Y Combinator Summer 2013 Demo Day, Batch 1(techcrunch.com) |
Y Combinator Summer 2013 Demo Day, Batch 1(techcrunch.com) |
Things have changed.
An example: Teleborder charges $5,000 per visa application, ... gathering documents, collecting information, and sending information to the government.
This is one of those ideas where you just stop and wonder why nobody has run with it before. These guys are going to make bank. I rode a dotcom into the ground in the early 'aughts that was tackling a similar problem with 10x the paperwork of a H1B and roughly 0% of the hair-on-fire demand that tech companies with tons of money have for help getting labor into the country.
That's the kind of company I wish I'd founded. Nice work.
The cost per app goes down with each additional app. After about 10 apps the company typically has figured out and streamlined the entire process. The documentation requirements for the H1B applicant are pretty well known. (previous status, transcripts, degree certificates,...). These are not overly complicated documents (unless you are a special case).
Also 5k fee sounds kinds of high (I am assuming these are in addition to the government fees). A lawyer for h1b application should not cost more than 2 to 3k. So, why would a company pay more NOT to work directly with a lawyer?
On the other hand, if the fees include government fees then this is a very good deal.
H1b applicant feels secure in the knowledge that his application is handled by a lawyer. Its like buying an insurance, they are indirectly buying "peace of mind". If they find out that company is not directly using a lawyer, I am not sure how they will react.
Am I missing something?
My girlfriend and a couple friends recently went through this year's LCA process (H1B, H1B1, etc.) and the lawyers cost exactly that: $2-3k.
The $5k price point is only going to drive away your target market. These customers are people who have already busted their ass to get a work sponsor, so they know the ins and outs of the market, including what the laywers cost and who is typically better. If they don't, then they are deferring to their employer's lawyers, who are already experts, to handle it completely.
There isn't anything new that teleborders is bringing to the market here, except a more expensive price point.
There seems to be a bit of confusion around our pricing in the comments below, so let me clear it up: we charge an average of $5,000 per visa application. The real fees range from sub-$2k for simple transfers all the way to above $10k for some green c cards. For simplicity, we (and the press) sometimes abbreviate this to "$5k per visa".
So far, customers haven't had a problem paying a slight premium to use us; what they pay out in cash they more than make back in time saved and employee happiness, and that's why some even told us we're cheap!
Hahaha... seriously? You have never heard of "immigration lawyers" and "travel agents"? This is exactly the service they have been providing since the dawn of time.
Even the other often abused visa L1 is primarily filled by outsourcers (I am trying to find some numbers on this but hard to find).
The outsourcing companies have been filing h1 for less than 1k lawyer fee (outsourced too!). 5K seems too high for someone to take note . The best law firms themselves charge about that here in USA.
I think this company can help out the startups in the bay area that are clueless how to sponsor a H1 (all the legalities of it) and makes it simple to them perhaps doing everything online from get go. That won't be more than 15/20k per year. So even the best case they are probably seeing a $1million dollar run rate per year (Which might be great for a 4/5 member startup?).
They should diversify into other areas - tax (for immigrants)/corporate (hiring/transfers) - which will have more incidences to charge.
I think my favorite of the past few batches is still FlightCar; that's the one I looked at and thought "damn where has this been all my life"
"Reminds me of a tactic used by my father's friend, who owned a pizzeria. He noticed that about half the orders were for large pepperoni pizzas. So he had his drivers always carry an additional large pepperoni pizza in the car, and he'd call them mid-route if an additional order came in. It usually did, so thankfully very few cold pizzas died, and he sold more pizzas per hour than before. Saved on gas, drivers made more tips, and eventually he ended up getting heaters and drivers carrying as many as 10 per trip. Combine that with the deeper large pepperoni price cut he could now afford, it was quickly became the busiest joint in town. Too bad he never expanded."
Makes me imagine a person/duo in a van, back filled with a limited range of curries on the go and rice cookers, driving around a particular area getting delivery requests and payment on their phone. Drive the short distance (you're already in the van with the product), ladle out servings and walk them to the door. It'd be hard to beat that sort of delivery time and it might make for a few impulse orders.
-- Terje Mathisen
Extra food in the car is like the L1 cache of the food world. Now that I think about, I'm pretty sure that every company in the world is just an exercise in caching.
I like Toutpost's idea, but I'm not convinced by their approach at the moment. Though I'm actually in the process of making something pretty similar for a specific audience in Django.
If they were in my area already, I would probably try out SpoonRocket immediately. I already prepare and cook all my meals, but I'm still prone to getting some food near campus once or twice a week. $6 for a delivered "designer" meal is pretty compelling if they manage to maintain that price outside of their current area.
The only obstacle I see is that majority of the potential users are not allowed to install any software themselves, but given that they already signed up some big customers they definitely can cope with that.
The 10% PG talks about is something you try to do week in and week out long after your press spike. It's insanely hard to do, but even if you come anywhere close you are doing very well.
RealCrowd: Really interesting startup but with the recent housing crisis they may have trouble convincing people it's a worthwhile investment and not a total gamble. I'm really interested to see where this goes and if it ever moves to include the general public (i.e. non-accredited investors).
StatusPage.io - I'll be using this immediately. Useful product and it looks like they already have quite a few high profile companies as customers. Hard to have an opinion on the pricing as I've no idea how many users would subscribe to these notifications.
It will be very interesting to see where the JOBS Act goes and how we can incorporate pure crowdfunding into our platform. Bringing access to this class of investment is what we're after and we're really excited to do so!
Really? No way. I'd be amazed if this was a correct figure.
UGH!!
Remember those times when people discussed how YC model was "cooler" than Rocket Internet model? Those times are gone.
and there goes whats left of my karma...
Good luck to everyone in all three Techcrunch pages. Entrepreneurs are heroes and I hope you all make it big.
most of them have already been on techcrunch by the time demo day rolls around.
Just like a groupon or stripe, the venue reviews space really needs boots on the ground and some local knowledge to work right, so there is a big opportunity for essentially a copycat model for that market (same as has happened for a long time in china).
Bringing these tried and tested ideas to places just catching up to the rest of the world with digital connectivity is probably going to be very lucrative over the next decade for people well positioned to do so.