The immigrant founder

I signed up to talk today at the FWD.us Startup Visa event to share my story so far as an immigrant founder. It seemed like a very easy task, though a very sad one once I realized that, for the most part, the differences between an immigrant founder and a founder, are on the negative side of things.

In the end I couldn’t make it to today’s event but there were 3 main points I wanted to share with everyone.

Lack of opportunities

I know many entrepreneurs who were able to work right out of college, gain experience, save money, while they were building their MVP. As an F-1 student, you don’t have that luxury. You either have a job or have a company but you can’t have both. So what about immigrant founders with no wealthy families to support them? You’re forced to get a job. Or to start a company struggling financially every month. I did the latter.

Clock is ticking, and it’s an extra heavy clock

This is true for any startup founder, the fact that you have limited time and resources and you better put them to good use. On top of that, your visa has a deadline and that puts a whole new level of pressure on you and your non-immigrant co-founders. What are we doing when your visa expires? What if you can’t get an extension? Are you saying there’s no extension and you can’t sponsor a work visa to yourself? This was me a couple of years ago when StudyRoom was barely 5 months old. After talking to 6 immigration lawyers all they said was ‘I’m sorry’. I didn’t give up and talked to 6 more. One of them presented the option to apply for the hardest visa available, the O-1. At least it was an option so I went for it. We submitted the application 1 day before I had to leave back to Peru to avoid illegal status. All this, while we were launching our product to the masses.

You can’t say goodbye anymore

Startups take some time to take off, somewhere between 2–3 years in some cases. During that time you’re as broke as college freshman with no financial aid after paying for textbooks. Going to see your family overseas is probably going to cost you half a year of salary, and that is if you want to risk the chance of being rejected when trying to re-enter. My aunt passed away about a year ago and my entrepreneurial spirit tried to find or make a way, a loophole, an opportunity, to safely make it to Peru and back, but I couldn’t find one. This is probably one of the things that hurts the most as an immigrant founder, not being able to say goodbye to your family members, and not being able to be there with the rest of your family when they need you.

In the end I couldn’t make it to today’s event but it was because my grandaunt passed away 1 hour before the event, and I couldn’t say goodbye, and I had to be there for the rest of my family, just over the phone, cuz that’s as close as you can get.

May you rest in peace Shofita.