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This teenager is hot property in Silicon Valley
- dutchbrit 14y agoWell done Lachy - you always keep surprising me! Sam
- bradfeld 14y agoYet another example why we need the Startup Visa.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- lachyg 14y agoI'd love to apply for the O-1, but I'm not sure I'm ready yet. No other visas are suitable.
- papercruncher 14y agoNo idea what parent poster said (comment deleted), but if you want to work in the US, you can still try for an H1B visa. Your work experience and achievements can be used to demonstrate specialization in the field and serve as the equivalent of a college Bachelors degree. The quota was exhausted for this year, but assuming you are Australian you can shoot for an E3.
- gmurphy 14y agoFWIW, H1Bs have run out until October 2013. Lachy is Australian though, and could almost qualify for the E3, which is a far better visa (I'm still on it seven years on) though it still needs employer sponsorship and some level of university education, which makes it less than suitable for his case. The dynamics of the H1B run-out will be interesting for Australian tech workers if it means US companies can only hire Canadians (TN) and Australians (E3) for the next 16 months.
- lawnchair_larry 14y agoThe substitute ratio for work experience to college years for H1-B is 3:1. It requires a 4 year degree, so you need 12 years to make the case for this. But, the reason we are reading about this is likely so he can use it on an O1 application. He's seeded a few of these same stories.
- mahyarm 14y agoIf you do move here, stay in San Francisco / Berkeley and not San Jose / Palo Alto. It's better for single people in the SF area vs the San Jose area, where engineers move to raise their families in suburbia. You also wont need a car in SF, which at your young age can help you avoid higher insurance rates or needing to get a licence. Car rental companies will charge you an extra $25/day for being under 25, but they'll be more willing to give you free car upgrades because of the $25/day charge.
- ThomPete 14y agoI am in NY on on O-1. Basically you will need to show that you are a celebrity (in the widest sense of the word) in your own country or internationally. They basically look at three things. 1. Significance You will need to get other (4-6) people in your industry to write a letter about you. 2. Fame You will need to show awards, books you were in, exibitions you did, magazine and articles about you and so on. 3. Critical Role You will need to get 4-6 clients to write about your critical role in helping their company go where they are. Pretty laborious, but the good thing is that you are not bound by some quota.
- MatCarpenter 14y agoGreat read, best of luck.
- DontBeTaken 14y agoAs a 17 year old, this makes me feel under accomplished. While I do have skills in regards to computery things, I'm hitting a block when it comes to developing backends to sites. I know HTML and CSS decently but programming languages that I'd need to learn just seem to bounce off. On the plus side, I'm good at other things too, like photography / producing electronic music (no Madeon though. He makes me feel under accomplished as well). And I know that I shouldn't be too hard on myself to be good at things - I'm only 17. But part of me wants to be known as someone who's really good at something at a younger than normal age. This person's story is really cool - it's too bad immigration has him caught up. Startup visas would be nifty. Could he go to college in the US? Even though he clearly doesn't need a college education (and questionably a bit of those who go to college, but that's another debate), it could serve as a sort of foot in the door for getting settled in America. I'm probably wrong about this but also curious as to what would make this not a viable option.
- sudonim 14y agoI'm 30. If I can give you advice to live by: don't measure yourself by others' accomplishments. If you focus on what other people have done, you'll end up chasing your tail trying to compete with an idealized notion of 20 different people. Blaze your own trail. Find the things you do well and double down on them. You'll get to where you want to be. It may not be by 18, so don't be impatient. Just keep doing the things that make you a better person and ideally happy and you'll care less about doing X by age Y.
- DontBeTaken 14y agoHm, that does make sense. I see what you're saying. Thanks for the advice. I think I'll try to blaze my own trail. Though it seems kind of hard. There's lots of external pressure. Mainly having to do with college. Then again, focusing on what other people have done is sort of a way of putting pressure on myself so steering clear of that will help. Being a teenager is weird.
- amcintyre 14y ago
- DarkStarX1 14y agoAwesome
- davidjohnstone 14y agoWould you consider staying in Australia? I suppose the startup scene here is nothing like it is in Silicon Valley/New York/etc., but it's not non-existent either.
- petitmiam 14y agoI was wondering this too. It's a shame to lose talent. "“Australia has nothing like San Francisco, and Silicon Valley. The tech culture there is insane. The demand for skilled workers is incredible. The creativity and innovation is incredible. It's infectious,” he says."
- 2muchcoffeeman 14y agoThe competition might also be more fierce in the US and you don't need to be there to be successful. Maybe the lack competition could work in your favour? Australia is also part of the Asia-Pacific region (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia-Pacific http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia-Pacific) which includes developing countries like China and India. It'll be good experience to go to the US, but don't discount your local region.
- lachyg 14y agoI feel at home here in San Francisco. There are a multitude of companies I'd love to work for.
- GuiA 14y agoInteresting that you would want to work for a company rather than start your own (optionally taking part in YC, etc.). What is your reasoning behind that?
