Attracting the World’s Best Entrepreneurs to Build America’s Next Great Companies 

America has long been the world’s leading destination for entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors. Many of today’s most successful venture-backed companies were founded or co-founded by immigrants who came to the United States to study, work, and build transformative businesses. 

Yet while other countries actively compete for entrepreneurial talent through dedicated startup visa programs, the United States still lacks a reliable immigration pathway for founders. Modernizing our immigration system will help ensure the next generation of breakthrough companies—and the jobs, technologies, and economic growth they create—are built in America. 

Startup Spotlight: Stripe was co-founded by Irish entrepreneurs Patrick and John Collison, who came to the United States to build what has become one of the world’s most valuable financial technology companies. 

Stripe illustrates how immigrant entrepreneurs create companies that generate jobs, attract investment, and strengthen America’s position as the global leader in innovation. 

Startup Spotlight: Scale AI was co-founded by Alexandr Wang and Lucy Guo, the daughter of Chinese immigrants. The company has become a critical provider of data infrastructure powering artificial intelligence systems used by both commercial enterprises and the U.S. government. 

Scale AI highlights how America’s innovation ecosystem enables entrepreneurial talent from immigrant families to build companies at the forefront of AI and national security.

By The Numbers:  

• More than 55% of America’s unicorn startups were founded or co-founded by immigrants.  

• Nearly two-thirds of the top AI companies in the United States have at least one immigrant founder.  

• Immigrant-founded venture-backed companies have created millions of American jobs while driving innovation across industries including AI, biotechnology, cybersecurity, fintech, and advanced manufacturing.  

Policy Priorities:  

Create a Startup Visa: The United States remains one of the only major innovation economies without a dedicated visa for entrepreneurs. As a result, many talented founders who want to build companies—and create jobs—in America face an immigration system that was never designed for startups. 

NVCA supports creating a Startup Visa that provides a clear, reliable pathway for entrepreneurs backed by qualified U.S. investors to launch and scale companies here. A Startup Visa would help keep groundbreaking ideas, investment, and job creation in the United States while strengthening America’s position as the world’s leading destination for innovation. 

Modernize High-Skilled Immigration: America’s innovation economy depends on attracting exceptional scientists, engineers, researchers, and entrepreneurs from around the world. NVCA supports reforms that improve pathways for highly skilled talent to live, work, and launch companies in the United States. 

Retain American-Educated Entrepreneurs: Every year, American universities educate some of the world’s brightest innovators, only to force many to leave after graduation. NVCA supports policies that enable graduates with advanced STEM degrees to remain in the United States and commercialize the technologies they helped develop. 

Meet The Policy Expert

Christina Martin
Chief Operating Officer