Starting-Up in America

Starting-Up in America is a documentary film about the issues faced by international Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs with US Immigration.

Starting-Up in America

"Research shows that venture capital backed companies

are about 150 times as likely as the average start-up to create jobs."

— Scott Shane, Case Western Reserve University

"When it comes to U.S. job growth, startup companies arent't everything.

They're the only thing. New firms add an average of 3 million jobs

in their first year, while older companies lose 1 million jobs annually."

— Kauffman Foundation

"Despite the fact that they constitute only 12% of the U.S. population,

immigrants have started 52% of Silicon Valley's technology companies

and contributed to more than 25% of our global patents."

— Vivek Wadhwa, Harvard

The Start-Up Visa act was introduced as a bill in Congress on

February 14th, 2010 by John Kerry (D-MA) & Richard Lugar (R-IN)

It gained overwhelming support from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs

and venture capitalists

It was allowed to expire at the end of the last congress in December 2010.

San Francisco, January 2011

My name is Tarik Ansari,

after graduating in my home country, France,

I came to Silicon Valley

to work on cutting-edge web technology.

As an entrepreneur starting a company in the US,

your range of visa options is limited, if existent at all.

You have to fit somewhere within the mold to get a visa.

If you happen to be young

and to be in the technology sector,

most likely you don't fit anywhere.

While I am building a start-up here in San Francisco,

I have had a lot of stress myself,

dealing with US immigration.

There needs to be a visa that takes into account

the talent and potential of entrepreneurs.

It's an issue that affects a lot of entrepreneurs,

but also jobs, investments

and economic development at large.

I decided to reach to some fellow entrepreneurs

to speak out about the issue.

I am Augusto Marietti, I am 22

I graduated last year in economics

from the University of Milan

I am Ben Way, I am 30 years old,

and I am one of the Rainmakers,

one of the world's leading innovation corporate venture companies

I am Brian, from Canada, from Vancouver

I started a company called Kiip

a few months back,

we are a mobile in-game advertising platform

Hey, I am Yu-Kai Chou, I am the founder of Viralogy and RewardMe

and I have actually been in the states for a very long time

I was here since middle-school

because my father is a diplomat.

My name is Ronald Mannak, I am from Holland orginally

and I moved here to the US in July

Hi, I am Carlo, I am from Italy

and I own my company in Italy, we started in 2000

and now, we produce a software, a software for entreprises

Hi, I am Vinny Lingham, I am the founder and CEO

of Yola.com

I am from South Africa, I was born and raised there

and I am started my first company in 2003

So basically, MaShape, it's the first ever API Market Place

API is an Application Programming Interface

What I am doing is like a marketplace where you can sell

not just the entire software, but the pieces

and the components, that are going to create

the software itself.

I started in business when I was 15 years old, at 17

I raised $40 million, to be become one of the first

dot-com millionaires, I went home to advise

the U.K. government, the U.S. government

and the White House

By the time I was 21, I had lost the lot.

But I started again, and for the last 10 years

we built-up a portfolio of companies

37 businesses across 3 continents

That's what I do

I actually first moved-down from Vancouver

to work at a company called Digg

and my visa history with them is that I had

an H1-B there while

I was working on business development

and then obviously I was affected by the layoffs

and then I had to go ahead and figure out

my next two steps

and so Kiip was the next step

and, most notably, I guess

what's has happened over the last two months

have been very interesting

is, we managed to raise some seed financing

from a VC firm, and some angel investors

Apparently, I may be the youngest person

to ever raise institutional VC capital

So that's been a very interesting ride so far.

RewardMe iteself is a, you could say

it's a loyalty program for brick-and-mortar stores

on the iPhone and Android phones

Right now, brick-and-mortar stores are really strugling

to be in business

because there is so much competition

there is a lot of discounting, rents are going higher

so, they need something that engage their customers

in a much more intimate manner

so, instead of having them bash out discounts

to people who don't care

we want to give rewards to their most loyal customers

and give them reasons to come back more often.

I am working right now on a new

hardware and software hybrid

for the iPhone

to be short, it's an air guitar for the iPhone

We've got a motion-sensing guitar pick

and some pretty cool software on the iPhone

that lets you play air guitar

That hasn't been done before, it's new

and most of all, it's a lot of fun.

MyK is a software platform for enterprises

and we are able to gather feedback

feedback for our customers

and we help them to take better decisions

based on the feedback.

It's a sort of business intelligence application

and we mix the transactionnals

so it distills data and the feedback

this way you have a better understanding of your business.

