>>18495106 lb
>>18495106 lb
>@3:30 Tucker does not watch TV or videos
notable interview of Tucker, anon.
repost
for many reason but in particular
@39:10 "if you say what actually happened toBuilding 7"
>was SVB the wokest bank in America?
>https://accessventures.org/blog/shruti-shah-podcast/
About This Episode
On this episode, Bryce sits down with Shruti Shah, Entrepreneur in Residence at theSilicon Valley Bank. Growing up as an adopted Jewish Indian American in Memphis, TN, Shruti has a unique perspective on people and community which is empowering but also exhausting. She discusses how access to opportunity and social capital is intertwined with community, how that has informed her career path, and her thoughts around success and failure, inclusivity and much more.
Shruti is currently working with an early stage practice team on strategic partnerships while also developing an idea for a new type of funding for startups. She was previously the co-founder and COO of Y Combinator backed Move Loot, an online full-service marketplace for buying and selling used furniture, where she led the national expansion and general business operations.
Over the course of three years, she and her co-founding team raised $22 million dollars to scale the business across the United States. Move Loot was featured in numerous publications including Forbes, TechCrunch, Bloomberg Business Week, CNN, TIME, Fortune and more.
Shruti was honored by Forbes as a 2016 30 Under 30 recipient in Retail and E-Commerce and the Aspen Institute as an Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar in reimagining capitalism. Prior to co-founding Move Loot, Shruti worked for the New Schools Venture Seed Fund, a seed fund that invests in early-stage education technology companies, and she was also a public school teacher in Baltimore, through Teach for America, where she taught 2nd, 4th, and 5th grade at Graceland Park O’Donnell Heights Elementary Middle School.
Shruti earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with a minor in Entrepreneurship from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and she earned her Master of Science in Education with a focus on Urban Education from Johns Hopkins University. Learn how Shruti has let her experiences shape the way she is using innovation to address the lack of access and opportunity in certain communities by listening to this episode of More Than Profit.
>Entrepreneur in Residence at theSilicon Valley Bank
this sounds like a scam for some reason
>https://hunterwalk.medium.com/entrepreneur-in-residence-used-to-be-one-of-silicon-valley-s-most-prestigious-titles-94d1cceecd64
Hunter Walk
Hunter Walk
Nov 10, 2021
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3 min read
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‘Entrepreneur In Residence’ Used To Be One Of Silicon Valley’s Most Prestigious Titles. Now It’s Dead.
Buying Talent Is More Attractive Than Renting In Today’s Competitive Venture Market
Imagine getting paid a solid salary to sit around and think up new startup ideas, distracted only by the free food and opportunities to sit in on discussions of the latest, hottest technologies. Well, if you were an Entrepreneur-In-Residence at one of the large Silicon Valley venture firms during the last few decades, that was your gig. The quid pro quo was that if you settled on an idea that the firm found to be fundable, you’d give them first shot at backing you, although not necessarily exclusively and certainly not contractually. It was more of an unwritten rule. Repeat entrepreneurs and departing big tech company execs would often do pitstops as EIRs, sometimes even simultaneously at two firms (otherwise known as the circa 2008 Jeff Weiner Flex). But now in 2021 you rarely hear about EIRs and they’re certainly not the golden prize of previous years. Why is this?
VCs think WHY RENT WHEN YOU CAN BUY? In today’s market, where there’s limitless capital chasing “consensus startups” the risk of waiting to write a termsheet is too great. If you believe enough in a founder to invite them to be an EIR you might as well just give them some money on a note and let them iterate with you already pot-committed. Otherwise someone else will swoop in and offer them an alternative. So a GPs incentive is to take a flyer and let the founders explore their interest areas with that capital, rather than as an EIR. If nothing comes of it the company will just unwind/return capital, or worst case, it’s a writeoff for the fund. But that risk is worth taking these days for the large VCs.
Founders RATHER USE THEIR OWN MONEY OR ANGEL MONEY if they’re not ready to take venture dollars. Before you tell me that the majority of founders don’t have their own capital already and/or a network of friends and family that can write them six figure checks, let me remind you that I’m talking about EIRs specifically, which were already predominantly repeat entrepreneurs and/or Big Tech Co execs. A 10+ year bull market means that the significant majority of these people have the capital to self-fund for a bit and/or more wealthy friends than the did in 2011. The end result is that why entangle yourself in an EIR role if you don’t need the salary, don’t need the introductions (VCs are no longer gatekeepers to funding, talent, etc), don’t need the office (seriously, sometimes people just liked a place to go work) and so on.
