How to be a part of Silicon valley startup ecosystem? | Hacker News Reader

How to be a part of Silicon valley startup ecosystem?

7 pointsameenrashad4 comments

Let me give an into about myself first. I worked for 2Yrs in an MNC and started a startup one year back in my town Kochi, India. We started with a product for indian commodity market which got an award from govt of India, It was an OpenData project. We just did it as a hobby project, to learn how to do things, We didn't have a monetization plan for that, It was later when we got a call from WORLDBANK, saying that they would be interested in funding us if we are going ahead with OpenData or Govt related projects, But we turned them down as we didn't plan to continue with OpenData projects. We where bootstrapped by then, so we started with some other product and earned a revenue of around 75k in 8 months. We had a dream to come to silicon valley. As we got some money, we thought to come here, applied for TCDisrupt and came down.

Now I'm here at SF for 2 months. I met many people, including some YC alumni. I can feel the ecosystem and the energy spread out here. The last two weeks which made a huge difference in my life, I learned much more than that I did in my last one year. I badly want to be a part of this ecosystem NOW, and build something exiting. I have a great team of 4 members, I believe this ecosystem can do a lot for us to build a great product. Now, I want to take my team here. I think we can do things in a month which we do in India with one year time

I am looking for some options for that. There are some issues including VISA, funding etc (none of us have an immigrant visa, in B1 now)

I think, if we don't end up in paying for visa, we can manage some of our early days expense here with the revenue we have now. I asked for help/suggestion from many people I met here most of their suggestion is to raise funding here or to get into some accelerators like YC etc. Am trying all those, didn't get a string to hang on yet

I don't think I am the first person who faced this issue. I would appreciate your suggestions and comments regarding the same

The sad truth is that there are many, many people like you knocking at the door of the US wanting to get in, and most don't.

Build your product. If it does well, revenue will (should) follow, and if you do need to move here to pursue more sales it'll make the visa process much easier.

You can always apply to YCombinator and friends if you feel like your company could benefit from it, but don't let it distract you.

The same way that an aspiring actor shouldn't focus on "being a part of Hollywood", but rather on going to auditions and getting parts, don't focus on being part of Silicon Valley. Focus on building your product and company. Things will naturally follow.

Of course, this is assuming that your end goal is to build a company. If your end goal is to move to Silicon Valley, there are easier options (get a job here, or enroll as a college student in a US university in a STEM field, get a degree, which will allow you to work for 1+ years without a visa and will make your life easier for getting a visa)

I think the comments so far have been telling you to focus on your startup/idea and not worry about "being in Silicon Valley" - that's more or less right. Let take another view of this: Instead of trying to secure h1b or equivalent visas for you/your team - how about joining an existing team here in Silicon Valley. I am a tech founder looking for "co-founders" to join me. Happy to discuss more including potential ways of sponsorship/co-working remotely. You can reach me at paymentsguysv@gmail.com

Unfortunately immigration wise your only option is h1b. To apply h1b via the company you start you should prove that you don't control that company. This means having a US co-founder and getting funded (thus bringing your equity to less than 50%). Even with all this getting h1b is still a uncertainty as you may not win the h1b lottery process.

I would suggest to run your startup from India but incorporate in US. FreshDesk is the best example following this model

You have formed a team and built several successful products, why not wait until you are expanding. Moving your team to Silicon Valley will probably boost your burn rate by a factor of ten after you pay the transition costs. Use your time now to establish some long term business relationships, you can plan future visits but I would encourage you to build on your current successes in place.

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