With Yola, we came-up with the concept of

making it easy for people to get online

and connect with online marketing services

What became evident in mid-2006, 2007

is that the smaller businesses hadn't really gotten online yet

the local businesses would-be participating

in this huge explosion of being able to

be found online and handle transactions online.

So we had built a self-service tool, a self-service platform

that really allow people to create their own Web presence

and market and manage themselves on social networks

Twitter, Foursquare etc.

And has the service has evolved

really create some service-tight integration with

a single platform.

Why come to the United States to start your business?

This is the only place in the World, probably

where you can build an innovative startup

from the ground-up

everything is here, the lawyers are here, the known

is here from entrepreneurs

how you build a company like this

and the money is here.

That's unique in the World.

All the lawyers here, understand the technology

all the lawyers are for startups.

This is an example, consulting and accounting is the same.

If you go in Europe, it's really rare to find a lawyer

that understands venture capital investment

seed, and stuff like that. They don't know.

I like to say that, in San Francisco, the Bay Area

there's been this, accelerate that's

been poured over the entire area

and everything just happens faster.

So, if you want to do fashion, probably Milan

or Paris is the best place, right.

If you want to do finance; Singapore, London, New York

are pretty nice, and Shanghai

But if you want to do tech, nowadays

San Francisco is the best place

you have a better chance to succeed

because all the people are here, the network is here

the startups are here

I like how this place really endorses innovation

I want to be in an environment where everyone

is willing to take risks based on innovative ideas

not afraid to fail

As much as I had a great idea, I also wanted to take

the idea to Silicon Valley

and I thought that, this is the place where you build

instant companies

So it really was, fulfillment of a personal goal

an ambition of mine to live and work in United States.

There is a reason why the Valley, is still the Valley

And that it's still the head of the pack

There was definitely a lot of opportunity there

for me to build what I wanted to build.

How does your project benefit the US economy?

The last 20 years, all the jobs created

in the United States, where created from startups

out of those startups, 50% of those startups are created from immigrants

That's a huge amount of new jobs created by people

that actually, are not U.S. Citizens

or not yet at that time

And you notice, whenever there's holidays

people fly home, no one is actually a San Francisco

native, but they come here to make magic happen

We've already employed 3 people full-time

here in the United States

and plan to hire another 4 to 5 in the next 2 months

Our company will be an American company

so it will provide, I think, at least 10

but probably more jobs here.

The turn-over rate for restaurants is huge

because they always deal with more problems

you know, the competition all discounting

and these are stores that usually don't find

innovative ways to do things, because very few

of them have technology backgrounds

So we are providing a technology that helps

them stay in business for longer

helps them become a more solid company

and we know that a lot of the economy in the United States

is driven by these brick-and-mortal stores.

So far, we've raised over $25 million

from investors whose money is set offshore

they are foreign investors and the money came into the U.S.

and that money basically became part of the U.S. economy

and further the economy with us hiring people and

paying salaries and expenses, rentals, etc.

so there is a huge benefit to U.S. economy

because it's one small company, we were able

to create over 40 jobs from a single company

and we're still growing, we are still building that business up.

So currently, if you take our 5 businesses

each business has its own set of employees

and management team

so not only do we employ multiple people

for each businesses but we employ management

for each one of these businesses as well

so I am hoping, within a couple years

we will employ over a 100 people in the United States.

And these jobs are not just for having someone

buys groceries, but these are jobs that help them

create more innovation, that create more jobs in the future.

I mean, if I am good I can create jobs in the United States

of course, right, this is a consequence

but to do that I have to stay here to have a successful company

and to have a successful company, it's better to stay here.

What problems have you run into as a foreigner

trying to build a company here in the US?

Going through immigration

was one of the most challenging things

I have ever done in my life

And I've had a challenging life.

It started with me, just quite simply wanting

a business visa because I had already started

a business in the United States

I thought it'd be the easiest thing in the world

especially since I had advised the White House

I kind of thought, you know, come on guys

I did some work for you for free

you can see I am a great believer in the United States

but oh no, I couldn't even get a simple business visa

because they looked at me and they said

well you've already started a business

so you can't apply for a business visa because it's too late

now you need to apply for an investor visa, so

I spend three months putting together

what's called an E-2, an investor visa

I invest a $125,000 into the United States company

and yet, I still could not get this visa

they rejected me on the basis that we were a startup

and this E-2 was based on a treaty from

something ridiculous, like 1870

So, I have to do a consulate interview

just to have it signed-off, my lawyer said

"it's just a tick in the box, you know, you've been approved

they've taken your application"

so I go back to London, which was only supposed to be a few days

and I go to the Embassy, and the guy behind the window

looks at my application, he looks at me

and I look young at the best of time

and he goes, "what are you doing getting an O-1 application?"

