Let the White House know about Paul Graham's idea for a Founder Visa

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=730907

by pupeno • 17 years ago

10 10 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

It'll take you two minutes. Copy the contents of http://paulgraham.com/foundervisa.html and paste them on http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.

Provide your our comment, attribution, message, etc if you want. Maybe if enough of us do it, someone will read it.

jhancock5• 17 years ago

Nothing against folks outside the U.S. that want to work here. But, I have not seen any real evidence that supports a skill set shortage. Can someone provide real numbers?

maxwin• 17 years ago

You missed the point. We are talking about founders who could potentially create a great company and jobs for Americans. Did you read Paul's essay? I suggest you take a look and think about how many founders/developers are foreign born.

jhancock5• 17 years ago

I have read the essay. I agree with the points. However, they do not take into account the number of Americans that have the skills and desire to create a startup but for other reasons can not afford to be founders. Shouldn't we address those reasons first?

scs• 17 years ago

The one issue I have with the essay is how startup investors are chosen. "We know who one another are" is an unsatisfactory way for the government to decide who startup investors are, mainly because it could become a closed club very easily.

ujjwalg• 17 years ago

I agree with Paul Graham completely. I wish there was some kind of founder VISA. I am graduating from penn state with a PhD. I have started my own startup which is developing educational apps for iPhone, android, desktop and web, but I am going to have a hard time staying back in US. I dont need to be present in US to run the business but I would prefer and wish there was something like a founder VISA for legitimate companies making more than $200k an year.

jhancock5• 17 years ago

I agree, a visa for what you are doing should be available. From what I have read about pg's founder visa, I don't see how that includes your situation.

It does seem reasonable that the U.S. should be tripping over themselves to provide a visa to anyone that can create jobs or be an overwhelming contributor to taxes.

From the government's view, how would they make such a decision? In your case, your already here and already have a going concern which seems an easy thing to write regulations for. What about for those just starting with no employees and no revenue? What about for those that just show up at the airport and say "I'm gonna give it my best shot, where's my visa?". Is it ok to show up and say, "Hey Paul Graham gave me and my friend $15k, let me in."

I like the idea, but I don't see how the rules get written and managed.

Let the White House know about Paul Graham's idea for a Founder Visa

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