Name: From Barriers to Belonging: Navigating the Boston Startup Ecosystem as an Immigrant Founder
Uploaded: 2026-02-25T15:16:12.462Z
Duration: 56 min 32 s
Description: From Barriers to Belonging: Navigating the Boston Startup Ecosystem as an Immigrant Founder

Transcript for "From Barriers to Belonging: Navigating the Boston Startup Ecosystem as an Immigrant Founder": Hello, everyone, and good morning, I guess. Yeah. Good morning. It is morning. I'm on, like, my second or third cup of coffee. It is a moment, but it is great to have you here. So my name is Stephanie. I'm the founder of Star Boston, and welcome to an event that is done in partnership with City of Boston. And, yes, please use the chat. I was literally just about to say that. So feel free, to use the chat over to your right sidebar to share more information about yourself and, like, to connect with each other, like, share LinkedIn URLs, all the Lindsay. I'm from Lindsay too. Sorry. I got really excited. Okay. Anyway, so, I'm really, really excited to go through, this content today with Japanshi leading the charge that's all about navigating the Boston startup scene as an immigrant founder. Myself, Start of Boston, State of Boston, really, really excited about this topic just because, like, we love founders staying here and building here in the Boston area. So we're gonna go dive into the ins and outs and intricacies of that. So I think I've rambled enough. I know other folks are still gonna join us. But with that stated, I'm gonna kick this over to Diponci to kick this off. So, Diponci, please take it. Thanks, Steph. I love your energy in the morning. It's that's. all what we need. Good morning, everyone. I'm so glad that you all could join us, and I know a few more will join us as we go. Hopefully, everyone survived the blizzard and is keeping warm because it's snowing again in Boston for those who have joined from, locally. I am the Panchu Wenzel, founder of Shineco. We help young adults build real life readiness through coaching, peer community, and personalized game based learning pathways so that they can move with purpose and take action with confidence. And, honestly, today's conversation is all about, bringing clarity and confidence, but for immigrant founders like most of you out here. So building the right kind of support system, be it legally, structurally, and relationally, is that what we are going to talk about today because we don't want you to feel lost or overwhelmed while navigating this ecosystem. I'm building in the Boston startup ecosystem myself, and I've seen how incredibly talented immigrant founders struggle because of scaredness, unclear system, and limited room of error, you know, because of navigating immigration status, financial constraints, and cultural system all at the same time. So today's conversation really matters clarity will create confidence, and that confidence will create momentum for building impact driven, wonderful things that you all are thinking in your head right now. So to help us decode this ecosystem, we have three incredible people who have seen this and navigating from different angles. I would love to invite each of you to take about sixty seconds and tell us who you are and what you're building or supporting, and let's go from there. Allison, over to you. Good morning, everyone. Delighted to be with you all this morning. My name is Allison Ahernfellow. I am an immigration attorney. I lead the immigration practice at Davis Mom in Downtown Boston, and I've worked with so many talented immigrant entrepreneurs throughout the years. And it's just, you know, thrilling to see the business grow and their immigration status support that. So happy to be here, and that's good. I think my sixty seconds is up. Anushka, do you want to go next? Yeah. Sure. Hi, everyone. My name is Anushka, and I'm the founder of Catalyst. We are a b to b software startup. We help other large organizations modernize their legacy code bases. Essentially, what we do is we take one old programming language and convert it into a newer programming language so that these companies can continue using the old software that they have built. I started I came to The US in 2022 for my masters. And, you know, obviously, I was on a student visa and started building my company right out of masters. So I'm just here to provide help, to other founders, to other people looking to start a company, and help them in the immigration where needed. Talking more about how to do it the right way in a legal format. Amazing. Great. Just shit. Yes. Hi, everyone. Good morning. This is Josh and Lynn using she, her pronouns. I am based in Jamaica Plain. So let me know if you're also in JP. Show it to me in the chat. So I'm the founder of Growby. What we do is that we coach networking skills to first gen immigrants such as international students and young working professionals. I first came to Boston in 2012 for my undergrad at Boston University. Honestly, at that time, I didn't think that starting a company was possible. So I went on a typical track for international students, meaning I worked really hard trying to network, get a job in The US, started my career in consulting, then I pivot into tech. I was one of the early employees at TikTok, and then found myself back to Boston again just to enjoy the blizzard. No. Just kidding. Come back to Boston to get my MBA, graduated 2023 from Harvard Business School, and now I am building Groby full time. One thing I'm really proud to share is that we have bootstrapped our business to 6,000 paying customers in over 200 cities around the world without fundraising. And so excited to share a bit more about our story. Amazing. So let's dive into the questions for all of you. So we'll start with the journey altogether as a founder. So many immigrant founders move slowly because they're scared of breaking the rule. They don't fully understand the whole system altogether. So how do you stay careful but still move forward? How how has your journey been taking that first step in, being a founder? Yeah. So just on that for me, moving in, I knew it was gonna be a challenge, but I also knew it was possible. So for me, it was just about how to figure out what that possibility was, and that came in the form of looking for information. Like, I think I spoke to seven, eight immigration