Sure some entrepreneurs still align with venture firms for co-development or “EIR-like” relationships but they’re not formal, don’t typically involve salary and importantly, aren’t bragged about publicly by the firms (less everyone else try to elbow into the deal). Farewell EIR….
Alexander Levy
Entrepreneur In Residence at Silicon Valley Bank
Location: Toronto, Canada
Alex Levy is the Entrepreneur In Residence at Silicon Valley Bank. Prior to this he was the Co-Founder and COO at Atomwise. Alexander is an entrepreneur with experience bringing technology from the lab to the market. As CEO of MyVoice, Alexander took software developed at the University of Toronto for people with speech disabilities into more than 30 countries and was featured by Discovery Channel, Engadget, Fast Company, BNN, CBC, and CTV.
Alexander was named PROFIT Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year and the University of Toronto’s Inventor of the Year.
Alexander LevyCareer (4)
2018
Silicon Valley Bank
Entrepreneur In Residence
Jan-2013
Assistive Technology Industry Association
Board Member
Jan-2013 to 2018
Atomwise
Co-Founder and COO
Feb-2011 to Jan-2015
MyVoice Inc
Founder and CEO
Competencies
Other
Healthcare (Industries)
>Entrepreneur In Residence at Silicon Valley Bank
>this sounds like a scam for some reason
money laundering?
Visas for operators?
Global Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program Gets First Corporate Partnership With Silicon Valley Bank
by william.brah | Sep 17, 2015 | 0 comments
GEIR Program Will Add 10 New Entrepreneurs
On Thursday, the Massachusetts Global Entrepreneur-in-Residence (GEIR) program announced a majorgift from Silicon Valley Bank,its first corporate partner. The program, which is based at the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Venture Development Center, will also expand from two to 12 participating entrepreneurs this year.
According to William Brah, founder and Executive Director of the Venture Development Center, partnering with Silicon Valley Bank is a major validation for the GEIR program, an innovative approach to retaining entrepreneurial talent in the state.
SVB’s $30,000 donation will help UMass Boston continue to support these global entrepreneurs, who will have a unique joint appointment at the school — serving as university employees who mentor student startups in addition to running their own companies. Additionally, the GEIR program helps company founders and other early employees navigate the H-1B visa process.
“We believe that a global experience is an important part of our students’ education,” said UMass Boston Chancellor J. Keith Motley. “The donation from Silicon Valley Bank not only boosts job creation here in Massachusetts but prepares our entrepreneurial students for global success.”
The GEIR program was initially conceived by venture capitalist and Harvard Business School professor Jeff Bussgang, immigration lawyer Jeffrey Goldman, and introduced by former governor Deval Patrick in 2014, but had its funding cut due to a budget deficit. However, Governor Charlie Baker, working with members of the innovation community, eventually reinstated $100,000 to support the program as a public-private partnership.
Both Brah and Bussgang said that they hope that the involvement of Silicon Valley Bank will encourage other corporate entities to participate in helping scale the program.
“This is a great partnership between the public and private sectors to help smooth the path to visas for entrepreneurs,” said Bussgang, a general partner at Flybridge Capital Partners. “It completes the vision of Massachusetts as a global innovation magnet. The program participants would not be in Massachusetts today if it wasn’t for the Global EIR program. They would have started their companies elsewhere or not at all.”
“Access to talent is one of the biggest challenges faced by fast-growing, innovative companies,” said Dave Buxton, Managing Director for Silicon Valley Bank in Boston. “We aim to help increase the probability of our clients’ success and remove barriers to innovation and business growth. Through the great work of the Venture Development Center, we believe the GEIR program gives a significant boost to young companies and entrepreneurs, and we’re happy to be a part of it.”
Two program participants have been announced to date. Both Harvard Business School graduates, Bryan O’Connell is the founder and chief executive of online doctor’s office FirstLine, while Vivekdeep Gupta is the founder and chief executive of financial tech startup Covrd. Both of the participant’s companies have raised more than $2 million in funding since joining the GEIR program last year.
The program has also added new entrepreneurs to fill the GEIR role this year. One, Mohit Kansal, a graduate of MIT Sloan School of Management, led his financial tech team to the finals of this year’s MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. Others include members of startups Perfetch, Potoo, MorphLab, REsurety, Inc., Vetted, and HSTRY.
