Some of the most well-known tech companies today were born out of the Great Recession of the late 2000s, including Twilio, Airbnb, and Dropbox. For a certain kind of entrepreneur, the challenges of an economic downturn represent an exciting chance to build something new from the rubble of the old.
Many of those top tech companies were founded by former employees of titans like Amazon or Google, which has given hope that the wave of layoffs sweeping Silicon Valley will lead to a similar startup renaissance.
But that opportunity simply isn't available to a certain key class of tech worker: The immigrants who are in the US on work visas like the H-1B. Many of tech's most powerful and influential figures, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the Stripe cofounders John and Patrick Collison, and Zoom CEO Eric Yuan came to the US as immigrants.
H-1B visas are sponsored by the holder's employer, meaning that if they lose their job — either voluntarily or as part of a layoff — they generally have to return to their home country within 60 days. That's bad news for tech because those workers possess important, highly desirable skills, and it's not clear whether or when they'd be able to come back if they wanted to.
Enter a new breed of venture-capital firms trying to keep that talent in the US by making it easier for immigrants to found American startups — sometimes even by sponsoring those visas themselves.
Jacob Colker, a managing partner of the AI2 Incubator program for artificial-intelligence startups, told Insider he wanted to change the perception that it's impossible to build a company while on an H-1B visa. It's certainly not easy, but it is possible, he said.
"If you are truly compelled to go solve a problem, and you want to control your own destiny, and you want to make your dent in the universe, and you're on an H-1B, it is possible to found a company," Colker said. "It is not guaranteed."
Insider spoke with four firms that focus on investing in immigrant founders, which represent a mix of VC firms and startup incubators, about how to pitch them and which types of resources they could provide.