Newsletter #246 EIR Programs for Immigrants, Oppenheimer Accolades, Secondary Stock Sales
Announcements
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Weekly Shoutout
Shoutout to @Mel and @Jacob for being the best teammates I could ask for in this crazy Cassandra journey!
Food for Thought
As I prepare for #GreencardSF, it’s useful to look at the data on how many Greencards have been given out over the last century
The drop in Greencards in the 20s-40s is bc of the Immigration Act of 1924 which resulted, among other things, in the first heavy restrictions against Asians and Italians
On a related note, @Sophie is helping me launch an Entrepreneur-In-Residence program here in Greenville
universities identify and vet budding entrepreneurs, likely students on F-1 visas or recent graduates on OPT. Schools can hire part-time or accept volunteer commitments from applicants, often taking the form of student mentorship roles. Universities, as non-profits categorically exempt from the H-1B cap, serve as their sponsoring entities for the visa. So long as their company (both founders and key executives can use Global EIR) pay the applicant their relevant “prevailing wage,” they have certain access to a visa and don’t have to take their chances with the broken, clunky lottery system.
EIRs are great way to hack around the broken immigration system that is now preventing most foreign students graduating from US colleges from being able to work in the US!
What’s interesting about EIRs is that they can also help the rest of America to deal with its demographic challenges because immigrants are much more willing to move to Wyoming (or South Carolina in this case) than the average buji legacy American college grad
Crowd Pleasers
So glad to see Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy and Robert Downy Jr win Golden Globes for Oppenheimer (which also won Best Picture)
I am really hoping this year is the year Nolan finally wins an Oscar, but it’s clear that Cillian Murphy has more of the advantage given that his category benefits from biopics more
When it comes to (male) protagonists, it’s clear that a great actor has a huge impact on the movie, but it’s interesting that Cillian Murphy’s movie ratings are a fraction of actors like DiCaprio and Andrew Garfield
Mind-Benders
Late-stage VC is so hard —- just look at Softbank….
Tiger Global is also underwater on most. of its investments, but at least you gotta respect the hustle of pulling this off with 1/3 of the headcount of their competitors
What I want to highlight is that the one pocket of value in VC right now is clearly in secondary stock sales — which I guess is more accessible than direct VC and less competitive than straight up public markets