“We are thrilled with the way the administration has embraced the program, especially given the budget challenges Gov. Baker faces. It shows that they are prioritizing talent and the innovation community as part of a larger economic development strategy,” Bussgang said.
“Public-private partnerships are key drivers for the Commonwealth’s economic success,” said Massachusetts Housing and Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash. “Massachusetts is competing for talent and business development globally, so it’s critical that the Commonwealth be proactive about welcoming, and nurturing, entrepreneurs, wherever they hail from. Programs such as the Global Entrepreneur in Residence provide a strong foundation for creative thinking and the innovative solutions required to grow businesses in Massachusetts.”
For more information about the program or to apply to participate, go to https://vdc.umb.edu/geir/.
>Visas for operators?
How Does the Massachusetts Global Entrepreneur in Residence Program Work?
by william.brah | Apr 20, 2019 | 3 comments
A solution for entrepreneurs struggling with the uncertainty and limitationsof the U.S. visa system
“The Global Entrepreneur in Residence program seemed too good to be true, and we were skeptical at the beginning. But a couple of months after we engaged, we had the visa we needed. Now we are full of excitement about the prospects of our endeavor…”
MIT Media Lab grad Hasier Larrea – Founder, Ori Systems
Seeking a visa to move to or remain in Massachusetts and work for your newly created company? You might be transitioning from F-1 after graduating from a university; B-1 after participating in a startup accelerator; J-1 after completing an education exchange program; or you might be seeking to transfer your H-1B from another employer to your startup company.
Because there is no startup visa for entrepreneurs in the U.S. immigration system, entrepreneurs usually seek an H-1B visa. The H-1B is popular since it lasts for three years, but can be extended for another three years for a total of six years, more than enough time to establish a growing venture.
However, in seeking one of these magic tickets, entrepreneurs face multiple challenges. The entrepreneur’s startup company may not be sufficiently advanced in terms of financing and governance to even qualify to submit an H-1B petition. Plus, H-1B visas are capped at 85,000 per year, but two to three times as many apply for the visa, necessitating a lottery to determine the lucky 85,000 winners. The company has to wait for the next April 1st to file, hope it wins the H-1B lottery, and then wait until October 1st for the employee to start.
To smooth the path, Massachusetts established the Global Entrepreneur in Residence (GEIR) program. By working part-time at the University of Massachusetts, entrepreneurs can obtain a cap-exempt H-1B visa anytime during the year, since universities are exempt from the annual H-1B quota. The program gives an entrepreneur time to master the company building process, and document their talent and ability, so that they can eventually obtain a visa independent of the University of Massachusetts. GEIR graduates to date in Massachusetts have successfully filed capped H-1B petitions in the national lottery; O-1 (extraordinary ability) petitions; and EB-1 or 2 (green card) applications.
>How Does the Massachusetts Global Entrepreneur in Residence Program Work?
How rescuing Ori’s rockstar engineer illustrates the program’s benefits
Ori’s case demonstrates how the GEIR program works. While at the MIT Media Lab doing research, Haiser and Ori co-founders Ivan and Chad, engineers, came up with the idea of a robotic furniture company. A floor-to-ceiling unit would incorporate a bed and a closet on one side, and a home office and an entertainment suite on the other, transforming a tiny apartment into one that feels two to three times the size.
The team undertook preliminary activities necessary to start up Ori that are not considered “work” for which a visa is required under U.S. immigration law. As part of their educational program, the team developed the actuators, electronics and software that enable the heavy furniture units to glide and change shape, and then began meeting with and presenting their business idea to potential funders and customers.
Shortly after graduating from MIT, Haiser was able to secure seed investment ($750,000) from an angel investor. Seed investment triggered the formation of a board of directors with power to control the company. Although qualified to sponsor an H-1B visa, Haiser’s company faced another challenge. One of the co-founders, Ivan, needed an H-1B visa right away to keep the founding team intact after graduation. The startup company’s investor funding was received in November, but the H-1B lottery wasn’t until the following April and if his co-founder was selected, the visa would not be issued until October.
Ivan turned to the GEIR program, under which a university can step in any time during the year to facilitate an entrepreneur’s visa until the company can independently seek one. Haiser moved the company to the Venture Development Center. It was a win-win collaboration, as the university was actively seeking highly skilled mentors for a new engineering program. Haiser’s company filed an H-1B visa a petition and it was granted. The Venture Development Center had written a letter describing how the work performed by Ivan furthers the normal, primary, or essential work performed by the University of Massachusetts.