Almost as if he is looking at me like a kid like

I didn't deserve it

He actually had to go and print off the criteria

and then he quizzed me for 20 minutes

and then he said, "well I don't really have time

to review this application" so he suspended it.

And not only did he suspend it

there was no information about what I needed to bring

or provide extra, he was just like, "it's suspended."

So what happened next? Well I can tell you

what happened next. First of all

I had to close down two of my U.S. companies

I had to sack U.S. employees. Alright.

the cost to the U.S. economy, I would say

would be in the millions of dollars.

A whole year went by

of my ringing the embassy, trying to get in contact

with the embassy, my lawyer's trying to get in contact

with the embassy. Nothing.

You can't write them, you can't talk to them

you can't get an answer out of them.

By the time, finally, they rang me up after a year

I closed down all my businesses in the U.S.

and it was really a challenge whether I was going

to go back or not.

One of the interesting parts that happened to me

was when, I think it was in 2009,

after the economic situation turned

in the U.S. and things went the wrong way

I think, there was a lot of job loss, and the like

My visa, my O-1 visa, had actually expired

at that point in time, and when I applied to renew it,

we got pushed back from immigration

that, you know, my duties were not executive in nature

or something along those lines

and they weren't going to renew my visa.

And this is, you know, 4-5 months just after

we raised an additional $20 million

to create jobs in the U.S. and employ people

and take the company to the next level.

Clearly, a CEO's job is quite executive in nature

so it wasn't, it was probably part of an internal processing

error more than anything else.

but overall I think, from where I stand, I think

the immigration process, doing it the way we did it

where we have a company with an office here

was a lot more simpler than when I started off

in the beginning, trying to move to the U.S.

As an entrepreneur, with a startup and an idea

when I came here, looking for funding and

speaking with venture capitalists

they wouldn't fund me, and that was back in 2007, 2006

the market was pretty hot, I had a great idea

and I had a great concept, but for them

it was, when you move operations here,

when you based here, give us a call.

We don't want to go through the risk

of having to sponsor your visas

and get the paperwork done and stuff for the companies here

you're going to do that by yourself

and that was a difficult part.

I work, I need to plan, because I own my company in Italy

so I started my business.

I am not here because I want to be simply lucky

I am here because I need to expand my business

so I have to plan, I have to schedule activites

But when I arrived,

I had some problems, because the immigration officer

said that probably, I should have applied for a B-1 for a visa

but it was a completely different information

from what they told me in Italy.

We spent almost one hour and twenty minutes

in the secondary room, and

they asked me for everything

they asked me also, what my product is

how old was my company, where it was based

and they also asked me, if I can find some customers here

where the money will go through

so I had to explain a lot of things.

In my point of view, it was just like a person,

the person in front of me

can decide about my future here

there is a sort of gray area, gray zone

where the laws seems, can be applied in a different way

depends on the person you are in front of.

All depends from the guy at the point of entry

wherever you land, you're landing in Chicago

or in San Francisco, so even with a visa

nothing is sure, right? You came here

after fifteen hours of flight, you have a visa

you came here at the point of entry the guys can reject you

the guy can say, no you can't stay here

or you can stay here for only two weeks,

he gives you two weeks.

There is no visa for entrepreneurs or founders, right?

But those are the people that create new jobs

as the Kauffman Foundation discovered

and there is no visa for these people

that's incredible

No visa for people who in the last twenty years

have created 50% of the workforce.

He can reject the next Mark Zuckerberg

he can reject the next company with 20,000 employees

and he doesn't know, he has so much power

understands nothing about this economy

these businesses, how can you give

so much power to a guy like that?

The current system, entrepreneurship is risky enough,

but the current system increases the risks substantially

because, for a startup to work, it obviously want

and need startup capital, and like I said, a lot of times

it's really hard to raise capital

when you are trying to stay in the states, but you can't

A lot of people, sometimes, if you go back to your own country

it's much easier to raise that capital from the U.S.

Say, hey, you know, I have an idea in Taiwan, it's going

to make a lot of money, why don't you invest here

That's easier than saying, hey, I want to start

a company in the U.S., can you invest in me?

There is no visa for money

the U.S. investors, they can invest anywhere they want

to China, to India, to wherever the opportunities are

and if the U.S is stopping the innovators to come to the U.S.

then the innovation is happening somewhere else

and obviously because of that, the money is flowing somewhere else too

So, by not allowing talents and innovation to be in the U.S.

the U.S. is allowing all that capital for innovation

to go to other nations.

