,听Enjoy raised $150 million听and听ThoughtSpot got to unicorn status听with its $248 million Series E. Smaller rounds include听The Long Term Stock Exchange raising $50 million听and听Ethos raising $60 million, completing its third raise in 14 months. More, as always, in听Last Week In Venture.

We switched sides of the table with a few new international funds this week: to invest in homegrown startups, Latin America鈥檚 Kaszek Ventures听closed two funds totaling $600 million, and Israel鈥檚听F2 Capital raised $75 million for its second fund.

Finally, jokes aside, for those of you that do have Monday off: I dare you to not be online all day. As I unpack in my听second edition of the Loneliness In Tech series, using social media, at a certain point, makes us more lonely, not more connected.

We all stare at screens enough already, so take advantage of a couple face-to-face moments with friends and family instead.

Until next week,

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P.S.听Follow our newest reporter, Sophia Kunthara听(@SophiaKunthara)听and听附近上门听News听on听Twitter听and听Facebook听for daily updates.

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Building off the concept credited to Menlo Park firm, investors are increasingly serving as makeshift marketing advisors and product helpers as 鈥渢heir people help your people.鈥� But, with immigration challenges serving as an increasing-in-size hurdle for some founders, a few VCs are outwardly offering assistance beyond monetary help.

In fact, even the team that pioneered 鈥淰Cs-As-A-Service鈥� didn鈥檛 have much to say. When I reached out for comment, (a16z) had 鈥渘othing to share at this point.鈥�

In contrast, outspoken firms such as Palo Alto-based and Boston-based have embraced a particularly immigrant-focused approach.

In fact, these VCs serve as a special network for immigrant founders.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a reason why people line up outside an event, and there鈥檚 a reason they stay in the party once they get in,鈥� said , the founding partner of .

鈥淎s a venture fund, we have one hundredth of the access than a16z does,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to bring those same resources to our companies because we recognize one to two e-mails from an executive for a company like Airbnb鈥� can make a company move a lot faster.

While many venture capital firms offer to pay legal fees associated with helping an immigrant entrepreneur secure a visa or other legal documentation to stay in the United States, One Way Ventures partner told me that monetary support is not necessarily the issue. Rather it鈥檚 connections and education around the process that founders need help with.

鈥淚n the grand scheme of things of starting a company, it鈥檚 not about the [cost] of an application,鈥� said Zhao. 鈥淚t鈥檚 much more about the mental energy it takes鈥� to address immigration issues.

Venture firm One Way helps founders tackle these obstacles. A popular visa for founders is the , for individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement. Among the questions asked to obtain this visa are 鈥渉ave you judged a major competition鈥� or 鈥渉ave you been featured in reputable press.鈥� These are all points, and factors that boost an immigrant founder鈥檚 odds for success in the application process, Zhao explained.

Even given the challenges, Zhao said he can imagine any VC tacking on immigration services if the firm already has a platform with lawyers advising on general legal help.

One Way invests in early-stage companies, and often takes deal flow from the other outspoken VC firm supporting immigrants: Unshackled. In fact, the two firms have been invested side by side in two companies to date, and .

Unshackled, which raised a $20 million fund to invest solely in immigrant founders, covers 100 percent of the legal fees associated with onboarding. It also connects founders to services. Firm founder Mehta told me that since launching this fund, about 40 startups approach him a week.

鈥淚mmigration support is a critical part of our product,鈥� said Mehta. 鈥淚t is something that has allowed us to file 100 immigration filings in the past four years.鈥� Unshackled provides full immigration support from work authorization visas, to the Permanent Resident Card (also known as the green card). Unshackled works with 11 different visa immigration types.

Unshackled claims it has had a 鈥�100 percent success rate in procuring visas to keep talent working in the U.S.鈥� Since Unshackled mainly invests in pre-seed companies, Mehta said the firm uses its network to help young companies get off the ground.

鈥淲e鈥檙e effectively an immigrant family and friends round,鈥� he said, referencing to the angel network ties that some startups, with U.S. born founders, can use to their advantage.

In a similar vein, early-stage startup also wants to serve as that kind of network.

Legalpad wants immigrant founders to think of its firm as 鈥渢he friend in the U.S. that happens to know a lot about immigration service,鈥� said Legalpad co-founder and COO .

Seattle-based Legalpad uses software and attorney oversight to help speed up the process of securing visas for startup employees. While traditional law firms are cheaper, Itucas said working with those firms can take between four to six months to put together a competitive application for a visa.

Legalpad claims it takes about two months, although at a higher price.

Currently, Legalpad targets companies coming out of accelerators, mostly because an international company doesn鈥檛 have trouble getting recruited to join Y Combinator or 500 Startups. The challenge hits when the company wants to stay in the U.S. after the program ends.

LegalPad declined to disclose its partnerships as of right now, but said it submits about 20 visa applications a month.

Despite this accelerator focus, Itucas said some VCs have taken notice of LegalPad鈥檚 tech-focused approach. In fact, One Way Ventures is an investor in Legal Pad, and it sends its other portfolio companies, all with immigrant founders, to the startup for advice and help.

鈥淲e work with a handful, it鈥檚 not a jaw-dropping number,鈥� of venture capital firms, Itucas told 附近上门 News.

As for when that number might change?

鈥淔rom a resources point of view, a lot of people are just really scared to even tackle the idea of immigration,鈥� she said. Parts of the immigration process are opaque. Education about the process is hard. Many people don鈥檛 want to offer immigration services because they think it comes with a steep price tag, which Itucas said is a false perception.

Once those roadblocks are overcome, she thinks more people will start offering immigration services.

鈥淲hen you think about it, the process doesn鈥檛 cost much more than a signing bonus,鈥� at a tech company, she said. Say $20,000 to $25,000 to walk someone through the entire immigration process. Often times less. And to Itucas, a venture capitalist spending that much for a founder to stay in the country and build a successful company is a bargain.

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