Show #59 Eric Ries, StartupVisa.com, and the startup visa.

The Startup Success Podcast

Should there be a special immigration visa for non-U.S. startup founders? We grill Eric Ries of StartupVisa.com about the federal bill he and thousands of VCs, Angels, Silicon Valley notables, IT people, and others are supporting, tweeting and advocating.

Pat and Bob robustly question Eric on exactly how the Startup Visa would work, what it will and won’t do, how this VC/tech community political movement got started, and can social media become political action and even national policy.

We ask questions – tough questions – we and you, our listeners, have about this controversial bill. Also, Eric and other StartupVisa advocates met with members of Congress, The White House, Commerce Department, State Department and Small Business Administration last week, presenting thousands of tweets from voters around the country supporting the bill. What happened when Silicon Valley goes inside the Washington, D.C. Beltway?

And, this time Bob has a Microsoft announcement – Microsoft WebsiteSpark will soon be sponsoring 130 web designers and developers for six-month StartupToDo.com subscriptions.

Download Show #59 here: Show #59 Or if you prefer, Subscribe to the podcast in Apple iTunes.

Bob Walsh is on Twitter at http://twitter.com/bobwalsh or you can email him at bob.walsh@47hats.com.

Patrick Foley is on Twitter at http://twitter.com/patrickfoley or you can email him at patrick.foley@microsoft.com

URLs mentioned/relevant to this show:

• The Microsoft WebsiteSpark StartupToDo.com Scholarship: Microsoft WebsiteSpark is sponsoring 130 StartupToDo.com six-month scholarships for web designers and developers. Info, details and how to apply will be up at http://startuptodo.com/websitespark on March 15th.
• Mix10 and the Windows 7 Phone Series.
• StartupVisa.com.
• GeeksOnaPlane: A Tale of Two Erics / The Startup Visa Movement (Eric Diep, Eric Ries)
• Text of the proposed Startup Visa Act of 2010 (7 pages, pdf)
• VCs Push StartUp Visa Act (BusinessWeek) A group of investors is in Washington to push for passage of a bill that they say would make it easier for foreign entrepreneurs to stay—and create jobs—in the U.S.
• Startup Visa update, at Eric Ries blog, Lessons Learned
• http://startupvisa.com/support-us/
• StartupVisa, the Facebook page.
• @2gov and the StartupVisa2gov site.
• Kauffman foundation: for and against?
• Twitter Real-time results for #startupvisa.
• Startup Lessons Learned – the Conference (April 23, 2010 in SF)
• Show #49 Eric Ries, Lean Startup and product/market fit
• Sponsored by: StartupToDo.com, a subscription-based online training/productivity community for startups and microISVs. Be Successful Faster!