Silicon Valley's H1B's and Immigrant Entrepreneurs

Monday, January 12, 2009

Raju Vegesna is an evangelist for Zoho and is one of the foremost thought leaders in the Office 2.0 revolution. Raju is one of the key people responsible for developing the strategic direction of the Zoho Suite. Prior to joining AdventNet, Raju co-founded an Internet services company serving the educational market. He holds a Bachelors degree in Computer Science.

Zoho is a remarkable company. They have out maneuvered all the usual suspects such as Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce at their own games. The entire operation has been boot-strapped and today, the company generates revenues of $40 million a year from all its divisions and makes a profit of $1 million a month. The company also does not hire MBAs or Ivy League school grads because business today moves so fast that they seek people with real world experience versus those who have learned it from a text book. Zoho was the winner of Best Web 2.0 Apps at our Web 2.0 Conference in January.

RICK ROCAMORA has won awards for his images and picture stories from Asian American Journalist Association, SF Bay Area Press Photographers Association, New California Media, Media Alliance; he was awarded a California Arts Council Art Fellowship and a Local Bay Area Heroes Award from KQED and Union Bank of California for his work about Filipino WW II Veterans. His work is widely exhibited in national and international museums and galleries. His work is part of a collection of American arts most recently exhibited at the Court of Saint James in the United Kingdom and the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. His work is included in the traveling exhibition “Points of Entry-A Nation of Strangers,” which was exhibited at the Smithsonian, Center for Photographic Arts, Museum of Photographic Arts, and other venues. His images are part of “Pork and Perks - Corruption and Governance in the Philippines” a National Book Award winner in the Philippines in 1994. “Second-Class Veterans” a film produced by Don Young that profiled Rocamora’s undying efforts to document the day-to-day lives of Filipino veterans was broadcast on PBS stations in 2003 and 2004. His book about Filipino WWII veterans, "America's Second-Class Veterans" is scheduled for publication before the end of 2008. He is also working on a project about Muslim-Americans after 9/11.

NOTES, QUOTES, AND RESEARCH INFORMATIONS

I think back to my days when I joined IBM. I could speak English reasonably well and so was very well accepted by and large. But I never thought of myself as the guy who was going to rise up the chain and finally end up being president of the IBM Corporation. I didn’t look like somebody who could be president of IBM and I never even thought that’s what I wanted to do. I just at some point left and said, “Fine, I’ll start my own company and that’s the way I’ll do it.” I think there are a lot of Indians who feel that way." Umang Gupta, President, Pan IIT

“Fifty-two percent of companies responding to the survey believed that for every H-1B professional they hired it created one or more complementary jobs at their firms or in the U.S. economy. Twenty-two percent thought the hiring of an H-1B visa holder created 10 or more jobs. Seventy-four percent of company respondents said an inability to fill positions because of the lack of H-1B visas has potentially affected their “company’s competitiveness against foreign competitors or in international markets.” NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR AMERICAN POLICY NFAP POLICY BRIEF » MARCH 2008

The United States is becoming utterly unexceptional on another issue—immigration. It’s not really news that majorities everywhere want to restrict and control immigration. But it is strange that sentiment is as strong in the world’s foremost nation of immigrants. Foreign companies and foreigners—as well as expanding trade, travel and markets—are all going to be a large part of the 21st century. Look around. If you update the current ranking of the 10 richest people in the world, you will find that eight of them are now non-Americans and every one is an entrepreneur. The natives have gotten very good at capitalism.” Fareed Zakaria - Newsweek

U.S. colleges and universities are not enrolling enough engineering students, resulting in a shortage of information technology professionals in many specialties. Without students graduating, the shortage can only become worse. In addition to boosting engineering enrollment, he urged opening the gates to more foreign workers, including H-1B holders. “Without H-1B visas, we would have economic dislocation.” Robert Cresanti - Undersecretary of Commerce for Technology,