- lachyg 14y agoCurrently I don't have an idea I'd REALLY love to work on. Something I'm passionate, knowledgeable and enthusiastic about. So until then, keep gaining skills. YC is definitely something I'd love to do.
- mehulkar 14y agoWhattaguy
- douglascalhoun 14y agoIndubitably!
- qeorge 14y agoWe sold Lachy the PSDtoWP.com domain a couple years back. Helluva negotiator, would never have guessed he was 15(?) at the time. :) Glad to see it worked out. Congrats!
- mparlane 14y agoCuriosity and bluntness makes me ask: how much for?
- raldi 14y agoWhat had you been using it for?
- reddit_clone 14y agoA PostScript to Word Perfect converter ?
- sidwyn 14y agoPhotoshop to Wordpress.
- klt39429 14y agoAnd with talented kids like him around, Obama decides to give work permit, financial aid, and legal status to illegal immigrants?
- chris_wot 14y agoAn incredibly flawed and ridiculous argument. Flaw 1: You imply that no illegal immigrants are talented, or contribute to U.S. society. Flaw 2: Your argument presupposes that providing legal status, financial aid and work permits to illegal immigrants will prevent talented people from wanting to work in the U.S. Flaw 3: Providing work permits, financial aid and legal status to illegal immigrants is done for many reasons, and your argument presupposes that it's a bad thing. You need to demonstrate that this is the case before your argument can have any weight.
- joshu 14y agodon't feed the trolls.
- chris_wot 14y agoDon't feed the trolls telling me not to feed the trolls. Got it.
- klt39429 14y agoQuoting chris_wot1: Flaw 1: I didn't say no illegal immigrants are talented. Let's say odds for an illegal immigrant to be talented is 50/50, while we know skilled workers like this kid is 100% talented (track record proven so far) -- so why makes it easy for the former group but not the latter? Flaw 2: If there are slots available, they should be allocated to talented individuals. Evidence has shown many entrepreneurs and college graduates (legitimately) have gone back to their countries because of inability to obtain visas here. Flaw 3: It's a bad thing. If you compare it to how tough it is for a legal, skilled worker to come here. Besides, I personally know countless people are planning to send their kids here illegally before 15 to benefit from this new regulation. But that's the whole new debate. My only point here is: Why not make it easier for talented individuals instead of illegal immigrants?
- javajosh 14y agoI've notice that these articles are good at generating one thing: envy. The problem with comparing oneself to the person portrayed in an essentially random article are many. But first and foremost is the utter lack of context: I'd argue that Lachy's peers at his high school would be better off comparing themselves to him. And even then I would hesitate, as luck really does count. The rest of us fall prey to a kind of assumption of universality: that his context is roughly the same as ours, and so the only difference are variables we can control. That's not true! The one quote that I really like in the article was from his "fan" headmaster, David Gee. "I think he’s a great example of someone who has followed his passion, hasn’t let age be a barrier and hasn’t said ‘well I can’t do this because I’m 17’" That's a fantastic sentiment, and I share it. The most tragic reason to fail is because of some delusional belief that failure is tied to some innate quality like age. Note that these two sentiments are not at odds! It's true that context can prevent your success, but we don't usually know which part of that context is to blame.
- joneil 14y agoI live in Perth where this guy is from, and Wesley is one of the most expensive and most highly regarded schools around. Given the sentiment of the headmaster, I'm not surprised it's doing so well... Seeing beyond "get my school's average up" and seeing genuine talent and potential, then fostering it - that's the sort of school I'd send my one-day kids to.
- lewi 14y agoI went to school with Lachy and it was really great to see the complete support of the head (Mr. Gee) behind his endeavours. Also this isn't a once off occasion that he has helped and supported students. My brother during his final year was heavily involved in Cycling at a national level. His commitment was at school was minimum, Gee saw this and helped the best he could. Plus he has an uncanny ability to greet every student by name. Great guy.
- niels_olson 14y agoMy kids have gone to more schools than I care to consider (I'm military): the headmaster's ability to remember kids' names is a minimum necessary sales tactic. Of, oh my, 10? headmasters, they all know my kids by name on an impromptu basis. I wouldn't make too much out of it.
- nchuhoai 14y agoRe: Visas for non-degree holders I'd love to connect with people like lachyg or others who are related to the struggle of finding ways to pursue their dreams in the US without having a college degree. Im currently enrolled an in US institution and working on CPT, but there is nothing I'd love to do more than quit school in the fall to work full-time, however as the article notes, any ordinary visa does not apply to non-degree holders. After consultation with our lawyers, a marriage or mentioned O1 visa are the only option. I know several people in a similar situation who went through the O1 route, however they all say its a ridiculously hard process and requires extensive documentation of the "national and international acclaim". Admittance to YC/TS helps a lot (which we are trying right now)
- nchuhoai 14y agoI don't understand why someone would downvote me. I'm just trying to follow my dreams and passion
- patrickod 14y agoO1s are not impossible but you're right; they require a lot of time and are certainly not trivial to acquire. You'll spend a lot of time documenting things in preparation for your petition.