lawyers, before I finally took the plunge and, like, went full time and, you know, gave up my job search and things like that. So it was all about, like, trying to have as much information that gave me the confidence on what to do. And a part of that information was also figuring out what information I have to figure out at the like, you know, at different stages. You know, I'll if I figure like, obviously, at the start, I was like, how to do it as a student? But then questions came around how to do it beyond student life. Right? Once you go beyond the student visa, what options do I have? How how early should I start preparing? You know, those kinds of things. So it's it's a very good way to to get all of that information, and I definitely say today's webinar is a great start for whoever's on here. Yeah. I. yeah. I like to be on that to Anushka's point. I I felt like for me, was always interest driven or goal driven, and then I kind of just kind of let the rest of the problems of just immigration, and I feel like there's always a a way to, you know, solve it. So as I share with everyone, like, I didn't start out as a founder myself. I worked for five years in the MBA before I started my first venture, GrowBee. And so for me, I felt like the times are very different now. You know, now in every single major universities here in Boston, every school has an entrepreneurship center. But when I was in school, that wasn't possible. And so I felt like, you know, if I were a freshman today or someone who was in school thinking about entrepreneurship, I think that personally, I would have enough I need to have enough conviction to do it. Meaning, you know, I like to see traction first before I fully jump into it, you know, because once you become a founder, there are many things you need to solve. Immigration is one piece, but there is funding. There is, you know, perhaps loneliness on this journey, lack of experience and and and etcetera. And so I really think that this is, like, very case dependent, depends on where you are and, like, how much conviction you have in in the problem that you're solving. Singh, I totally echo with both of you given my experience as a student as well as focusing more on direct outreach rather than targeting more, focusing on immigration or funding per se. Okay. Coming to the second question, as we have talked about our journey to start with and specialty visas, what are the available visa options for entrepreneurs, and how does that process looks like? We can we can start with Alison because. she she's a legal person here. I think I think it's so so relevant that Anushka mentioned she talked to seven or eight immigration attorneys when she was starting. Because I think the visa status is always like a question mark. And what's allowed in the unit what what you're allowed to do in The United States and what you're not allowed to do or what could jeopardize your future here. I think a lot of folks are on an f one visa. They come here for education, and they are coming out of school. And I I think where it becomes really helpful folks to sit down with an an immigration attorney is to talk about what that twelve months of f one OPT allows in terms of starting a business because there is a lot of flexibility there. And how to properly inform the DSO, how to get the high twenties well documented so that everything is clear and approved by the US government. And then I think it's planning because it's like, what when does this expire? Are you going to use a STEM OPT or is a STEM OPT available to you? Mhmm. Are you eligible for it? And then how to structure the STEM OPT to allow you to continue to build the business. Beyond that, are we looking at the h one b? Are we looking at an o one? Are we looking at some other options like e one, e two? And I think the the the immigration system in The United States is slow to change. So I've been doing this for fifteen years, but over that fifteen years, I have seen this increasing focus on prioritizing immigrant entrepreneurs. I think there's a lot of generally, folks see a lot of value in helping people build businesses in this country. And just just in terms of, like, USCIS resources on how to be an immigrant entrepreneur have grown significantly in the past few years. So I think there's guidance there and there's support, but I think talking to an immigration attorney is so helpful just to get, like, dates in place and and, like, visa status strategy so that you're not worried about that. And you can like Josh had mentioned, you can focus on what you wanna solve, what you wanna do with your business because that's, like, what is inspiring and what's gonna keep you going. Absolutely. I would just add I mean, so one of the things that I had to do and I realized this actually after I spoke to a few immigration attorneys because even when you talk to, like, seven, eight of them, you will see they come and varied, you know, and, like, different different, you know, different people differ. And sometimes, one of the things I realized, was when you're talking to an immigration attorney, yes, you want your questions answered. But also when you pick someone, what you should be looking out for is risk tolerance. Because, I mean, entrepreneurship is already a very risky venture. Right? Mhmm. You are already measuring out the risks and the benefits, and can you handle it? Will you be able to handle it and those kinds of things? The same goes with your attorney. Right? Your attorney needs to be someone who's willing to have a same level of risk. And I don't mean risk as in, like, you know, old let's, like, break the law or we can, you know, like, do something wrong. There are boundaries, but there are also many boundaries that are blurry. And I'll give you an example. Everyone, like, in the visa's places, like, people will talk about, okay. You can't work on this visa. You can't work for your startup on this visa. But there is no definition of work in the law. So what counts as work, what doesn't count as work, having clarity on that, how can you, you know, be on top of things. You need to find someone who can explain it easily for you and also someone who's who's willing to work with you through solutions. Right? Maybe, like, right now, you're in a status which is not very clear, so how do you how do you figure that