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Ask HN: Entrepreneurship for Non-US Citizens

3 points by tejaswiy ↗ HN
A bit of background. I'm an Indian citizen on a H-1, just finished my Masters and I'm working on my first fulltime job.

I've realized simply remaining as a programmer for the rest of my life is simply not going to cut it and I was looking at starting something on my own. But so far, everything I looked at is disheartening. Let me briefly state my concerns -

It's impossible to get into incubator programs like YC/TechStars.

As far as I understand, I don't think I even should build anything and raise money from investors when on H-1 working in a US company. (Including something as trivial as an iPhone app)

To top this off, you're not even supposed to be "developing" your own business part-time if someone with a green card _did_ start the business for you and you're a partner / investor in it.

And yet the apparent contradiction is there are a few indian entrepreneurs floating around in the valley, with H1s, so I'm not really sure what in the world is going on here.

Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks, Teja.

PS: I know there's the Startup Visa movement, but I somehow feel it'll take a while before something materializes.

2 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 18.9 ms ] thread
lzw
Your business is not necessarily where you are. A business is a legal separate entity. You can have a business in, say, india that makes iPhone apps and is registered in India and banks in India and as far as apple or anyone is concerned it is an indian company.

I would recommend focusing on the business idea, refining it and getting it going rather than looking for investment or finding an incubator, etc. Being on an H1 visa with a day job is similar to any American with a day job. You have to be careful to balance your time.

There lots of advice about how you should do a startup, and a lot of it is valid. But every startup is different and none of that advice is as important as the simple act of starting up. Worry about what you can do and don't worry about the things that are beyond your control. Where you were born is beyond your control and beyond your ability to change.