- kamakazizuru 14y agoyet another loss for the US due to the lack of a startup visa. I'd be curious to see as study that looked at all the startups that tried to make it to the US but failed and ended up being succesful somewhere else - as a result of which the US missed out on the revenues they would've generated. (I know this guy isn't trying to move a startup there - but so far he seems like a pretty strong candidate for being someone to start a potentially succesful one - reminds be a bit of the stripe guys actually!)
- dools 14y agoMy grandfather taught me HTML Whoa O_o
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y agoHe's lucky, I learnt it from a brief section in the 2003 edition of A Rough Guide to the Internet. And then spent years thinking CSS was a proprietary, evil, non-standard Microsoft technology, for some reason.
- sean12345 14y agoIf he has enough cash he could apply for EB-5 visa. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EB-5_visa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EB-5_visa
- zacharyvoase 14y agoI can sympathise with the visa situation. I'm 19 and don't have a degree, and I've been in exactly the same situation—you go through the whole interview process and then suddenly the company's lawyers tell them there's no way you can get a visa, and weeks of time have been wasted for both parties. It would be funny if it weren't so tragic. To be honest, I wouldn't mind living on a boat for a while: http://www.blueseed.co/ http://www.blueseed.co/
- frontier 14y agoI want to know how he was able to so easily become an affiliate on Amazon...? (As a fellow Australian) I tried a few years ago and Amazon wouldn't even allow me to purchase advertising (let alone join the affiliate program or sell) without having US tax numbers, bank accounts, etc.. I have an Australian pty ltd company and had to go through a third parties to get my products listed on there.
- NickRenold 14y agoHe wasn't selling products on amazon, just linking to products that were already for sale and getting paid by Amazon for the traffic. See "product links" on this page: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join/landing/tools.html https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join/land...
- frontier 14y agoYes.. this is an Amazon affiliate program, you will require a US credit card, US bank account and US postal address to join this program. ie. for when they pay you your commissions it needs to be reported. If you are not from the US, these things are not easy to obtain. And last I checked they wouldn't even allow me to buy Amazon PPC advertising without these things either!
- kika 14y agoUsually debit card goes everywhere where credit one is needed. Debit card, US bank acct and a US postal address are easily obtainable for approximately $800-1500 one time payment (couch class ticket to US and tourist visa fee). I walked into the bank (R.I.P Washington Mutual) on Castro st. in MV, CA and left it half an hour later with the bank account. The debit card followed in the mail a week later. I had a address of my friend, but I could have used a PO box. Now you can buy US postal address online and have all spa^H^H^H mail forwarded to your email address scanned. I then repeated this process in 2008 to incorporate, opened the business account and raised money (and put them on the account). Now I'm living in the US, on a work visa, having no degree. Guys, US is a fantastic country for anyone who actually _wants_ something. Put some creativity here and there and it works flawlessly. I laugh when I talk to US citizens (or read them online) who go on endless whining on how police state this country has become, how much burden you have to put up with to open the business, how the school system is in the toilet, etc, etc. They just don't know what they're talking about. Any US system could be ridiculed and laughed upon, and sometimes it deserves it. But it's fucking efficient. Go open the debit card, bank account, business, whatever in, lets say France (I love this country, I've been there like 30 times and it's never enough). If you succeed you can come back to the US and apply for National Interest Waiver for being a person with extraordinary abilities in science AND arts AND business. Haha.
- dakimov 14y agohttp://youtu.be/f3XeRCAAkZY http://youtu.be/f3XeRCAAkZY
- davemel37 14y agothe unknown quote at the end is a famous quote that Dave Ramsey uses regarding being frugal and smart with money... Live like no one else, so you can LIVE like no one else.
- dutchbrit 14y agoWell done Lachy!
- dakimov 14y agoGood luck, Lachy! You're a great guy at your 17, and I'm just an incapable trashbag at my 28 being a skilled experienced software engineer, but haven't done a single startup yet because I cannot figure out how to come up with an idea. You're so much better than me, but I'm not jealous, just keep it up, and you'll become a new Zuckerberg in a few years.
- dsolomon 14y agoWhy would he take a cut in pay and move here?
- talmand 14y agoAre there any other details available on this young man's actual tech-related talents? The article only really presents him as good at coming up with business ideas and successfully executing them. Why is he a hot property for the tech industry exactly? The only tech skills I see mentioned are HTML and CSS. It would seem to me several different industries might be interested in chatting with him since he appears to be an idea guy worth pursuing. Is there no tech industry in Australia to court him or that he's interested in? Why does he have to get a visa to move to the US, if the big companies want him why not let him work from Australia? I guess maybe he sees value for him to move there, I get that though. I'm not discounting his abilities since starting several profitable companies to be sold later is rather impressive, regardless of his age. I'm just interested in what skill sets he has that the tech industry appears to desire so much. Is it because he's a self-starter that gets things done or some other reason the article doesn't state?
- no_more_death 14y agoPopular articles only mention technologies that are buzz-word friendly.
- ccontrast 14y agoClassic Lachy.