- but with strong guarantees of equity (ownership or something like it)
US immigration law is designed to stop all of this. Because for most other cases, that would mask shenanigans like a foreign worker undercutting a US competitor, or even a foreign worker being exploited.
Bottom line, you may be able to hack this, but in doing so you will probably give someone else a lot of power over you. Even if you succeed, someone else may have the ability to extract a lot of that wealth you worked for.
I happen to be Canadian, so living in my own country is not such a hardship and I still have access to US investors.
This might be a thread derail, but how many people here would consider residing in Canada as an alternative? The country is much more friendly to immigration, and if you live in Vancouver, you're just a few hours from SFO or Seattle by air. Some Silicon Valley companies are starting up divisions in Vancouver for that reason. But maybe there could be a "Vancouver hacker house" doing the same thing for foreign entrepreneurs and startups.
I'm a Canadian in the US. I'm exploring moving back to Canada . Specifically, I'm looking at the Toronto area. I'm not impressed by all the process around incubators and raising small amounts of funds. It is a bit discouraging.
1) The govt seems to be putting money into encouraging startups, which is great. The way they are doing it seems to be broken. The programs all require gatekeepers with silly processes (e.g. applying months before, talking about IP protection from the get go[this makes me think lawyers run the show]).
2) The govt programs mostly have lots of strings attached to how you can use the money.
3) Some accelerators charge people for "program delivery". WTF!
4) I make over 6 figures in the US. Toronto jobs seem to be paying around half my salary (60-70K). So if I screw up, I don't want my fallback option to be move back to the states.
Here's an idea: any student who finishes a PhD or Masters from a Canadian school .. invest 30-50K in their company. Ask them for matching funds. Stipulate you can only use the funds for hiring employees.
Anyways ... sorry for the random rant. I'm just really frustrated. I guess this is good training for when I'm in the trough of sorrow :-p
It amazes me how much time startups in Canada devote to getting grants. But, when you lack private investors like SV, and the government is a willing partner (with lots of strings attached), this is what happens.
Comments
This is what most hackers want:
- residence in the USA;
- working for a small salary to cover expenses,
- but with strong guarantees of equity (ownership or something like it)
US immigration law is designed to stop all of this. Because for most other cases, that would mask shenanigans like a foreign worker undercutting a US competitor, or even a foreign worker being exploited.
Bottom line, you may be able to hack this, but in doing so you will probably give someone else a lot of power over you. Even if you succeed, someone else may have the ability to extract a lot of that wealth you worked for.
I happen to be Canadian, so living in my own country is not such a hardship and I still have access to US investors.
This might be a thread derail, but how many people here would consider residing in Canada as an alternative? The country is much more friendly to immigration, and if you live in Vancouver, you're just a few hours from SFO or Seattle by air. Some Silicon Valley companies are starting up divisions in Vancouver for that reason. But maybe there could be a "Vancouver hacker house" doing the same thing for foreign entrepreneurs and startups.
I'm a Canadian in the US. I'm exploring moving back to Canada . Specifically, I'm looking at the Toronto area. I'm not impressed by all the process around incubators and raising small amounts of funds. It is a bit discouraging.
1) The govt seems to be putting money into encouraging startups, which is great. The way they are doing it seems to be broken. The programs all require gatekeepers with silly processes (e.g. applying months before, talking about IP protection from the get go[this makes me think lawyers run the show]).
2) The govt programs mostly have lots of strings attached to how you can use the money.
3) Some accelerators charge people for "program delivery". WTF!
4) I make over 6 figures in the US. Toronto jobs seem to be paying around half my salary (60-70K). So if I screw up, I don't want my fallback option to be move back to the states.
Here's an idea: any student who finishes a PhD or Masters from a Canadian school .. invest 30-50K in their company. Ask them for matching funds. Stipulate you can only use the funds for hiring employees.
Anyways ... sorry for the random rant. I'm just really frustrated. I guess this is good training for when I'm in the trough of sorrow :-p
No, I agree with you quite a lot.
It amazes me how much time startups in Canada devote to getting grants. But, when you lack private investors like SV, and the government is a willing partner (with lots of strings attached), this is what happens.