That's just how the world works

there is always places that people will go

and if you make it very difficult for smart people

to realize the cost and benefit

once that scale tips, you're going to see

an influx of people outwards, into other areas

and of course Asia is already dominating

just because there are a lot of smart people there

and they realize that staying there and building

something there is now, much more lucrative and

much more likely to succeed than if they were to

move somewhere else to do it.

What steps do you think could be taken immediately

to improve the system?

I think, from personal experience, there are a number

of ways the U.S. visa system could be improved

first of all, we need an entrepreneur visa, OK?

Entrepreneurs create wealth, they pay taxes

and they make money for the U.S. economy

and most importantly, we create jobs.

So there needs to be an entrepreneur visa.

There are at this moment no visas scattered for entrepreneurs

all visas available are meant for people who want

to have a job in the U.S.

I don't want to have a job here, I want to create jobs in the U.S.

I think the Startup Visa will be essential for people like me

Because if you look into the past founders of great companies

very few have started millionaires, people who can

come to the U.S easily.

So, when it comes to people like me, who don't have

a million dollars in the bank, but have the ability to

recruit a team and raise money,

the Startup Visa will be the perfect solution

to have me stay in this country, create those jobs

create the innovations at the place where I want to

and I think that is an almost necessary step

for the U.S. government to do to keep the U.S. competitive

and keep in the forefront of innovation that

has been maintaing for the past decades.

If the Startup Visa was in place when I started looking

for funding, I would have certainly taken it

and raised less money, gotten here quicker

I would probably added an extra year to the time

it took me to get to the U.S.

I would definitely have loved to have had a Startup Visa

but if we can get that visa in place

I think it a fantastic concept, I think it's going to attract

the best and brightest people around the world

so I'd love to see it happen.

When contacted for a short interview,

representatives of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)

informed us that all interview requests must be made in writing

After making a formal written request, we received no further response.

The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has the authority

to allow of deny entry to any immigrant at the border,

regardless of visa status

They have 200 dedicated press officers

They also declined to be interviewed.

The United States does not currently have a visa category

for founders or entrepreneurs

Through a patchwork of alternatives, some entrepreneurs

manage to stay, while others are forced to leave,

taking their companies and their jobs with them.

"If your ship doesn't come in, swim to it." — Jonathan Winters

Quote found in the email signature of our USCIS contact.

Directed by: Tarik Ansari

Produced by: Basil Glew-Galloway

Associate Producer: Derek Dabkoski

Camera Operators: Chloe Nichols, Kindrid Parker,

Justin La Fleur, Basil Glew-Galloway

Audio Engineer: Jake Atlas

Music by: Guy Maisonneuve

Motion Graphics by: Jacob van Leeuwen

Edited by: Kindrid Parker, Basil Glew-Galloway

Featuring: Tarik Ansari, Carlo Alberto Degli Atti,

Yu-Kai Chou, Vinny Lingham,

Ronald Mannak, Augusto Marietti,

Ben Way, Brian Wong

Special thanks to: Massimo Sgrelli, Brad Feld,

Robb Kunz, Elizabeth Ü, Stefania, Francua Flippe,

Augusto Marietti, Mike Shaver, Carlo Alberto Degli Atti,

George H., Alex, Mark Pollard, Jeremy Nulik,

Jason Putorti, Hunter Owens, Christian Owens,

Ethan Resnick, Ben Reyes, Dan Martell, Gaurav Kishore,

César Salazar, Nathaniel Whittemore, Richard Tibbetts,

Alberto Padilla Luengas, Oza Klanjsek, Philipp Berner,

Andreas M. Brændhaugen, Justin Ip, Vikrant Ramteke,

Alejandro Corpeño, Adrián Catalán, Kevin Hartz,

Matthew M. Gonzales, Adam D'Augelli, Mathias J. Holzmann,

Rouge Sur Blanc, Purvi Rajani, Majid Fard, Adam Wride,

Emily Nakano Co, Joshua Chen, Damir Zekić, Don Ryan,

Antonio Evans, Ben Way, Niall Smart, Kirin Kalia,

Edy Sulistyo, Henry Liu, Courtney Guertin,

Sebastian Mortelmans, Jacob Brody, Dave Heal, Azymnis,

Brian Wong, Jonathan Jaeger, Tim Rosenblatt, Craig Fisk,

clarkf, Uday Ayyagari, Dave Knox, Alan Ho, Abby Fichtner,

Jennifer Berk, Heather Wetzler, John Prendergast,

N. Monteiro, Courtney Boyd Myers, Yu-kai Chou, Katherine,

Diego Gomes, Yoyo Zhou, Ben Goodyear.

Additional thanks to: Hermione Way, Kickstarter,

L'Alliance Française, Dave McClure, Shervin Pishevar,

All other re-tweeters.