

Ask HN: European founders in YC? - knarf

I know I've read about some founders from outside US and what they had to do to get working permissions, but I can't find the link. Anybody got  that link or some other advice?
======
hooande
YC has a lot of founders from outside of the US. There were four teams from
outside of the US in our YC class, two from Canada, one from the UK and one
team from Austria. I can think of at least four other teams from abroad from
previous classes.

In fact there is a kind of UK YC inside YC. The UK guys really stick together
and help each other out. If you can get a hold of any of them I'm sure they'll
point you in the right direction.

Papers and immigration are always a difficult issue. In most cases you can get
a work visa or whatever visa lets you attend conferences in the US and it will
be enough for the 3 month YC session.

~~~
knarf
It's Germany in my case. Can you point out the Austrian guys?

~~~
knarf
I should probably add that in my case all founders would be from outside US!
So the problem is not only in getting visas for some of the founders but also
incorporating in the US as I figure PG has no interest in 6% of a germany
based company. The link I remember contained descriptions of both (visas and
incorporating at the same time).

~~~
wheels
If you incorporate in the US you'll also need an EU based organization for
legal purposes (since you'll have a "Betriebsstätte" in Germany) that can be a
subsidiary of a Deleware C-Corp. That's why we decided to incorporate in UK
since a Ltd. is a valid legal form EU-wide and leaves all of the incorporation
documents in English, which is easier for investors to deal with.

------
wheels
The two that come to mind of the top of my head are Songkick and Clickpass,
both from the UK.

Here was a previous discussion on the topic:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=158969>

searchyc.com is your friend.

~~~
knarf
Yes it is. Thanks for the quick reply and the hint.

------
spif
Just to clarify you are asking about founders from outside the US moving to
the US and getting work permits. Not the otherway round, right?

If it's the other way (in Holland at least) it will be easiest if one of the
founders/employees can be recognized as an knowledge migrant.

~~~
knarf
The first.

------
babul
I am sure there are a few UK YC startups. Below is what I can recall off the
top of my head.

The blogs in particular may hold useful info for you regarding getting visas
and working in the U.S. plus the journey in startup as a whole - I
particularly like <http://www.kulveer.co.uk> and <http://blog.harjtaggar.com>
who are the <http://www.auctomatic.com> guys as they give a good level of
detail throughout their journey.

However, [http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/02/coming-to-america-
getti...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/02/coming-to-america-getting-
visas-to-do-business-in-silicon-valley/#more-17036) (or <http://is.gd/1Vrf> in
short) by Peter from ClickPass could be what you were referring to and
probably holds most of the answers you want in the most succinct form.

Anyway, I'm sure if you contact them they may be answer specific visa
questions from their experience. Hope this helps.

\---

    
    
      http://www.auctomatic.com
      http://auctomatic.com/about
      http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kul
      http://www.kulveer.co.uk
      http://twitter.com/kul
      http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=harj
      http://blog.harjtaggar.com
      http://twitter.com/harjeet
      http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=pc
      http://www.collison.ie/
      http://twitter.com/patrickc
      [John Collison]
      http://twitter.com/collision
      
      http://snaptalent.com
      http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=sharpshoot
      http://sharpshoot.blogspot.com/
      http://twitter.com/sharpshoot
      
      http://www.songkick.com/
      http://www.songkick.com/team
      http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ian
      http://twitter.com/soundboy
      http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=petesmithy
      http://twitter.com/petesmithy
      
      http://www.clickpass.com/
      http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=immad
      http://www.immadsnewworld.com/
      http://twitter.com/immad
      http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=petenixey
      http://www.webkitchen.co.uk/
      http://twitter.com/petenixey
      
      http://webmynd.com/
      http://webmynd.wordpress.com
      http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=amirnathoo
      http://twitter.com/amirnathoo
      
      http://www.scoopler.com
      http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ajmalasver 
      http://blog.projectbluespark.com/
      http://twitter.com/_aj
      http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dilanj
      http://meonearth.blogspot.com/
      http://twitter.com/_dilan

~~~
ian
nice work Babul. Peter (Nixey) and Harj are the masters of US Visa stuff. Let
us (Songkick) know if you've got any questions about applying to YC from the
UK. Happy to chat on Skype. You can also grab me at one of our Hacker Meetups
if in London at any point.

~~~
babul
Thanks Ian. (bit busy next week so may not see you).

In case anyone wants to attend and does not know where/when it is, hope this
helps...

    
    
      Hacker Meetups London
      04 September 2008
      Flat 1,
      103 Commercial Street,
      London
      E1 6BG
      (Five minutes walk from Liverpool St tube)
      (Google map: http://is.gd/4zZ)

