3 ms·

Ask HN: European founders in YC?

28 points by knarf 18y ago

I know I've read about some founders from outside US and what they had to do to get working permissions, but I can't find the link. Anybody got that link or some other advice?

wheels 18y ago
The two that come to mind of the top of my head are Songkick and Clickpass, both from the UK. Here was a previous discussion on the topic: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=158969 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=158969 searchyc.com is your friend.
- knarf 18y ago
  Yes it is. Thanks for the quick reply and the hint.
spif 18y ago
Just to clarify you are asking about founders from outside the US moving to the US and getting work permits. Not the otherway round, right? If it's the other way (in Holland at least) it will be easiest if one of the founders/employees can be recognized as an knowledge migrant.
- knarf 18y ago
  The first.
hooande 18y ago
YC has a lot of founders from outside of the US. There were four teams from outside of the US in our YC class, two from Canada, one from the UK and one team from Austria. I can think of at least four other teams from abroad from previous classes. In fact there is a kind of UK YC inside YC. The UK guys really stick together and help each other out. If you can get a hold of any of them I'm sure they'll point you in the right direction. Papers and immigration are always a difficult issue. In most cases you can get a work visa or whatever visa lets you attend conferences in the US and it will be enough for the 3 month YC session.
- knarf 18y ago
  It's Germany in my case. Can you point out the Austrian guys?
  - knarf 18y ago
    I should probably add that in my case all founders would be from outside US! So the problem is not only in getting visas for some of the founders but also incorporating in the US as I figure PG has no interest in 6% of a germany based company. The link I remember contained descriptions of both (visas and incorporating at the same time).
    - wheels 18y ago
      If you incorporate in the US you'll also need an EU based organization for legal purposes (since you'll have a "Betriebsstätte" in Germany) that can be a subsidiary of a Deleware C-Corp. That's why we decided to incorporate in UK since a Ltd. is a valid legal form EU-wide and leaves all of the incorporation documents in English, which is easier for investors to deal with.
  - hooande 18y ago
    I intentionally didn't name any names, sorry. A lot of startups haven't launched yet and I don't want to out anyone who is in stealth mode.
    - knarf 18y ago
      Thought so. But had to try ;) Thanks though. Founders from austria sounds really intersting. Maybe they will read this and can contact me..
      - davidw 18y ago
        Living in Austria (Innsbruck) myself, I'd be curious to hear about it as well. I miss being able to talk tech with real live people every now and then.
deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
babul 18y ago
I am sure there are a few UK YC startups. Below is what I can recall off the top of my head. The blogs in particular may hold useful info for you regarding getting visas and working in the U.S. plus the journey in startup as a whole - I particularly like http://www.kulveer.co.uk http://www.kulveer.co.uk and http://blog.harjtaggar.com http://blog.harjtaggar.com who are the http://www.auctomatic.com http://www.auctomatic.com guys as they give a good level of detail throughout their journey. However, http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/02/coming-to-america-getting-visas-to-do-business-in-silicon-valley/#more-17036 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/02/coming-to-america-getti... (or http://is.gd/1Vrf http://is.gd/1Vrf in short) by Peter from ClickPass could be what you were referring to and probably holds most of the answers you want in the most succinct form. Anyway, I'm sure if you contact them they may be answer specific visa questions from their experience. Hope this helps. --- http://www.auctomatic.com http://auctomatic.com/about http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kul http://www.kulveer.co.uk http://twitter.com/kul http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=harj http://blog.harjtaggar.com http://twitter.com/harjeet http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=pc http://www.collison.ie/ http://twitter.com/patrickc [John Collison] http://twitter.com/collision http://snaptalent.com http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=sharpshoot http://sharpshoot.blogspot.com/ http://twitter.com/sharpshoot http://www.songkick.com/ http://www.songkick.com/team http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ian http://twitter.com/soundboy http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=petesmithy http://twitter.com/petesmithy http://www.clickpass.com/ http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=immad http://www.immadsnewworld.com/ http://twitter.com/immad http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=petenixey http://www.webkitchen.co.uk/ http://twitter.com/petenixey http://webmynd.com/ http://webmynd.wordpress.com http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=amirnathoo http://twitter.com/amirnathoo http://www.scoopler.com http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ajmalasver http://blog.projectbluespark.com/ http://twitter.com/_aj http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dilanj http://meonearth.blogspot.com/ http://twitter.com/_dilan
- knarf 18y ago
  Awesome! Yes it seems that was the link I was referring to. Thanks a lot for all that stuff.
- ian 18y ago