out? So those are all very important. Definitely, as a student, you know, there are current many, many different ways that you can go about it. There's some newer pathways that, you know, the immigration system has offered, which is, an entrepreneurial parole and things like that. There's also talk about, like, do you wanna stay in The US permanently, or do you wanna stay for a short time? Right? Yeah. Are you thinking of only paying for four to five years and then going back, to your home country, or do you wanna stay here? Do you want some path to permanent residence? That's a very important question to ask. The other thing is also there are a lot of benefits certain startups in certain spaces can get. There are a lot of benefits of having cofounders. There are a lot of benefits cofounders were American citizens versus cofounders who are also immigrants. Right? The pathways can differ. You have different options available to you. Mhmm. Normally, investment doesn't hinder your, you know, immigration process as a founder, but it can benefit it. There are certain, you know, visa pathways that open up for your startup if you get a whole lot of investment, or you get selected into a particular accelerator program or things like that. So there's a lot of information around that that is very important to ask, and having an attorney, who can walk you through that and answer those questions and be patient with you, is very important. Yes. I also would love to just build and share my own personal experience. In Alison's sharing earlier, right, like and Anushka's sharing her like, so personally, I want to Boston is home and I want to stay here forever if I can. And so for me, like, you know, I think that getting that green card, it's really important personally for for me and also from a business perspective. And so I personally went for the NIW and EB one a, these are category. For for those who are not familiar, feel free to look it up. One thing I just want to say is that so I first knew about those, I guess, green card pathways. Usually, they're basically for, like, you know, high talent alien. Let me just use those words for now. I first heard about it when I first started my business school at at Harvard, and I've also met with an attorney to understand the, I guess, the criteria. So for example, for EB-one, there are 10 of them. You have to satisfy three out of 10. For NIW is, you know, national interest waiver. You are it's like a three prong argument that you have to work on. So for me, I type in a comment here is that, like, I think it's really important to understand what it takes to satisfy those criteria. And so, for example, I first learned about it in 2021 when I was a first year MBA student. In the next three years, I work hard to ensure that I'm hitting my marks of satisfying the criteria and happy to share that my application was approved in 2024, so it was now two years ago. And so it took me three years to get there and so I just want to share that with everyone that when you know where you want to go, Yeah. you kind of work backwards to see where the gaps are. and you fill in those gaps. It does take time to plan. Yeah. And I will just add one more thing. I know I spoke a lot about immigration attorney. It's also important to know when they come in and when they don't. So if anyone's on a student visa like, now, I'm on STEM OPT. Right now as well, an immigration attorney cannot help me too much with an OPT and a STEM OPT process. What will come in is my university's DSO. Right? So I need to have a very good relationship with them in the in the early parts because they are the one approving, you know, the training plans for STEM OPT. They are the one approving the the companies and the work that I do in in my, OPT sales. They are the ones who are creating the I twenties and, you know, other things like that. So early on, those you should not forget those because they are very, very important. They often have a lot more up to date information on OPT and STEM OPT versus an immigration lawyer. But for anything beyond the student phase, you do need to talk to the lawyer and, you know, work with them. Yep. Absolutely. And I want to add one point, and Justin and Anushka and Alison mentioned that that risk tolerance is really important to make sure that the person the person is not doing just a business with you, but also trying to understand your profile and bring the best out of it, which is relevant for applying and, putting it together as a portfolio in front of the team. And definitely, it takes time, and it is not something that you cannot find easily on Internet. So make sure that you are searching about the different visa options as our as our panelist has mentioned, and then also look at what are the options, what are the criteria they are looking for, and start thinking how can you build a profile. from there. Because, Yeah. definitely, it takes time. to fulfill that criteria if you're already not doing that. Yeah. And I'll just add, I think these are excellent points. The information online some sometimes about these self petitioned immigrant categories. So the EB one and the national interest waiver where the the immigrant can can petition the US government themselves. They don't need an employer sponsor for The US permanent residency, the green card. Sometimes the I find the information online is, like, 20% of what you actually need to. show USCIS. Yep. So I think where Okay. some of the benefits of talking to an experienced immigration attorney as well is there is, like, what sort of surface level, what USCIS says you need to show them on these applications, and then there's the reality of what USCIS issues a request for evidence on and pushes back on. And I think, like, in that conversation where you're planning both the short term visas that are gonna bridge all of the time and then longer term green card planning. and how to get that eligibility, Immigration attorneys are excellent at at explaining, like, this is actually what USCIS wants to see, and this is the level of detail that they need to see it at to approve. it. So just some of that, like, practical perspective is valuable. Yeah. Yeah. I will say USCIS is not a checkbox kind of system. Right? It's not like they're trying to see, do you meet x criteria? Do you meet y criteria? There's a