I don't think you can make a blanket statement like that. I come from Ireland where I received a 4 year degree in CS for free. Most of the Americans I worked with over the years are saddled with huge amounts of college debt. This is a massive advantage in my favor.
Having to spend 4-6 years waiting for a green card so I can start my own company is a massive disadvantage. Having to deal with the annoying vagaries of the US immigration system just to get a job is also a massive disadvantage.
Coming from a country that has good free high school education is a massive advantage compared to most places in the USA.
Having parents who are financially well off and can support you while you are in school is a massive advantage. Having parents who went to university and can tell you the difference between schools or guide you through the byzantine application processes are massive advantages.
[1] http://news.stanford.edu/2016/02/25/tuition-financial-aid-02...
If you don't have parents who have gone to college before or go to a school with good teachers, you probably won't even know to apply to a top tier school.
A common theme that I have seen amongst my friends who have gone to Stanford/Berkeley/etc is that their parents had them doing extracurricular activities from a very young age to pad their entrance letters. Poorer families, have less resources and hence less time to engage in activities like this.
Just getting into Stanford or a top US college requires an incredible amount of work above and beyond good grades.
I have a very good friend who charge's $200 an hour to put together college application letters for top schools.
Income inequality in the USA is a huge disadvantage that many Americans face.
I'm not saying that income inequality is not an issue many immigrants don't face. I'm just particularly aware of it coming from a country (Ireland) that has good social benefits, like free healthcare, educations, etc. I think these things put me at an advantage compared to what many of my American peers had to go through.
2. Rent out your apartment.
3. Go to Europe, live from the rent money.
4. Get a degree.
5. Profit?
If you don't own a property:
0. Save for a year, then do the same thing.
This is an incredibly untrue statement.
All this is why small business creation is on the decline here.[5] It takes money to make money, and the lower and middle classes just don't have money to spare.
edit: To those downvoting me, can you please explain? I don't understand the flaw(s) in my statement.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socioeconomic_mobility_in_the_...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_inequality_in_the_Unite...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States#C...
[4] https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2012/08/07/regiona...
[5] http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/08/news/economy/us-startups-nea...
If the 'foreign entrepreneur' is rich then he or she does not need VC help to immigrate into the United States. I know a few - it just requires being able to get in via O visa, which is easy for a rich person[1]. So this means that the foreign entrepreneur in question is not rich.
A non-rich foreign entrepreneur is unlikely to have the kind of salary that allows one to throw money at the problem to make inconveniences of switching countries go away:
1. Establishing personal credit, bank accounts, dealing with financial institutions, insurance etc
2. Getting state issued drivers license and dealing with Government
3. Getting an apartment
4. Developing a quick understanding of good v. bad areas, social norms (poor person with terrible habits is an asshole. Rich person with the same habits is eccentric ), etc
[1] Edit: In a response to the comment below - lets define "rich" as someone with a few million in assets with a million of that being liquid.
"An O visa is a classification of non-immigrant temporary worker visa granted by the United States to an alien "who possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, or who has a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and has been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements," "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_visa
I don't think this is quite as easy to obtain as the parent implies as you need to have a reputation & have money to pull it off. Not just any rich person will be able to do this without spending a bunch of time cultivating the former.
The people I know who have gotten this visa had quite a long history of published (news papers, journals, etc) achievements.
It was also very stressful for them as at any stage in the process the government could decide that their achievements were not significant enough and pull the plug on their application.