Moving to Silicon Valley from abroad can be a daunting experience. Foreign founders will be presented with challenges that many American entrepreneurs would never have to face: getting visas, navigating cultural differences, and constantly speaking in a second language. Seven foreign-founding alumni of Y Combinator, silicon valley’s most famous startup accelerator, share some of their thoughts on what it takes to make the move successfully.
1. Approach Influencers
Silicon Valley is known across the world for being open minded to new partnerships and collaborations. This can be advantageous for new arrivals who want to build a network from scratch. International founders are often surprised at how easy it is to connect with influencers in the ecosystem. Startup founders from East Asia, who are particularly accustomed to rigid social etiquette, can be especially struck by this phenomenon.
Jackie Kong is a Hong Kong national who cofounded Branch8, a website that helps sellers manage multiple marketplaces. He advises Asian founders to embrace the Bay Area’s culture of openness and curiosity. Kong says, “The bay area is very startup friendly and most people are willing to help you. Don’t be afraid to approach influential people. You’ll be surprised by who responds.”
2. Connect with Other Expats
Although it’s easy to meet people in the tech scene, foreign founders can build a network before they arrive. Connecting to existing international communities in the valley is a great way to establish yourself and get invited to events. Great resources for building relationships include Internations, Meetup, and expat-specific groups on Facebook. For a more professional approach, foreign founders should reach out to their contacts on Linkedin and Angel List.
Victor Liew is a Singaporean national and a cofounder of Xfers, a gateway that allows you to collect and send payments automatically. For him, the natural gravitation people feel towards others from their home country is one that supports network creation. “Expatriates naturally gravitate to people from their home country,” Liew says. “Explore your Linkedin contacts based in the valley and tell them you’re coming. This is a great way to quickly make new connections.”
3. Prioritize Time over Money
Silicon Valley startups are notorious for burning through millions of dollars to grow rapidly. This can be shocking to foreign founders, who often come from cultures that encourage penny-pinching. While profligate spending isn’t a means to success, excessive frugality can also be detrimental to foreign founders.
“Brazil’s business culture prioritizes saving money above all else. We used to fully embrace this mentality,” says Roberto Riccio, the Brazilian co-founder of Glio, an ecommerce marketplace for perfumes and cosmetics. “Although being frugal is a good strategy, it could mean that you're sacrificing growth and time. You should identify your high leverage tasks and outsource everything else. You can make up the money you spend by being more effective with your time.”
4. Invest in Product and Growth
A staggering fortune has been invested into startups in the past decade. Unfortunately, trends like these reinforce the myth that anyone can show up to Silicon Valley and immediately receive millions from investors. While the Bay Area offers founders the best chance of sourcing investments, moving to San Francisco with nothing but a business plan is unlikely to result in success. Founders should have, at a bare minimum, a functioning prototype and live demo to convince investors that they can deliver results.
Ritesh Patel, a British-Australian expat and CEO of The Ticket Fairy, advises foreign founders that it is absolutely imperative that they focus on product over investment. “Though you may have better luck with investors in the Bay Area than in Europe, you still need to show that your business is viable,” Patel insists. “You should focus almost exclusively on improving your product and monthly growth in paying customers. This will make your venture an attractive deal for potential investors.”
5. Outsource to your Native Country
One of the main reasons why startups notoriously burn through mountains of cash is because of the Bay Area’s high cost of living. Silicon Valley is home to world class engineers who command six figure salaries. While aggressive spending may be necessary for hiring elite developers, it often makes better sense for foreign founders to outsource some job functions back home.
“Being a foreign national in Silicon Valley can easily be turned into a strength,” says Paul Rivera, a Filipino national and the CEO of cloud-based recruitment platform, Kalibrr. “Most international founders come from countries where salaries are dramatically lower than those in the bay area. You can scale your company’s noncore operations for a fraction of the price you’d pay in the United States. For example, by hiring a support team based in the Philippines, you can provide customers with 24/7 live support. This creates a competitive advantage for your company.”
6. Nail down a Timeline
Silicon Valley is unique in that it has an overabundance of “early adopters” within its community, or people who are eager to test new apps and services from startups. However, when it comes to actual paying clients, proper expectation management is crucial. Foreign founders in Silicon Valley can misinterpret initial enthusiasm as a commitment to purchase, only to end up with sales leads that go nowhere.
“It can be difficult for French entrepreneurs to read clients’ intentions in the United States,” says French entrepreneur Alexei Chemenda, the COO of Motionlead. “Feedback from French customers tends to be brutally honest. Conversely, in Silicon Valley, a sales prospect will rave about your product but then delay purchasing for months. To mitigate this, founders should nail down a concrete timeline for moving forward. This will set the precedent that decisions need to be made and will save you lots of time.”
7. Study in Silicon Valley
If you want to move to the Valley but lack a visa, a network, or a business idea, study abroad programs at local universities can open doors for you.
Universities such as Stanford and Berkeley boast great academic programs and provide opportunities for internships with Bay Area tech companies. As such they are ideal places to build a career network and gain practical experience in the startup scene.
David Haisha Chen, a Chinese national and the CEO of Strikingly, a platform that lets you build a free website in just a few minutes, says that academia provides an excellent chance for organically finding opportunities and potential co-founders. “If you don’t have a business idea but you want to go to silicon valley, enroll in a study abroad program at a bay area university,” Chen explains. “This will immediately solve your visa problem and plug you into the ecosystem. From this foundation, you can organically find opportunities and co-founders.”
Michael Park is the CEO of LipSync, an on-demand interpretation startup based in San Francisco and Hong Kong.