person. There's officer at the end of it that's making a judgment on every single case. So a lot of these things are not, you know, check mark, fill in this form, do you meet everything kind of scenarios. It's very subjective. That's why, you know, Allison, Dipanshi, Joshin were talking about you need to put together the portfolio. You need to put together all of the information, relevant information that's convincing enough for the officer. And very often, there's obviously I mean, there's, you know, hiring changes and the mood. USCIS is a very politically affected organization, and an attorney is the best person to know that because they are day in and day out dealing with USCIS. And especially immigration attorneys, they are so focused. That's literally all they do. So they are the. best people to tell you on, like, what is the the you know? They they'll tell you the temperature of the of the department right now and, how things are going. So definitely, ask them and work with peep ones who've worked with founders before. I think that's. I I just I hope that's assumed by everybody. But, yeah, it's there are a lot of immigration attorneys who haven't worked with founders who probably will not understand your situation as well. And I I remember Alison mentioned that there is a support system. The government want to support immigrant founders. in their application. Yeah. So I think that's a big relief for our audience, for founders. like us as well to hear. Absolutely. Okay. Let let's move to the next question. How how did you set up the company as an immigrant founder? On what visa you are right now and what visa did by you when you actually set up your company? Yep. Because I'm assuming right now here, at least, the two founders we have, you are not US citizen. And so do you need a US citizen? Are you hiring as a founder? How is that process? How does that process look like? Yeah. I'm happy to take that first, Justin. So I was on my I just started. I was waiting for my OPT approval when I set up a company. It's not illegal on I any I don't think it's illegal on any student visa, whether you're an f one, CPT, OPT, to set up a company, like, to register the company, but it is illegal to work without work authorization. So I had to wait for my OPT work authorization to come in before I could set up my email, before I could send any email, before I could do any, like, active work. But the process of just registering, the company was fine. That is you can I could have done it even when I was a student, but, yeah, you just can't work on it actively? So there's and that's what I said. Right? The definition of work, becomes very important and slightly subjective, because I would consider registering a company also work, but the USCIS does not consider that work. So, yeah. That's how I got started. And then on the hiring part, I actually started my company with two other immigrant cofounders. And then we went through a breakup, and then we had to move the company, and then we converted to a sequel. There's a lot of things that that happened. But, I have, you know, worked my cofounders were also immigrant founders. I have hired interns and, you know, other people, founding engineers who are immigrant founders. I've also hired interns for American citizens. So a lot of what you need to take, care about when you are doing that is especially if the immigrant, you know, whoever you're hiring is on an f one. Let's I'd know more about the f one side. So, like, if they are on a f one or student visa, so they're going through OPT or CPT, you need your company has to be everified. This is a very simple process. It takes five minutes. You can do it online. You don't need an attorney. It's just an online form that you fill. And then you just have to keep that up to date. Once a year, you have to update whenever you hire an, someone who's on a visa. You have to keep the e portal. You get, like, portal credentials and all that. You you just keep that update. So that's for, you know, people on an f one visa. If you're trying to hire someone on h one b, that is a little bit different because you have to go through an entire process. If you're petitioning the h one b, you have to, like there's a lot of, then you have to work with the attorney, either a in house attorney or go at go out and hire somebody because you have to make an entire, you know, what do you say, like, a portfolio for them. You have to make that bid and things like that. One thing I will say, you have to be wary about is when you are a founder yourself on a visa, on on things like OPT, CPT, and things like that, you cannot be a manager for someone else on a a visa. So, like, if let's say if I was hiring Deepanshi who's also on OPT, I cannot be her STEM OPT, manager because I am also on OPT. So that there, it's a little bit of a conflict. So very often, I got my STEM OPT approved because I have a board of directors, and my one of the board of directors who is an American citizen, what is now acting as my training, manager. So very often when I hire someone who's also on OPT or STEM OPT, they become they agree to become their training manager as well, and then, you know, we work closely with the training plan and the execution and things like that. But just something to to be note about. If you have an American citizen who's a cofounder, it's the best thing ever. A lot of these problems gets solved around, ownership, but it's something to remember that very often, for very long as an immigrant, you can't do it yourself. But that's also the reality of startup. You cannot build this company, a successful company by yourself. You always need a team. So yeah. Yeah. It's it's, definitely very wanna, go? but a long process. Yeah. I I I'll. be. to. go with you. to go super quickly. I I don't know how many of us are online, and I and I assume that everybody's at a different stage. So, again, I'm a type of person that I am kind I am I have strong bias towards action. Meaning, if I wanna do something, I just wanna get going, and I worry about the, I guess, the, you know, other things later. And I and I think as your company evolved, you're going to have different legal and hiring needs. And so for me, my story was very simple. I just started an LLC, and I'm going to type in what an LLC is in the chat in a second. And I registered