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I have read most it, so I hope I'm accurate as to its meaning. But Sergey Brin is an outlier, because as an immigrant he started a tech company. The only other example of this I can think of, is Max Levchin of Paypal, etc. I don't see a guy with a lemonade truck as being as profitable as Sergey.

Another point is, those lemonade trucks will be expenses, and most of the lemonade profits will go to those loan costs. Sergey started off with a low-spend company.




Jerry Yang, Ruppert Murdoch, Shai Agassi, Miguel de Icaza, Loic Lemur, ... Paul Graham. :-)

...and that's just off the top of my head.


Also just noticed that Trevor from YC is an immigrant (though, admittedly, from Canada) -- so 50% of the YC co-founders immigrated to the US.


They picked Brin because he is famous, but he's meant to represent all winning "players" (those who play in economic tournaments with winner-take-most outcomes), not just those who become billionaires.


I'm actually another example of an immigrant founding a tech company (though I've moved and traveled so much I have a hard time thinking of myself as an immigrant as opposed to a "world citizen"). I'm an immigrant to Canada, and eventually (and temporarily) an immigrant to the US. My non-immigrant partners decided to push me out and have since demonstrated their complete lack of creativity and drive. Though they're great at manipulation.


I'd argue that you have a leg up being an immigrant. When American tech workers think of "immigrant" it is very probable they interpret that as "some guy who is better than me, works longer hours, requires less pay, and has no capacity for laziness or stupidity thanks to his brainy robot genes, who is going to steal my job". Americans, on average, are honestly probably lazier, less educated, and demand higher pay than their foreign-born counterparts, but I am pulling that out of my ass so feel free to cry foul on me.


I've mostly lived a first world life, so I think I'm just as susceptible to laziness and complacency. I think I do have some slight advantage just because I've seen the world (and not just as a tourist - I've lived for extended periods of time in Europe, Asia and North America).


Andy Grove




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