美國基金爲外籍創業者解決簽證難題
A new investment fund is bringing Silicon Valley’s problem-solving hacker ethos to US immigration law, looking to tackle the problem of potential entrepreneurs held back by a visa regime that has long frustrated the technology industry.
一家新成立的投資基金以硅谷解決問題的黑客精神來應對美國移民法，幫助解決因簽證受阻的未來企業家的困難。科技產業長期受到簽證制度的阻礙。
The fund, named Unshackled, and backed by co-founders of Yahoo and Palantir, has raised $3.5m to give early stage funding to foreigners working in the US who want to quit their job and launch a start-up but cannot because they need an employer to sponsor their visa.
這個名爲“Unshackled”（除去枷鎖）的基金受到雅虎(Yahoo)和Palantir的創始人們的支持，目前已籌集到350萬美元，用於爲那些在美國工作的外國創業者提供前期資金——這些人想要辭職創辦公司，但由於需要僱主擔保簽證而無法脫身。Unlike traditional venture funds, which invest capital in exchange for equity, Unshackled will take equity but also hire founders as employees, allowing them to keep their work visas while building their companies.
傳統的風險投資基金以投資換股權，Unshackled卻與之不同，它既接受股權，又將企業創始人聘請爲員工，讓他們在創辦公司時得以保留工作簽證。
Manan Mehta, Unshackled’s co-founder and the son of immigrants who moved to the US from India in the 1970s, said: “Every entrepreneur that we’re targeting is at a greater advantage because of the hustle that they’ve had to prove to get to this country and pursue the American dream.”
Unshackled的聯合創始人馬南•梅塔(Manan Mehta)也是移民後代，他的父輩在20世紀70年代從印度移居美國。梅塔說：“我們所看中的每一位創業者都有極大的優勢，因爲他們具有積極奮鬥的精神纔會來到這個國家並追求美國夢。”Current US immigration law has frustrated the Valley, where tech companies say they face a shortage of engineers and starting salaries for young developers can top $100,000. The US offers far fewer visas for skilled foreign workers, known as H-1Bs, than the number of applications it receives, and few executives are optimistic that the federal government will raise that cap soon.
美國現行移民法已阻礙了硅谷的發展，這裏的高科技公司表示他們面臨着工程師短缺的問題，年輕開發人員起薪可超10萬美元。美國針對外國專業人才發放的H-1B簽證遠低於申請數量，對於聯邦政府是否會很快增加簽證發放數量，高管們大多不抱樂觀想法。For foreigners who win the H-1B lottery, launching a company of their own is tricky as they must remain formally employed to keep the visa. Unshackled proposes to solve that problem by transferring work visas from the entrepreneurs’ current employers to Unshackled and then helping them incorporate and build their start-ups.
即使H-1B中彩，拿到簽證的外國人也很難開創公司，因爲他們必須維持正式工作以保留簽證。Unshackled爲解決該問題提出了建議，創業者可將工作簽證從當前僱主公司轉移到Unshackled，然後Unshackled會幫助他們組建公司。Under current law, foreign founders have taken various routes to stay in the US. One San Francisco-based European entrepreneur trying to transfer an existing H-1B visa to his own company has had to show that his board could fire him and that he owns only a minority of the company. He now meets those criteria after his company has raised millions of dollars in several funding rounds.
受制於現行法律，外國創始人爲留在美國採取了各種途徑。舊金山的一個歐洲企業家正試圖將現有的H-1B簽證轉移到他自己的公司，條件是他必須證明他的董事會可以解僱他，而且他只擁有公司的少數股權。在其公司從幾輪融資中得到數百萬美元資金後，他終於符合了上述條件。He says friends of his, also from overseas, have gone through Valley incubators and hired local engineers but have had to return to their home countries to await their own visas.
據這位歐洲企業家表示，他有幾位同樣來自海外的朋友在硅谷得到了成長，他們創業並聘用了當地工程師，卻不得不回到自己國家等待簽證。
