Welcome to our VC Policy Pulse series, where we speak with a VC or founder on a policy issue that is having a major impact on the venture and startup ecosystem. Today, we’re speaking with Scott Raney, Managing Director at Redpoint, and Sophie Alcorn, Founding Attorney of Alcorn Immigration Law, about a Startup Visa category for immigrant entrepreneurs who want to come to the U.S. to create a new company. Read more
It only took four years, eight months, and ten days, but the International Entrepreneur Rule (IER) is now set to unleash new entrepreneurial energy in the United States. It is said that good things come to those who wait. But waiting is not enough in policy advocacy: IER is here today due to a sustained campaign of support from NVCA and others across the startup ecosystem. Read more
Welcome to our VC Policy Pulse series, where we speak with a VC or founder on a policy issue that is having a major impact on the venture and startup ecosystem. Today, we’re speaking with the founder of a VC-backed startup about the International Entrepreneur Rule. Yiannis Yiakoumis founded Selfie Networks in 2017 and since then has raised VC financing from Bowery Capital, Lightspeed, and individual investors. Yiakoumis is originally from Greece and has been able to stay in the U.S. to build and continue to grow his company here through the International Entrepreneur Rule. We spoke with him about his immigration journey, utilizing the International Entrepreneur Rule, and what the rule could do for other founders who want to found new companies in the United States. Read more
Policymakers are constantly looking for ways to boost economic growth. They tweak the tax code, write and rewrite regulations, and deploy a variety of other tools at their disposal. But one underutilized tool is immigration policy; specifically immigration policy that facilitates the creation of new companies, which research shows is the true growth engine of the economy. The best part is it won’t cost the federal government one red cent. Read more
NVCA has worked hard in 2017 to make the United States a friendlier place to immigrant entrepreneurs. The venture industry knows first-hand the many incredible contributions of foreign-born entrepreneurs, like how more than half of U.S. “unicorns” were started by immigrants, or that one-third of U.S. venture-backed companies that went public between 2006 and 2012 had at least one immigrant founder.
Our immigration advocacy takes on multiple forms. We continue to be the leading advocate on Capitol Hill for creation of a Startup Visa and have welcomed efforts by Senator Flake (R-AZ), as well as Senators Moran (R-KS) and Warner (D-VA), to do just that. Separately, we also lead the fight for the International Entrepreneur Rule, which would allow foreign-born founders to remain in the U.S. for up to five years to grow a startup. In July, the Trump Administration announced it would delay and move to end the rule. This unfortunate development followed months of intense advocacy by NVCA and our allies to maintain the rule so that foreign-born founders could start and scale their enterprises here in the U.S. Read more
American entrepreneurship and immigration are deeply intertwined, and our community is thankful for the many contributions that immigrant entrepreneurs have brought to our country. The stats are astounding: immigrants have started more than half of America’s “unicorns;” one-third of U.S. venture-backed companies that went public between 2006 and 2012 had at least one immigrant founder; and more than 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies have at least one founder who either immigrated to the U.S., or was the child of immigrants. Read more
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security was scheduled to begin receiving applications from foreign-born startup founders under the International Entrepreneur Rule. Unfortunately, the Trump Administration delayed the rule with an eye on eventually rescinding it, shutting down a commonsense policy tool that would have kept job-creators in the U.S. to build their companies here and hire American workers.
As a quick refresher, the International Entrepreneur Rule was put in place during the final days of the Obama Administration and would have created a regulatory structure similar to a Startup Visa, which NVCA has supported for over a decade. While the Startup Visa has been caught up in the broader immigration reform efforts that have stalled in Congress, the International Entrepreneur Rule had the potential to accomplish many of the same outcomes. Read more
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: an entrepreneur comes to the United States from her home country with dreams of growing an idea into a blockbuster company. The entrepreneur starts the company here because of our culture of innovation and risk-taking, coupled with robust financing options and the world’s best universities. Working shoulder-to-shoulder with a venture capitalist, the entrepreneur succeeds and creates an exceptional company that employs thousands of Americans, improves lives, and delivers technological or medical advancement.
Given the many benefits new companies bring the U.S., you would think our government would be clamoring to attract the world’s best entrepreneurs like policymakers have in Canada, France, and the U.K. Sadly, that’s not the case. Earlier today the Trump Administration announced it would do the exact opposite and delay International Entrepreneur Rule with an eye toward rescinding the rule in the next several months. That’s a missed opportunity and one that competitor countries are cheering today. Read more
Like you, we have had time to digest the executive order “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States” issued by President Trump last Friday. Under the order, the president indefinitely barred Syrian refugees from entering the U.S., implemented a hold on all refugee admission for 120 days and blocked entry of citizens from seven predominantly Muslim nations into the U.S. for 90 days.
The consequences of the late Friday order sent ripples across our country, leading to chaos and confusion at airports, surprising detentions, mass demonstrations, and global outrage. As the impact of the order became better understood, the criticism has only increased.
I am troubled about the uncertainty that President Trump’s executive order brings to the U.S. entrepreneurial ecosystem. America’s traditions of openness, collaboration and inclusion, have been critical elements to our success as a nation, and are particularly important to the health of entrepreneurship. When NVCA looks at changes to immigration policy, we must consider whether those changes would attract or repel the best and the brightest from around the world.
As the Obama Administration begins to sketch out the details of the President’s executive order on immigration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has requested that interested stakeholders submit their recommendations on how best to implement the president’s proposed reforms.
With immigration reform having long been a top priority of NVCA, we wasted no time in engaging our member firms and their portfolio companies to develop and submit our own recommendations on behalf of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Read more