The visa kept the founding team intact and focused on developing the business. The following April, the company filed an H-1B petition in the lottery, and was notified in September that it had been granted. The company then “graduated” and moved from the Venture Development Center, with an H-1B visa independent of the University of Massachusetts. The company was at the Venture Development Center for about one year, during which it completed pilot projects and raised additional $6,000,000 Series A funding to manufacture and distribute more furniture units.
When the Global Entrepreneur in Residence program is right for you
The GEIR program is an ideal solution to the uncertainty and limitations of the visa system, when:
• The timelines of the national H-1B lottery don’t work for you.
• The uncertainty of the national H-1B lottery is intolerable.
• You missed out getting an H-1B in the lottery.
• You need a little more time to raise funding and establish a board so your startup company can qualify to apply for an H-1B, O-1 or EB-2 visa.
The latter case is typical. While on OPT approved by their university, an entrepreneur started building a minimum viable product, and continued to seek feedback from potential investors and customers. U.S. immigration rules are fairly simple–the majority of work (paid or unpaid) they will be doing during OPT must be related to their major field of study.
When the first year of OPT ends, however, the entrepreneur will no longer be able to work for their business unless it is qualified to employ them, and secures an H-1B visa. Qualified means it has raised at least $200,000 to demonstrate it can pay the entrepreneur at least part-time wages. And it has a board of directors which has the ability to control the employment of the entrepreneur. Many promising startups are not far enough along after OPT. In some cases, they need visa certainty to close the investment. So, entrepreneurs must seek an alternative means of work authorization. GEIR gives them more time to raise funding.
>>How Does the Massachusetts Global Entrepreneur in Residence Program Work?
Why cap-exempt employment of entrepreneurs is authorized
The Massachusetts GEIR program carefully follows U.S. immigration law. Cap-exempt employment of highly skilled entrepreneurs “by” or “at” a university is authorized under the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act (AC21), passed in October 2000. Among other things, AC21 exempts most U.S. institutions of higher education from the annual H-1B quota in order to relieve pressure on the H-1B quota and ensure these employers have reliable access to international specialists when filling professional positions. Subsequent memos issued by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) provided guidance on cap-exempt H-1B employment. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) included the guidance in regulations issued on November 18, 2016 that went into effect on January 17, 2017.
Under the DHS regulations, there are two ways skilled entrepreneurs and universities may collaborate:
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“Employed by” a cap-exempt organization. USCIS regulations state that if an individual already is employed under a cap-exempt H-1B by a cap-exempt organization, then any other employer including the employee’s startup company may immediately petition for its own cap-exempt H-1B to be concurrent with the cap-exempt organization’s H-1B.
Thus, a university can sponsor an H-1B for the startup founder as a mentor for as little as 8 hours per week, then as soon as this cap-exempt H-1B is approved by USCIS and the founder is inside the U.S. in H-1B status, the founder’s company may piggy-back on top of this cap-exempt H-1B petition and file its own cap-exempt H-1B petition for the founder to immediately work full time for the company (concurrently with the part-time H-1B held by the cap-exempt organization). The law permits this even though otherwise the company would have had to wait for the next April 1st to file, hope it wins the H-1B lottery, and then wait until October 1st for the employee to start.
Employed “by” the university is best suited to an entrepreneur with a friends and family funded startup company that anticipates but has not as yet received seed funding for their company. They spend the rest of their time raising funds for their company so that it can sponsor their concurrent visa. The time gap between the two visas should be short, however, as the entrepreneur is not allowed to work for the startup without the second visa. Until getting that visa, the entrepreneur must limit their involvement in the startup to passive activities such as attending business meetings, and making presentations and negotiating with investors and customers in an effort to source funding for the startup.
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“Employed at” a cap-exempt organization. USCIS recognizes that Congress chose to exempt from the numerical limitations of the H-1B cap certain foreign nationals who are employed “at” a cap-exempt organization, which is a broader category than foreign nationals employed “by” a cap-exempt organization.
Thus, USCIS allows all U.S. employers to directly file a cap-exempt H-1B petition if the foreign national worker is physically placed at a cap-exempt institution, and spends the majority of his or her work time performing job duties at a qualifying organization that directly and predominately further the essential purpose, mission, objectives or functions of the qualifying institution or organization, namely, higher education or nonprofit or governmental research. The U.S. employer directly filing a cap-exempt H-1B petition must be able to prove a logical nexus between the work performed predominately by the beneficiary and the normal, primary, or essential work performed by the qualifying institution.