it, and then let's take it from there. So that that was my simple story. Obviously, the company now has a different structure because we're involved quite, you know, quite a bit since we first formed four years ago. But I say for someone who has that, I guess, entrepreneurial bug, start with an LLC and then take it from there. Alison, do you have anything to add on to this question? I would just add that I do think there are considerations for how to register. Like, LLC is very common, but talk you know, I think part of this is, like, how much money do I have? If. I have a lot of available funds, I would say talk to a business attorney and get some advice on how to register the business and what the tax implications are and and that those. questions can be answered. But a lot of founders are operating on lean budgets, and I think there are you know, there's there's a less costly way to to do it than than get. an attorney involved at those early stages. But I think Anushka is is spot on that the the immigration law allows f one visa holders to register a business without employment authorization as long as they've just registered Yep. and they are not doing any work, which her example was perfect, and start having an email address, answering emails, starting operations. So I think that that's those are important points. So. I just want to clarify. Thank you, Allison, for bringing that up. So again, I think that my entrepreneurial journey, it's quite different compared to most people. So I have made a very intentional decision that we're not going to seek external fundraise, meaning all of our growth is through revenue. And so, like, that's why LLC works perfectly for Groby. But I think if you are, like, you know, for example, the venture backed route, I I believe that your company is to be in the c corp, but I that yeah. I just want to. mention. Thank you, Allison. So yeah. So on on the financial front, I'll just a little bit of idea because I have moved from a multi tenant LLC to a single l member LLC to a c corp. A lot of things I realized very later on, which I should have done. But, you know, again, as Allison said, I did not have a lot of money for a a lawyer. So in fact, when we first registered a multi tenant LLC, we just did it online, using, like, legal Zoom because yeah. We do we do not have that much funds to, like, talk to a business lawyer and and figure things out. One thing to take care of is, so when you are on f one, for tax purposes, there are certain documents that a multitenant LLC or even a LLC will give you, which makes it a little bit hard to use, I forget what that platform is called to file the taxes that all the the okay. QuickBooks? I will get back to you. But not QuickBooks. The the one that is sent? to immigrant founders. The it's the immigrant Sprint tax. Sprint tax. Spain. Yes. So it's basically, once we were on a LLC, we couldn't file our taxes with Sprint tax. So figuring out how to file taxes was a whole other journey, which I will not talk about here. But people can contact me later. I can guide you through it. But, multi tenant LLC and LLC, it's great if you're working. It's great if you're doing a bootstrap startup. If you want to raise money, you have to be a c corp. However, it doesn't mean you have to start as a c corp because very often unless you're getting money at day one, like, you know, you have investors, like, I have the checkbook ready, and I'll let you sign you money. Unless you have that, I would suggest not being on a c corp because a c corp, requires it doesn't always require you to have business attorneys onboard. You can do it through a Stripe Atlas, but the tax implications are very high. Like, there's you need to have a registered agent in, Delaware because most people go for Delaware c corps. That is the best option to go for. So you need to have a registered agent agent in Delaware. There's a franchise tax of $450 if you pay every single year. Even if you don't do any work for your company, you still have to pay that $450. So what I recommend, founders is always stay an LLC or a multitenant LLC within your state until you have investors ready to put in money or until you're moving to a STEM OPT. Because in STEM OPT, you might need to have board of directors and and might have to move to a c c corp. So there there's certain integrity, like, know, small small things over there to worry about, but LLC is the best place to just get started and, you know, start working on your business. And, moving a little bit away from the visa question because I do see we have discussed that, little bit in detail, and we have some questions coming up. With that, we can discuss later on as well. But let's move to your your experience being, an immigrant founder here. So, like, have you ever felt ignored or underestimated because of your accent or visa status or background, and how have you dealt with it? Yeah. Anushka, do I I see you nodding. So do you wanna go first? okay. I'll I'll say this. Very often, just from looking at you, your visa status is not very clear for many people because, like, yes, I could be from outside of The US, but I there are also a lot of people within The US who look like me now. Right? Especially because I I am from India. I look Indian. There's a huge Indian diaspora in The US, who are, you know, US citizens. So that way, it's not very clear, but accent definitely plays a little bit of a factor. I wouldn't say I've ever been, like, underestimated because of that. I think communication gaps sometimes can happen if some people don't understand your accent. The what I like to say is this is more of, like, a business question kind of a a thing. Right? It's like, you need to do what is best for your company. And if this kind of judgment or this kind of, like, you know, little bit whatever you might be feeling, the uncomfortableness is coming from your customers, that's when it's a problem. Or if it's coming from employees and investors, you have any. Potential investors does not matter. You do not there are enough investors in the world. You do not need to care about every single one. So if there is an investor that disrespect you, goodbye. Thank you. If there is a very important person you want to hire and you think they are the best for the job and they're willing like, they're excited, they're, you