Does diversity come at a cost?
"We try to have around 20% of international students, as we find the diversity comes at a cost"
Those brutally un-encouraging words were said to me by an admissions officer from a top tier US business school during my application process. If ever the was a time I wished I'd had F*** You Money, this was it.
I wasn't born here. I moved to the US in 2003, and for 8 years, I've labored under the incredibly complex US immigration policy, during which time I've held 5 different Visas and one funky Training Certificate. I've spent several tens of thousands of dollars on lawyers, and dragged investors, co-workers and business partners into this merry little immigration dance. Finally, this year, I can put this behind me, as I have finally been granted an O1 Visa, aka Alien of Extraordinary Ability, which theoretically allows me to work in the US for up to 15 years, so long as I stay in the same field ("digital marketing" - I cast a wide net). Once I hit 48, I'll re-evaluate.
Its good to know that anytime someone tells me my marketing ideas are stupid, I can now retort that as a Digital Marketer of Extraordinary Ability the US Government has deemed my marketing skills to be a bit good, otherwise, its nice to not have to worry about it.
US immigration law is broken. With over 50% of Silicon Valley Founders (America's Growth Engine) being foreign born, you'd think it would be easier for Entrepreneurs to start up shop here. Despite the fact that I've raised over $20m for the companies I've run, created over 100 jobs for US Citizens, paid millions in corporate tax, and a healthy amount in personal tax too (don't forget that I'm ineligible for whatever meager social security payments everyone else will be entitled to), I've still had to dance for my Visa for years.
The bright hope is the Startup Visa, and its something that's slowly gathering steam, with VCs like Fred Wilson and Brad Feld pushing for it. You can learn more, or, petition your local leaders here.
As a result of being an Englishman in New York, I think more about diversity than ever before.
At Lot18 we have an eclectic mix: some folk here have seen genuine combat (we stopped making trite "code ninja" references after hiring people that had served tours in Afghanistan), a lot of people from the wine industry, and for some reason, a hell of a lot of the team are theatrically trained or practicing clowns.
Like the value you can get when you first put a dev, a designer and a biz person in the same room, the different ages, race, sex, religion and cultural backgrounds are one of our great assets. We're building something that has a potential market of hundreds of millions of people, and our potential customers look like all of us.