Under the “employed by” and “employed at” pathways in the Massachusetts GEIR program, the entrepreneur must work in Boston at the Venture Development Center, the worksite listed in the H-1B, and in the job it was filed for. An entrepreneur cannot work in a different city or a different type of job, for example, if the company has a pilot in another city, the entrepreneur can travel to and from that city for meetings but can’t work there without a new H-1B petition.
What a Global Entrepreneur in Residence does
The Massachusetts law enabling GEIR at the University of Massachusetts states its objective as giving entrepreneurs “with the potential to create a high growth company” the opportunity to move to or remain in the Commonwealth to work on “assignments that further the university’s interests while developing skills required for organizing and establishing successful new business ventures.” These purposes are synergistic, because one of the best ways to develop skills is to practice them and then to teach others at the university how to do them. So, during the GEIR program, entrepreneurs focus on mastering the company building process, and sharing that knowledge and their expertise with university faculty, students and peers. The entrepreneurs give guest lectures in a class; train student interns; sponsor a capstone course project; or provide real-world challenges for problem-based courses. The entrepreneurs also come together every week at the VDC for a lively community lunch and learn and occasionally listen to eminences. They also schedule individual office hours as needed with the VDC staff, which are experienced in company building.
How universities benefit from Global Entrepreneurs in Residence on campus
The GEIR curriculum benefits the entrepreneur and the university. At the University of Massachusetts, the entrepreneurs are involved in ten problem-based courses in the Spring 2019 semester. In one, CS 410, the computer science capstone, professor Marc Pomplun enlisted four entrepreneurs in GEIR to participate. According to Marc: “The VDC entrepreneurs are a huge benefit to our students and to me – I don’t have to try hard to come up with project ideas that will most likely be inferior and less interesting and relevant to the students. And I don’t have to do as much supervision and can focus on other aspects of the course, mainly teaching.”
One of his students, Kristin Laird, agreed: “For many students, it’s their first experience to startup culture and solving real-world tech problems, and the insight and experience the entrepreneurs are lending is invaluable. Their guest lectures have been engaging and interesting, going beyond what we would normally have an opportunity to learn.”
GEIR Thrasyvoulos Karydis, founder of DeepCure, adds: “The students have been exceptional, contributing enough time from their schedule to get substantial work done for the projects — something that initially I had doubted would be the case. From the point of DeepCure, the engagement with the students has been very successful. The projects, while not part of our critical development roadmap, will be very useful to the company and will save us time and effort in developing our main product.”
At most universities, professors need to constantly network in order to find real-world projects and high quality sponsors for their problem-based courses. It is rare to find ones who have the time to guide student projects during the entire semester. By turning to the global entrepreneurs in residence, professors find real-world projects that motivate students by helping them make relevant connections between what they’re learning and their career goals.
A university welcomes entrepreneurs under the “employed by” and “employed at” cap-exemption if as in the case of the Venture Development Center, part of its mission and/or objectives is to create an entrepreneurial environment where students can combine critical thinking with practical experience. By partnering with immigrant entrepreneurs, universities can get access to these entrepreneurs’ experience in the startup world and highly skilled expertise to provide an educational resource for their students.
At the University of Massachusetts, the GEIR program is a public-private partnership. The cost of operating the program, including paying the attorney and filing fees associated with obtaining the H-1B visa, is shouldered by the university and partially underwritten by a state grant from the Mass Tech Collaborative. The cost of the entrepreneur’s part-time employment is also borne by the university and partially supported by sponsorships from third party entities such as investors, banks, law firms and employers, with demonstrable independent interest in the success of the participating entrepreneur and their company. Neither a participating entrepreneur, directly or indirectly, nor their relatives qualify as sponsors.
How Global Entrepreneurs in Residence graduate from the program
The GEIR program helps entrepreneurs carefully plan their long-term residency strategy. In Massachusetts, most entrepreneurs spend 9-18 months in GEIR before graduating. GEIR graduates to date have successfully filed an H-1B petition in the lottery; filed an O-1 petition; or filed an EB-1 or 2. GEIR gives an entrepreneur time to document their talent and ability. While they wait for the EB-1 or 2 green card, as an H-1B holder, in many cases, they can get unlimited extensions of their H-1B for as many years at it takes to complete their green card application.