know, motivated by the passion of the company, but the only barrier is is the accent and the understanding, that may be a little bit of a problem, and your customers not understanding you is the biggest problem. So those are couple of factors which I haven't personally experienced. But I would say if that is happening to you, it there are ways to work, you know, with an accent coach. There are ways to work with people to make things more clear. As many of you might have assumed, I tend to talk very fast. Right? So there have been times where I've met people where I need to slow it down and, you know, keep remembering to put in pauses and ask them in the middle middle, do they understand what I'm do what I'm saying? Is it getting through to them? What do they understand? Ask them ask for a callback. So those kinds of things are important and come into play. But yeah. Only worry about this if, like, you know, you have a whole lot of to, like, if it's coming from someone who really matters for your business. Rest of the world doesn't matter. Love it. Yeah. Justin, do you wanna add something? I I totally agree with Nushka. I'd like to encourage everyone to really think about our identity as advantage. So so what do I mean by that? So for example, our business, right, Groby, we teach networking skills to first gen immigrants. Again, we are very much focused on international students and young working professionals. Right? So networking. This is a concept that is so familiar to many Americans. Like, they start to air quote networking when they're in kindergarten. Okay? Like, for example, like, you know, I remember a trick or you know, I mean, living in the neighborhood, I see kids going on trick or trick or treat. Right? You're basically knocking on stranger store and asking for candy. And when I see that I was reflecting, was like, wow, Ojiem from China. Was like, we don't do that, you know? It's unusual for me to reach out to a stranger and start introducing myself and sometimes even asking for a favor. And I think that concept itself is so foreign to me as someone who wasn't born and raised here. But then obviously, networking is such an important tool, skill, if you will, in in your career here in The States, and I would say globally. And so I think that as immigrants, right, when we first came to this country there are so many things that they are such acute pain for our community, right, all of us here that for Americans who are born and raised here, they don't understand it. Whenever you see a pain, that's a business opportunity in my opinion. We just spent twenty minutes talking about Visa. I'm sure that there are so many benefits. I mean, business already benefited from this particular pain. And so what I like to encourage her to think about is what are your unique experiences and insights that could turn into a business idea that you are solving a very particular pain point for a community while, you know, making, some profit along the. way to ensure that the venture is sustainable. So that's point one. The. other statistics I would really love to point out, I'm going to share this LinkedIn article in the chat in a second is that nearly half of all US unicorns are founded by immigrant founders. Okay, so we're talking about over 500 unicorns in the past twenty years are all started by immigrants like us. And I want to think about why, because I think there are just like so much spirit resilience that we have to hop through because we didn't have that privilege. Right? We're thinking, okay. I'm on h one b. How do I do this? I'm on f 100. Like, just all these extra burdens that we have to go through, but I believe that builds character, that builds resilience, and I think that's a really good thing. Yeah. I will just add one thing about using, your, immigration, like, your your, identity as an advantage. I work in the IT sector. I have a software product that I sell to other software, like your heads of software and CTOs and and CIOs and things like that. And you might know the stereotype as is very prevalent in the software industry, most of the executives I talk to are Indian origin. Most of the teams that I work with at the customer side are actually sitting in India. So that actually works as a favor, as an advantage for me because I I speak their language. I can talk to them. I can understand their accent. And, you know, it's again, it happens because I'm Indian who's working in the software industry, so I'm playing into the stereotype. So it benefits me, but it it is at the point of differentiation. Right? That I know other competitors of mine who do not come from India who might be facing this problem. I don't know. But and I will say one thing that always tends to happen is a sales decision, is never a rational decision. Right? People always buy from other people where they feel they have the best connect, the best trust, the best relationship. That in those areas, you can use the identity as an advantage. When I sell to so many Indian leaders, CPOs, CIOs, VPs of engineering, so many of them would just give me a little bit of an extra chance compared to, like, an on topic or some big company just because they see that, you know, I'm an Indian who's starting off early. You know, they want to give me a chance, and they'll give me an opportunity and apply it that way. Doesn't always happen, but it does happen where your identity can be a benefit. And you should take every advantage you get as a founder. Yeah. I I love the team coming out here, making identity your advantage rather than seeing it as a problem for yourself. Okay. I know the time is almost going to, get over for our conversation. So one thing that really, that really stops a lot of immigrant founders is finances. So how to approach funding or finances in a as an immigrant founder? What are some ways, be it accelerators, be it revenue generation, or something else that you have, found useful? And also in terms of, legal, how funding could should be approached as an immigrant founder. So I'll I'll start with Alison, knowing a little bit about how the legal pieces, look around funding, and then we'll love to know about, from the founders how they have navigated so far. So I think that the I think for me from my perspective, from the immigration law perspective, it's again, it's does the visa status allow