I'm the founder of an early-stage company seeking to establish an office in Phoenix, Arizona. My situation has specific immigration complexities I hope you can maybe give some pointers on.
My spouse is currently subject to a 10-year bar from entering the United States due to an overstay....
We are exploring a hardship waiver (I-601/I-601A) but finding the process challenging while simultaneously managing my business responsibilities.
I've been considering various visa pathways including TN, H-1B, and have begun the I-130 petition process for my spouse.
Given these circumstances:
What strategies would you recommend for addressing my spouse's admissibility issues most effectively?
Are there particular hardship waiver approaches that have proven successful in similar entrepreneurial situations?
Could you advise on the comparative benefits of different visa pathways in our specific case?
Are there any specialized resources or professionals with expertise in cases combining entrepreneurship with complex inadmissibility issues?
Thats a good tip. I guess the question that brings up is solving the problem of discovering those communities that are still alive and thriving out there.
yea, AI Dungeon is OK but would love to see more here. Have some workarounds for memory if you are using langchain and happy to share. Feel free to shoot me a message on Discord geembop0x#9165
Most successful businesses in the U.S. are not technology companies at all, they just solve problems in creative ways. Look at someone like Wayne Huizenga who started AutoNation, Blockbuster, and Waste Management. That is like if Computer/Math prodigy Reed Hastings started a couple billion dollar companies in the Auto and Waste industry alongside Netflix.
The point being that great entrepreneurs can repeatedly find problems to solve and create value from.
For example, the author of this article was a successful entrepreneur in his own right. "Previously, the Chief Executive Officer of The Tie Bar - the #1 e-commerce destination for stylish men's accessories. Prior to The Tie Bar, Alter was a co-founder and President/CEO of SurePayroll, a SaaS technology company that is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Paychex®. Alter co-founded SurePayroll in 2000 after six years with McKinsey and Company, where he was a co-founder and leader of its Service Operations Practice."
The mention of Steve Blank's methodology is interesting. The best work I've seen done on this phenomena of customer-value-driven entrepreneurship is from https://www.effectuation.org/....basically that entrepreneurs start with what they have and the problems they know and go from there.
The counterargument is the Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerburg argument for having a concrete vision and stopping at nothing to achieve a goal. But let's not forget that Apple started selling the Apple I which was primarily for hobbyists, and the Apple II didn't blow up until spreadsheets came out. Zuck was about to dedicate as many resources to Wirehog as he was to Facebook in the early days. Not to mention YouTube started as a dating site and many more classic examples of entrepreneurs having to figure it out as they go along.
I wonder what Keith Rabois would have to say to this. He has an interesting perspective in that he thinks founders will their companies into existence with clear visions that are often unwavering, and doesn't believe in the "lean" approach to building companies. Interestingly enough, Khosla where Keith worked earlier is the namesake of Vinod Khosla who does like the Effectual model of entrepreneurship (which is basically "lean" customer development based entrepreneurship). Another interesting thing to note is that most academic research into the age-old management question of what makes a good entrepreneur has far more to do with an individual's unique approach and perspective in the world, than it has to do with technology. Very few researchers are looking into "technology driven entrepreneurship" as much as they are personality, disposition, persuasion techniques, idea generation techniques, macroeconomic factors. This might change, but if anything when researchers look at entrepreneurial skill, technology skills are not the main focus. Again, this may be changing.
Personally, I think the only type of entrepreneurship that makes sense is very bottoms up. Look at the U-Haul story. The founder of that company simply did things none of his competitors would do because they thought it too risky.
Isn't this the space that Plaid is taking the lead in? What other opportunities are there in the banking API system aside from what Plaid is doing/won't do in the near future?
Truepill is an API for pharmacies that is doing seriously well and is under-hyped. The API-ification of things is a serious boon for developers everywhere.
But financial services (payments) and travel are just two verticals. There are vertical software solutions in healthcare, other aspects of FinTech (lending/wealth management), retail that can probably be re-vamped.
The question is what other legacy providers other than Authorize.net/Sabre exist. Where do we find software solutions like this?
In a world where consumer spend is going to be shrinking amidst an upcoming downturn and consumer CAC going through the rough "vertical enterprise software" is going to be the next megatrend.
Sabre does 3.87B in revenue and Duffel is just re-inventing Sabre with a better suite of APIs. What other legacy enterprise, vertical software solutions exist that people could "Duffel?"
The glasses industry is so structurally bundled and unsound that a disruptor like Warby Parker was able to come in and build a billion dollar business in a matter of years.
Hearing aids are similar as mentioned on the thread.
Wondering what other industries have these structurally integrated industries where a disruptor could deliver a tremendous amount of value with insider Knowledge or reintegrating a supply chain. I believe an original Warby team member worked in the eyewear industry.
I have a feeling things like Car Dealerships are next. You fundamentally have to be able to drive massive value to consumers by making a one time purchase expneisve good cheaper with an innovative business model.
Also, a lot of students I know would be interested in learning more about bookandledger - do you have 40 minutes to give a talk about the new co. and your past experiences?