The Startup Visa #startupvisa

The Startup Visa is becoming quite a trend.  Why?  Because we need it, badly.

Paul Graham weighed in

The single biggest thing the government could do to increase the number of startups in this country is a policy that would cost nothing: establish a new class of visa for startup founders.

Brad Feld also shares some real world examples of how this is hitting home

I was hit squarely in the face with this over the summer.  Two of the ten TechStars Boulder teams were comprised of non-US founders – two from Canada and two from the UK.  Both lived in Boulder for the summer and want to relocate here and build their businesses in the US (and – specifically – in Boulder).  Over the summer we struggled to figure out ways to get them Visas – all of the proposed approaches were expensive, risky, and tiresome.  Both companies are still trying, but each are now seriously considering returning to their home countries to build their businesses.

Eric Ries started a twitter hashtag campaign in support of #startupvisa

However, there’s one additional issue that has come up throughout the day today. We have a serious structural barrier to entrepreneurship: a glitch in US immigration policy. We can remedy it by creating a special visa for startup founders. The idea is to enable up to 10,000 people per year to enter the United States if they are here to found a company that will employ US citizens.

This needs to be done.  More jobs, more innovation, and plain and simple, a better policy.

Locking them out with no way to come and start something up just doesn’t make sense.

Repost or #startupvisa a tweet to show your support.  Check out startupvisa.com for more information.