for you to start fundraising? And I think that we've talked about today risk tolerance among immigration attorneys, and I think you will find some immigration attorneys who are very risk avert adverse and say, don't go don't be going and pitching to investors and doing that that type of fundraising activity when you are still on an f one and you don't have work authorization. I think other immigration attorneys would advise that networking and getting out there and talking about your business and trying to cultivate interest is permissible even though you don't have the work authorization yet. But I think that there is a a flexibility in how much you can do prior to in terms of raising money prior to getting that work authorization. And then when you do get it, then I think you're you're full steam raising funds to to start the business. And I think there's a lot of value in talking to business attorneys who work with startups on, again, how how to best raise money so that you're having enough runway to get the business going. Yeah. Yeah. I'll just add in. So on the funding front, unfortunately, there are certain opportunities as an immigrant founder that are taken away from you. So there are a lot of government grants that immigrant founders are not eligible for. So there are these things called SBIR grants and SBIR grants as well, including, I think, some NSF grants as well, that you just automatically if you are a majority owner of your company, you become, like, disqualified for. However, if you have a cofounder who is an American citizen and they have, let's say, 51% ownership, you become eligible for all of those grants, immediately. There are a lot of state level and local level grants that you are eligible for. There, it I actually varies depending on which department put out the grant, who's granting it, and things like that. And Massachusetts, that way, if you are in Massachusetts, is actually very supportive and, you know, making a lot of changes in these grants and things like that. There's the Massachusetts AI hub and a lot of initiative that they're taking in this space. So that works in your favor. But on the federal level, unfortunately, if you are a majority owner, you become disqualified. On the investor front, I mean, an investor in will invest in a US corporation, and they don't really care if it's immigrant founder led or not. However, there are some investors that will only invest in immigrant founders. So that works as your advantage. So those funds there's couple of those funds out there. Accelerators very often are open to everybody, so you can apply and get accepted and things like that. The point on what Alison was saying, as far as I understand it, talking to an investor at a networking event, growing your network does not count as work. But the minute you go into due diligence for an investment, that becomes work. So you wanna make sure you have work authorization when you go into due diligence with an investor because that is actual work that is being put in. If you're just talking with them, oh, my company is, you know, doing this, will do this or whatever, that is is fine. So there are certain, you know, things to worry about. There are a lot of independent people who give out grants, which could be open to, immigrant founders or not. But, yeah, there's there's pros and cons. Look at the eligibility requirements. Yeah. And I. would just add, I think, like, entering into competitions. Yes. And especially if the if the business aligns with what you're studying, I think. that is compliant with the f one. Enter into those competitions. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Allison. is referring to the pitch competition usually hosted by the universities. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or and and other pitch competitions. Right? There are a lot of, There's so many. ones. There's even ones that I think start a Boston host. So, Yeah. Amazing. like, cohost. You know? Yeah. So, all all those are opportunities. Yeah. Yeah. So so I like to offer a different pathway to think about a fundraising for your company. I think, you know, for for for us, again, we are 100% bootstrapping. So what does that mean? That means you are now raising external funding, like, through a VC or taking out loans. Right? So that means you you basically come up with money yourself. So that's either from your personal savings or you fund it through revenue. So for Groby's perspective, we fund it through revenue. Right? So and so and so that's how we do it. I I think that I want to take a step back to really articulate the essence of business. I think at the end of day, you know, like, every single business is to solve a real pain point, like r e a l capitalized. You know. And I and I see I've worked with so many founders, mentored so many founders where they are so excited about one idea, but didn't spend enough time to validate the demand, spend all this money energy building, unable to sell. Okay. I hope that we're not there. And so one again personal tip and trick I want to share is that if you are building a B2C product, so business to consumer like our business, I think it's really important to pack the organic growth. So what is organic growth? Organic growth meaning you are able to create content that build like awareness, right? So pay ads or you spend money on Facebook, Google, whatever, and then you put this asset in front of people versus when you create organic content like social media, be it on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, right, people have all this following. Those are basically free ad And that's frankly how I started Groby. I am an influencer on this platform called Red, it's like a Chinese Instagram, and that's how we acquire our customers. You create some sort of post, you go on live stream, and you are converting customer this way, right? And so that is a very efficient way to one to validate there is real demand that people actually want to learn about networking and two, if the customers are willing to pay or not, right? I believe all of us here are in a for profit business that I do think is really important to see that if you are able to sell. Like, if your product like, the pain point is painful enough that people was willing to pay. Right? Always you always wanna be a killer instead