“Intel, eBay, Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, and many other companies were all founded by immigrants who were welcomed by America. In fact, over the last 15 years, foreign nationals have started 25% of U.S. venture-backed public companies, accounting for more than $500 billion in market capitalization and adding significant value to our economy. We are not the only ones recruiting talented engineers, scientists and mathematicians. We are in a fierce worldwide competition for top talent unlike ever before” Laszlo Bock - Google

“The whole idea of the H1B thing is don’t let too many smart people come into the country. You can’t imagine how tough it is to plan as a company where we say, ‘let’s have this engineering group and staff it.’ You get a few and then you go through these periods where nobody can come in. It’s very dangerous because you get this reaction: ‘Okay, the world is very competitive, let’s cut back on trade; the world is very scary, let’s cut back on visas” Bill Gates – Microsoft

Note to Washington: About half of VC-backed company founders are immigrants by Mark Heesen

For those who live and work in Silicon Valley, the positive impact of foreign nationals on the region is obvious. The area has long been a magnet for the best and brightest students, entrepreneurs and professionals from all over the world to thrive. Just look at some of the companies that were founded by these individuals and you start to get a sense as to their value • to our lives and to our economy.

The venture capital community has long understood the importance of making sure the cream of crop continues to come to the US to build businesses. In the past, based on anecdotes, we had estimated that at least half of our member’s portfolio companies had at least one immigrant founder. But no one ever made a serious attempt to quantify it until now.

Today the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) is releasing a study that reveals some astounding numbers regarding the national prevalence and the contributions of immigrant entrepreneurs to our economic health • and highlights again the urgent need to fix our immigration policies before the US loses its global innovation leadership.

NVCA has been involved for years in the effort to reform H1-B visa and green card policies. But given the increased rancor of the immigration debate this year, the focus on illegal immigration, and the strong sense within the venture community that these issues impact US competitiveness we decided we needed hard data to really make the case. The study speaks for itself in terms of the dramatic impact immigrant entrepreneurs have had on the US economy.

In terms of positive impact, the numbers are impressive:

â€¢ Companies founded by immigrants and initially backed by venture capital account for more than $500 billion of total U.S. market capitalization.

â€¢ Over the past 15 years, in fact, immigrants have started 25 percent of all the venture-backed companies that have gone public.

â€¢ Immigrant-founded, venture-backed public companies today employ an estimated 220,000 people in the United States and over 400,000 people globally

Quality may be more important than quantity, however, as these companies • concentrated largely in cutting edge sectors • tend to generate white collar jobs that pay high salaries, which in turn help to create wealth and raise living standards.

We also looked to test the premise that half of the current venture-backed companies had at least one immigrant founder. We surveyed these companies and garnered more than 340 responses from around the country. It appears our intuition was in the ballpark. Of those responding to the survey, nearly half (47 percent) of the founders of private companies were immigrants, and almost two-thirds (66 percent) of the immigrant have already started or intend to start more companies in the United States.

While the successes have been great for our industry and the US economy, they also suggest an alarming reality: The US is essentially stunting its own growth by not reforming its immigration system with the proper urgency.

Responses to the NVCA survey bear this out:

â€¢ More than 2/3 of immigrant entrepreneurs agreed with the notion that U.S. immigration policy has made it more difficult than in the past to start a business in America.

â€¢ Sixty-six percent of respondents who use H-1B visas indicated that “current U.S. immigration laws affecting skilled professionals harm American competitiveness.”

â€¢ Among companies who use H-1B visas, nearly 40 percent said the lack of H-1B visas •has “negatively impacted [their] company when competing against other firms globally.”

â€¢ One-third of the respondents indicated that the lack of H-1B visas had influenced their firm’s decision to place more personnel in facilities abroad.

Fortunately, it’s not too late. According to the research, 95 percent of the immigrant founders in private companies would still start their companies in the United States if given the choice today. By raising the H-1B cap, among other measures, we can ensure that America continues to draw the world’s best and brightest minds • and thus share in the wealth that they create as crucial participants in the US innovation economy.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Rocamora's other projects

NOTES, QUOTES, AND RESEARCH INFORMATIONS

Note to Washington: About half of VC-backed company founders are immigrants by Mark Heesen

America's Unrecognized Assets