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I think that their claim that the country is losing more and more talent is realistic. I am one those who weighted going to this country to establish my company
by r2dnb 10y ago
I think that their claim that the country is losing more and more talent is realistic. I am one those who weighted going to this country to establish my company, but after a failure to find an acceptable immigration option, I went to the UK instead.
I think that what's lacking in the american system is the recognition of "normal" entrepreneurs, those making $200 dollars at a time, and growing their high-potential tech-product business from $0 to $1M in 5 years. In the UK, and in most places in Europe, an immigrant can take a job, change job, build a business on the side, and then manage the business full-time. In the american system, this is not possible :
- If you come as a worker you are stuck in the H1B system where changing employer is a pain, starting a company requires sophisticated immigration layers, and the path to the green card often takes one decade or more - which entrepreneur with a burning idea in his mind would accept that ?
- Otherwise, coming as an entrepreneur directly, requires $$$ which young people with creativity and energy simply do not have yet.
The american system works fine as soon as you are backed by venture capital but is at present time not very welcoming for creative and talented people without deep pockets. This lack of exhaustivity is the issue. As far as I am concerned, I've been successful in the UK and am setting up an operation in the US now that I have the dollars. However I have decided to keep my headquarters and the bulk of my operations in the UK. Therefore I totally understand the feelings of the people quoted in the article who applied for a US visa a few years ago and are today saying "Why would I even go there ?"
The US should really not underestimate the long-term destructive potential of this phenomenon.
This situation is a dramatic departure from the original immigration spirit of the US which used to welcome creative immigrants with $0 in their pockets dreaming of success. These people were largely influential in building the wealthy nation we know today but the country seems to be kind of losing what made them great in the first place. Perhaps this is the time to Make America Great Again.
(Sorry, too tempting)
- refriedbeans3 10y agoI don't disagree with many of your points, but I think perhaps what is missing is perspective. Playing a bit of devil's advocate: > I think that what's lacking in the american system is the recognition of "normal" entrepreneurs, those making $200 dollars at a time, and growing their high-potential tech-product business from $0 to $1M in 5 years This doesn't move the needle in the biggest economy in the world. That's not even a viable business in most cities with high cost of living. At that rate you probably wouldn't even be able to pay yourself a decent wage, let alone hire anyone, within the first 2-3 years. Why would the United States want to let you in where there are more promising businesses/entrepreneurs on the path to $100m/year companies within 5 years?
- rpedela 10y ago1. How do you know if an entrepreneur is on the path to a 100m business prior to reaching product/market fit? 2. Why do only >100m businesses move the needle? Do 10,000 1m businesses not move the needle?
- yclept 10y agoTo give some idea of how small a 1M company is, a non-chain Mexican restaurant in the suburbs of Virginia was making 3M / year.
- CarVac 10y agoOn the other hand, it matters how many people are involved in the operation. A small two or three-person tech startup making a million dollars is different from a restaurant with thirty (? estimate) employees making a million dollars.
- rpeden 10y agoIt's usually not easy to compare across industries, though. A software company with $1M revenue could easily end up with higher net profit than a restaurant with $3M revenue.
- jakozaur 10y agoThere were niche startup doing niche programming language (BASIC) with less revenue that ended up being Microsoft.
- sidlls 10y agoIs that an accurate comparison? Gates was born into weatlh and a pre-existing social network. His company's success has a foundation of winning the genetic lottery.
- rpedela 10y agoThere are millions of people who are equally as lucky as Bill Gates in terms of family economic and social status. Luck plays a role but it is not the defining factor.
- tdfx 10y ago> This situation is a dramatic departure from the original immigration spirit of the US which used to welcome creative immigrants with $0 in their pockets dreaming of success. I'm not sure this was ever true. A blunt review of historical American attitudes towards immigrants shows they were typically despised and discouraged, and only allowed here at all for the purpose of being exploited as cheap labor for industrial projects.
- adrianratnapala 10y agoDespised and discouraged is one thing, actually kept out is another. And if there is any take-away point to distill from your post, it seems to be that even the cheap-labour kind of immigration works out well.
- sotojuan 10y agoPretty sure a hundred or so years ago laws were passed that literally stopped immigration from different countries (China, Italy, Eastern European countries). So that's happened before.
- phil21 10y ago> it seems to be that even the cheap-labour kind of immigration works out well. At least when you have unlimited undeveloped land, and thus a nearly unlimited need for workers to develop it. Developed countries? I'm not convinced.
- tnecniv 10y agoIt's been a while since I studied the topic, so there may be some holes, but my recollection is that this is not quite true. In the 1800s, laws were passed that produced immigration quotas, where each country was assigned a number of immigrants permitted as a percentage of national origins of current Americans as indicated by the census. This law permitted plenty of immigrants from "favorable" countries like England and France, but few from countries like Italy, Ireland, or China. At the same time, the US saw very few people attempting to immigrate from England and France but large amounts coming from Italy, Ireland, and China. For those immigrants who got in, the attitude towards them is well documented...