100+ CEOs Have Signed On
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader McCarthy, Leader Schumer, and Leader McConnell:
Entrepreneurs and startups are foundational pillars of a robust innovation economy. As startups scale to larger companies, they power innovation, grow and diversify the economy, and provide family-wage jobs.
Immigrant founders have driven the growth of our technology sector into what it is today, and they continue to be a vital component of the innovation ecosystem. Notably, over 43 percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded or co-founded by an immigrant or the child of an immigrant. The companies they founded are spread across the United States and headquartered in 33 of the 50 states. Further, the companies they founded and lead employ 12.8 million people worldwide and account for over USD 5.3 trillion in global revenue annually. Both our technology sector and our national economy would be virtually unrecognizable without the contributions of immigrant entrepreneurs.
Washington state itself is home to over 75,000 immigrant entrepreneurs who contribute over USD 2.2 billion in revenue to the U.S. economy each year. Of Washington’s 10 unicorn companies, 6 have at least one immigrant founder. Washington’s immigrant entrepreneurs have created businesses that grew to become leading global companies, fostered innovation that powers our economy, and as part of the tech sector helped create more than 1.3 million jobs in our state. In addition to these clear economic benefits, immigrant entrepreneurs are central to the cultural vibrancy and diversity in our state.
As leaders of startups and large companies alike, we give our strong support to the Let Immigrants Kickstart Employment (LIKE) Act of 2021, introduced by California Representative Zoe Lofgren, as well as the inclusion of related provisions in the America Creating Opportunities Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology, and Economic Strength (COMPETES) Act of 2022 that passed the House in February.
The LIKE Act encourages immigrant entrepreneurs to start and grow companies in the United States, which in turn creates jobs for American workers, spurs economic growth, and enhances our competitiveness on the global stage. The LIKE Act also codifies the regulation that established the International Entrepreneur Rule, which is a foundational program to enable immigrant founders to start and grow their businesses in the United States. Additionally, the exclusion of spouses and children from the green card limits will help ensure this program is effective.
The economic benefits from the creation of an immigrant entrepreneur visa will be felt across the economy, as companies created by immigrant entrepreneurs propel innovation across nearly every sector of the economy, including tech, healthcare, education, and agriculture.
We encourage Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate to pass this important legislation to grow the vibrancy of our innovation economy. Thank you for your consideration of this important legislation.
Sincerely,
Adaptive Catalog
Stephen Yu, CEO
Advaiya Solutions
Dharmesh Godha, President
AfriBlocks
Tongayi Choto, CEO
All4Cure
Tony Blau, Founder and CEO
BattGenie
Manan Pathak, CEO
Chintan Pathak, Co-Founder and CPO
Beeline
Michael Rogers, Founder
Ben Golden Consulting PLLC
Ben Golden, Founder
Bespokely.io
Edgardo Romo, CEO
Bild
Pradyut Paul, CEO
Avinash Kunaparaju, CTO
Biocellion
Simon Kahan, CEO
BoldIQ
Eyal Levy, CEO
BricksFolios
Jo Dixit, COO and Chief Wealth Officer
Vinod Sharma, CTO
Bumply
David Youssefnia, CEO
buptle
Sean Jin, CEO
Cascade Game Foundry SPC
Kathie Flood, Managing Director and CEO
CCS Retail Systems
Marilyn McCormick, President
CellarTracker! LLC
Eric LeVine, CEO
ClubHealth
Daniel Bolus, CEO
Code 5 Games
Jon Lawrence, CEO
Community Access Fund
Sean Sternbach, Managing Partner
Convoy
Dan Lewis, CEO
CoreStack Inc
Ezhilarasan Natarajan, CEO
Critical Hit Technologies LLC
David Sielaff, President
Curie
Michael Agustin, CEO
CuriosityBased
Julie Pham, CEO
Edizeven
Shilpi Gupta, Founder and CEO
Educative Inc
Cecilia Cayetano, COO
Equinauts
Michael Smith, CEO
FanWide Technologies
Symon Perriman, CEO and Founder
Flowplay, Inc.