28 points by knarf 18y ago

I know I've read about some founders from outside US and what they had to do to get working permissions, but I can't find the link. Anybody got that link or some other advice?

wheels 18y ago

The two that come to mind of the top of my head are Songkick and Clickpass, both from the UK. Here was a previous discussion on the topic: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=158969 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=158969 searchyc.com is your friend.

knarf 18y ago
Yes it is. Thanks for the quick reply and the hint.

spif 18y ago

Just to clarify you are asking about founders from outside the US moving to the US and getting work permits. Not the otherway round, right? If it's the other way (in Holland at least) it will be easiest if one of the founders/employees can be recognized as an knowledge migrant.

knarf 18y ago
The first.

hooande 18y ago

YC has a lot of founders from outside of the US. There were four teams from outside of the US in our YC class, two from Canada, one from the UK and one team from Austria. I can think of at least four other teams from abroad from previous classes. In fact there is a kind of UK YC inside YC. The UK guys really stick together and help each other out. If you can get a hold of any of them I'm sure they'll point you in the right direction. Papers and immigration are always a difficult issue. In most cases you can get a work visa or whatever visa lets you attend conferences in the US and it will be enough for the 3 month YC session.

knarf 18y ago
It's Germany in my case. Can you point out the Austrian guys?
- knarf 18y ago
  I should probably add that in my case all founders would be from outside US! So the problem is not only in getting visas for some of the founders but also incorporating in the US as I figure PG has no interest in 6% of a germany based company. The link I remember contained descriptions of both (visas and incorporating at the same time).
  - wheels 18y ago
    If you incorporate in the US you'll also need an EU based organization for legal purposes (since you'll have a "Betriebsstätte" in Germany) that can be a subsidiary of a Deleware C-Corp. That's why we decided to incorporate in UK since a Ltd. is a valid legal form EU-wide and leaves all of the incorporation documents in English, which is easier for investors to deal with.
- hooande 18y ago
  I intentionally didn't name any names, sorry. A lot of startups haven't launched yet and I don't want to out anyone who is in stealth mode.
  - knarf 18y ago
    Thought so. But had to try ;) Thanks though. Founders from austria sounds really intersting. Maybe they will read this and can contact me..
    - davidw 18y ago
      Living in Austria (Innsbruck) myself, I'd be curious to hear about it as well. I miss being able to talk tech with real live people every now and then.

deleted 18y ago

[deleted]

babul 18y ago

I am sure there are a few UK YC startups. Below is what I can recall off the top of my head. The blogs in particular may hold useful info for you regarding getting visas and working in the U.S. plus the journey in startup as a whole - I particularly like http://www.kulveer.co.uk http://www.kulveer.co.uk and http://blog.harjtaggar.com http://blog.harjtaggar.com who are the http://www.auctomatic.com http://www.auctomatic.com guys as they give a good level of detail throughout their journey. However, http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/02/coming-to-america-getting-visas-to-do-business-in-silicon-valley/#more-17036 http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/02/coming-to-america-getti... (or http://is.gd/1Vrf http://is.gd/1Vrf in short) by Peter from ClickPass could be what you were referring to and probably holds most of the answers you want in the most succinct form. Anyway, I'm sure if you contact them they may be answer specific visa questions from their experience. Hope this helps. --- http://www.auctomatic.com http://auctomatic.com/about http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kul http://www.kulveer.co.uk http://twitter.com/kul http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=harj http://blog.harjtaggar.com http://twitter.com/harjeet http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=pc http://www.collison.ie/ http://twitter.com/patrickc [John Collison] http://twitter.com/collision http://snaptalent.com http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=sharpshoot http://sharpshoot.blogspot.com/ http://twitter.com/sharpshoot http://www.songkick.com/ http://www.songkick.com/team http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ian http://twitter.com/soundboy http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=petesmithy http://twitter.com/petesmithy http://www.clickpass.com/ http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=immad http://www.immadsnewworld.com/ http://twitter.com/immad http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=petenixey http://www.webkitchen.co.uk/ http://twitter.com/petenixey http://webmynd.com/ http://webmynd.wordpress.com http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=amirnathoo http://twitter.com/amirnathoo http://www.scoopler.com http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ajmalasver http://blog.projectbluespark.com/ http://twitter.com/_aj http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dilanj http://meonearth.blogspot.com/ http://twitter.com/_dilan

knarf 18y ago
Awesome! Yes it seems that was the link I was referring to. Thanks a lot for all that stuff.
ian 18y ago