of vitamin, which is good to have. And so I think that, again, if you are building in b two c business, doing customer interviews, you know, user research, creating content to see if that people are fighting your content. And if that is the case, okay, start to validate with smaller MVPs. Right? My first networking boot camp, I didn't even have the product. I sell it with a flyer. Who wants to buy this? Once I have 10 people sign up, I'll say, that's a go. I'm going to write on my PowerPoint in twenty four hours. And so I'm a very lean builder that I always always focus on demand generation. First, ensure that we're able to sell certain things, then we build. Alright. Yeah. Love it. And given the time con constraints, I'll, wrap, the q and a questions coming up. A lot of questions are coming around one starting business and raising funds on f one and h one b visas. So would you mind sharing, maybe, Alison, you can we can start with you in terms of how to raise through VCs on f one visas, how to start a business on h one b, and, like, these two being the top, like, you know, areas, the visa points where everyone is looking to start businesses and thinking of ideas. Sure. So on the f one, I think, again, doing if you have the idea, and as as Josh and so eloquently said, if there's a real demand that you've identified and this, like, looks like a promising business, I think doing all of the steps prior to getting the work authorization, again, that's registering the entity. If funds if you have finances that allow for it, talking to a business attorney about how to raise capital and how to maybe register the, like, the business entity type, cultivating interest by networking, going out, and just trying to get a feel for your target consumer, all permissible prior to work authorization. Once the work authorization comes through, you are building the website. You are building like, you are actually running the business. Obviously, that needs to be approved by the DSO, and it needs to be documented on the I 20 that this is how you're you are using your OPT. With respect to the h one b, I referenced in the the chat, the h one b modernization rule went into effect last January, January 2025. It provides for a lot more flexibility for owner entrepreneurs to use their own business to, quote, unquote, sponsor their h one b, petition for an h one b for them. The bright line rule there is whether the majority of time on the h one b visa status will still be spent doing the specialty occupation. For example, if you own an accounting firm, is the majority of time going to be spent that you are doing taxes, you are doing accounting work versus time actually building, growing the business? So that's the the the majority of time needs to still be spent doing that specialty occupation work. Minority of time can be spent being the actual owner and doing all of those managerial tasks and administrative tasks that come with owning and operating a business. But I think there's there is a lot more flexibility under h one b to be the owner of the business that is sponsoring the h one b. Of course, there are other challenges inherent with h one b with the lottery and the randomness and all of. that, but there's. there is flexibility there. Yeah. I'll just add on the h one b side. If you have a company that can be affiliated or is affiliated with a, sorry. It has to be affiliated with a nonprofit research organization, which is any university. You do omit the, the lottery system, and you can get something called a cap exempt h one b, which has I mean, you don't have to go through lottery. You do have to go through the entire process of h one b. That doesn't change. All the wage requirements, everything, all of that stays the same. But you do, you know, skip the line from the from the lottery phase and, like, you can get but then that's only valid while your organization continues to be affiliated with the least nonprofit research organization or any university. So good option, but very often a very temporary option for many founders. So, just something. And for OPT, when you're on student visa on f one, you if you're just on f one and you are, like, in school, you cannot be working on your start up. But if you're on CPT or OPT and you have work authorization to work on your start up, like, the CPT cannot be with some other company and then you're working no. No. No. CPP has to be for your own startup. That is fine. That is like, then you can then raising money is a very normal process. You can do it even if you're a student on CPP. That doesn't change. But you. have to be have work authorization. That's very important. And your I 20 should reference your business. Yes. Yes. It should have your business name, there. Yes. Amazing. Amazing. I loved this conversation each and everything that you all have shared, especially as a US founder, immigrant founder here amongst the four of us. I learned a lot. I'm sure the audience would have learned as well. Feel free to connect with all four of us, outside this, session as well. And with that, I would love to pass on the mic to Stephanie and Shanesh to share more. Shanice, you wanna take it from here? Hi. Good morning, everyone. I'm Shanice Wallace from from the city of Boston. First and foremost, thank you for everyone who's attended this webinar this morning. And then thank you for Dipanji, Anushka, Allison, and Jajine for sharing your insights with us. And then thank you to StartUp Boston, Stephanie, for partnering with the city on the startup series. Our next event will be March 23. I'm sure Stephanie has already shared the registration in the chat. I'm looking forward for you all to attend that. Yeah. No. It'd be awesome to see everyone too. I think I did, but I got buried. So I'm gonna drop the link here for everyone who does want it, because it would be amazing to see you at our next event as Shanice mentioned. There we go. Sorry. Just wanted to make sure it was, like, front and center. And, Shanice, it's always so great. So great to partner with you. I hope to see you all on March 23, and the recording will be available to everyone that registered later today and then to the public in a couple days. So thanks for being here, and we'll see you soon. Have you, a good one, everyone. everyone. Thank you. a one. luck. Thank you. everyone. Thank you.