
Unshackled – Funding for immigrant founders with US work visas - ramanujam
http://www.unshackled.co
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kamaal
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.

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kartman
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 :).

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geniemano
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!

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maguirre
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.

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billconan
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?

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

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jmathai
Perhaps you haven't seen parallax websites.

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nhebb
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.

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jmathai
I find parallax scrolling to be ineffective. Call me old school but it takes a
well understood action (scrolling) and overloads it to perform animations.
Animations which often times do not add much value besides "flair". An
ineffective tradeoff in my opinion.

And yes, videos behind text is absurd :).

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paul9290
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?

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fiatmoney
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.

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