Dennis Schmitt, CFO
Founders Live
Nick Hughes, CEO
Functionland
Keyvan Mir Mohammad Sadeghi, CEO
FUSE
Cameron Borumand, Partner
Glympse
James Mullen, CFO
HackerAgency
Spyro Kourtis, CEO
InBestments
Vinod Sharma, CEO
Industrial Software Solutions
Glenn Carlson, President and Owner
iSpot.tv, Inc.
Sean Muller, CEO
Jag Journey
Sharon Couts, CEO
Jeeva Wireless
Vamsi Talla, CEO
Joko
Adeoluwa Adeyemo, CEO
Keiretsu Forum Northwest & Rockies
Brianna McDonald, President
Kevala
Todd Owens, CEO
Komaya
Rosalinda Saxena, Co-Founder
Korea Startup Center Seattle
John Seungyoon Lee, Director
Kurvv
Ryan Lee, CEO
Lalo
Juan Medina, CEO
Lexion
Gaurav Oberoi, CEO
LOANtuitive
Dave Siegfried, CEO
Locelle
Humaira Ahmed, CEO
Logic20/20
Christian O’Meara, CEO
Lumedic
Christian Ingrao, COO
Angeliki Ebbesen, Sr. HR Director
Madrona Venture Group
Matt Mcilwain, Managing Director
Tim Porter, Managing Director
Scott Jacobson, Managing Director
Len Jordan, Managing Director
MajorBoost
Lekshmi Venu, CEO
Medsien
Hamed Ahmadi, CEO
Microclimates, Inc.
Loren West, CTO
MindAntix
Pronita Mehrotra, Founder
Modern Human HR
Christina Hemmen, Founder/Director
Moonbeam Inc.
Nirav Desai, CEO
Mpathic
Ellyx Jolley, Software Engineer
mpathic.ai
Sarah Grin Lord, CEO
Nori
Paul Gambill, CEO
Observa
Hugh Holman ,CEO and Co-Founder
Optio3
Sridhar Chandrashekar, Co-Founder and CEO
Outbound AI
Stead Burwell, Founder and CEO
Parse Biosciences
Alex Rosenberg, CEO
PetHub
Thomas Arnold, Founder and CTO
Phase Genomics
Kayla Young, COO
Pioneer Square Labs
T.A. McCann, Managing Director
Project Bionic
Joshua Dirks, CEO
Proxi
Melinda Haughey, CEO
RealNames
Jeremy Barras, President
Rejoicy
Edwin Ortiz, CEO
rfrd
Max Richman, CTO
Rigado Inc.
Brad McMahon, CEO
Rowan TELS Corp.
Byron McCann, CFO
sig.ai
Yong Huang, CEO
Sound Biologics
Wei Yan, President and CEO
Spice AI
Luke Kim, CEO
Strive Health
Logan Bryan, Strategy and Development Manager
SURF Incubator
Seaton Gras, CEO
TalkGo, Inc.
Chandler Murch, CEO
Techquity LLC
Anthony Bay, CEO
Techstars Seattle
Marcel Gremaud, Techstars Venture Fellow
Isaac Kato, Managing Director
Temporal Technologies, Inc.
Maxim Fateev, CEO
The Ally League
Chelsea Camacho, Chief of Staff
The Zig
Christopher Chileshe, CEO
Trajectory Media
David Parker, CEO
Twelve Labs
Seung Joon, Lee, CTO
Upwardli
Aaron M. Gregory, Co-Founder and CEO
Vimocity, Inc.
Kevin Rindal, CEO
VR Ulysses
Tom Malone, CEO
VTeamLabs
Madhup Verma, Founder and CEO
wikwik
Brad Roberts, CEO
WTIA
Michael Schutzler, CEO
Wyze
Yun Zhang, CEO
Dongsheng Song, CPO
Lin Chen, VP of AI
Tianqiang Liu, CTO
Shalin Wu, Head of Services
Zeitworks Technologies, Inc
Jay Bartot, CEO
Yadhu Gopalan, CEO
zeroQ Foods, Inc
Marc Chee, Founder/Director
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