Build Here: An Immigration Roadmap for Founders, Researchers & Start-Ups

​Join us for an interactive program on immigration pathways for founders, researchers, and companies building Tough Tech in the United States. Lunch will be provided.

​Great ideas can come from anywhere, but building them here takes a plan, and immigration is often the part of that plan people think about too late. Rather than covering visa categories in the abstract, we'll walk through the real moments when immigration decisions arise across the innovation lifecycle: commercializing research, launching or leading a U.S. company as an international founder, hiring a first foreign national employee, and retaining key international talent as a company grows. We'll also touch on how milestones like publications, patents, funding, and business growth can open up immigration options over time, so attendees leave with a sense of what to build toward and when to start.

​Attendees will leave with a copy of Navigating Global Talent Immigration for Tough Tech Founders and Stakeholders, a playbook developed by the Talent Mobility Fund and The Engine to help pre-seed founders, researchers, and postdocs plan their immigration pathway alongside their technology roadmap.

​Speakers:

• ​Jonathan Grode, U.S. Managing Partner, Green & Spiegel. Jonathan is an immigration attorney with more than 25 years of experience in U.S. business immigration field obtaining nonimmigrant and immigrant visas for new company start ups, professional workers, and scientific researchers.

• ​Diane Rish, Deputy Director, Talent Mobility Fund. The Talent Mobility Fund, a program of Renaissance Philanthropy, is a philanthropic fund focused on expanding opportunities for international researchers, engineers, and other highly-skilled professionals to work and thrive in the United States by leveraging existing immigration pathways. Diane is an immigration attorney with more than 16 years of experience in U.S. business immigration law.