Right now, there's no startup visa of any kind. The closest thing is the EB-5 investor visa, but that requires investing $500k-$1mil of your own money (not investor money). And, the H-1B work visa prohibits starting your own company and self-sponsoring.
If they figured out a way to move here and start a company under the current U.S. immigration system, it would benefit a lot of people to know how they did it.
I don't know their story, but I imagine that they took similar route as others:
- start on ESTA or B1/B2
- switch to E2
- once successful-ish go for O-1
Actually these days there are lawyers specialized on obtaining O-1 in a pretty short period of time (3-5 weeks) for founders that get into incubators or raise >$300k.
Working on ESTA or B1/B2 would actually be considered "working without authorization" as neither permits gainful employment or self-employment (incl. remote/contract work).
The O-1 seems more plausible. You do have to be very impressive to get an O-1, but raising $300k in funding probably qualifies you.
They've been over there a while I believe. The Collison bros have for a long time been known as valedictorians - could well be they found some other means to get a visa.
Right now, there's no startup visa of any kind. The closest thing is the EB-5 investor visa, but that requires investing $500k-$1mil of your own money (not investor money). And, the H-1B work visa prohibits starting your own company and self-sponsoring.
If they figured out a way to move here and start a company under the current U.S. immigration system, it would benefit a lot of people to know how they did it.