Unshackled – Funding for immigrant founders with US work visas

Unshackled – Funding for immigrant founders with US work visas(unshackled.co)

43 points by ramxpa 11 years ago | 14 comments

kamaal 11 years ago |

Every time I see things like these I'm reminded of my days studying for entrance exams for engineering here in India. Basically college classes are pretty useless, and you will have to attend tuition classes to get some additional coaching to crack these exams. Since this is the case, there are coaching classes that specialize in merely teaching you how to crack these exams. The only issue is, the competition is so fierce, the coaching classes will have their own entrance exams to train you to prepare for the engineering entrance exam. So you now have to crack two entrance exams, one to get into the coaching class that helps you crack the exam, and secondly crack the main exam itself.

Often you will spend pointless time just doing this circus. So much so you would be rather better off, directly working hard on the main exam.

Start ups are hard, you will likely fail certainly. In all that work there is to do. And all that stress, anxiety and tension you are likely to go on merely working on your start up. I wonder what is the point in taking all the pain to fight for a Visa amidst all this(Which you are very likely not to get).

There is no doubt there are amazing benefits of working in the USA. I would do anything to get an opportunity to work in the United States. But to get a H1-B(Or any work related visa) is a great challenge, especially for guys like me. Plus years of living under perennial threat of getting fired, losing your job, having to restart your green card process all over again(If you've started), and redoing all of this if you lose your job all over again, spending decades doing this and chasing sub goals. At some point you have to wonder, if its all worth it.

Why not spare yourself the pain. And work on the actual thing itself.

kartman 11 years ago | |

just adding on, most folks who do not have this background of an immigrant do not understand the approx 10 year penalty you have to pay before you can start your own company here in the US. starting in 20s is different from in 30s. but hey, we play the cards we are dealt and slope matters more than intercept :).

geniemano 11 years ago |

This is an excellent hack if it holds up on the legal fronts! There might be constraints, which I have not seen called out yet, such as - a H1B visa holder having to be employed in their field of specialization, hence the H1B founder will need to startup in said field. But the constraints appear trivial in comparison to the problem being solved. This is exciting!

maguirre 11 years ago | |

Not only that!. Companies that sponsor an H1B person need to "show" proof that they have attempted to hire a US person before they can turn to sponsor an in immigrant.

billconan 11 years ago |

I'm worried about the ownership of the startups. as they are developed by employees of Unshackled so to speak.

And what if a startup doesn't take off?

nhebb 11 years ago |

OT: The moving image behind text that visitors are trying to read is the worst design trend since carousels (aka sliders).

jmathai 11 years ago | |

Perhaps you haven't seen parallax websites.

nhebb 11 years ago | | |

I've seen two variants of parallax - parallax scrolling (which is fine) and parallax videos that play behind text. When you're trying to read text, having a moving image behind the text makes it harder to read. It looks cool, but it's a bad design. And not just for the readability issues, but also due to the loading. For example, PayPal has it on their front page now. I used to be able to go to PayPal and immediately click the login button. Now I have to wait for the loading to finish. It's annoying.

paul9290 11 years ago |

Saw this on Techcrunch.

Are you solely funding only immigrants and or a team with one or more immigrants?

Do you consider a team of US citizens?

fiatmoney 11 years ago | |

Based on the contrast between their FAQ & the title, it looks like they are technically allowing "anyone with authorization in the US", and in practice discriminating like crazy. Otherwise, what exactly is the point of this?

Ironically, it'd probably be legal if structured as an actual VC / angel firm plus coworking, but "If selected, join Unshackled as employees" makes it subject to employment law.

The dual employee / investment model seems loaded with conflicts of interest on both ends. The only way it makes sense is if you need to be an employee for immigration purposes.

kamaal 11 years ago | |

>>Do you consider a team of US citizens?

According to their FAQ, they do.

But it is supposed to be a company that is helping immigrants who want to start companies but can't due to legal reasons. That is massive pool of very hard working people, who are moving mountains else where for pennies. If you can direct the same monumental effort towards something more constructive, that would be a lot more profitable. Hence tapping into that talent pool.

But if you had an idea to build the next Google, Twitter or Facebook, I guess they would be more than willing to listen.

But then if you truly had such an idea, and are a US citizen why would you need them?

nhebb 11 years ago | |

From the FAQ - item 3 (emphasis added):

"All applicants should be authorized to work in the USA. This includes citizens of the USA"

beautybasics 11 years ago |

Q: Since H1-B employers needs to run payroll, will they run it for the entire team and count it differently from the investment?