bootstrapper101

Most people on this forum are asking about potentially EB-1, O1, E2, Entrepreneurship parole etc. These applications can get very complicated.

If it was a simple H1 application I think most solo practitioners would be fine.

I stand by my comment that you are better off with a mid size (4-10 lawyers) firm for more complicated cases.

Bigger firms are too bureaucratic and they want to make money with bulk H1 and L1 from bigger corps.

Single lawyer setups don't have strong processes and enough variety of expertise. Given that they are solo practitioners, there will be less checks and balances if the sole owner is giving bad or illegal advice.

In a 4-5 lawyer setup, everyone's skin is in the game. They are less likely to sell you snake oil.

In my case money was not an issue. Unfortunately I ended up choosing Peter because of YC's credibility ( he said that he is a YC advisor and their sole recommendation for immigration lawyers).

Many people here might wrongly believe that Peter is somehow a part of YC. So felt it might be a good idea to post my experience here!

I agree that this story is one sided. If I wanted a closure with Peter, it would be in some kind of legal setting. But I have moved on.

I just want to use this opportunity to let fellow entrepreneurs realize the importance of picking the right immigration legal help and to not letting things get messed up on the government front

Many people on this thread are thinking of getting some kind of immigration status in US but either are outside US or are within US on H1/L1.

In hindsight I wish I had never applied for a US Green Card. My immigration situation has complications largely because Peter's bad advice.

The worst part was when he stopped responding as soon as he realized that he has screwed up my situation beyond repair. I was in a particular vulnerable situation on the personal front at that time, so it made it even worse.

If you look at my past threads, I am in a much better situation now. As I said, my sole reason of these posts is to help others not get into a bad situation like I did.

Do I want others to benefit from my experience? Yes

Do I want to help fellow entrepreneurs avoid negative immigration consequences? Yes

Do I want Peter to lose his law license or get sanctioned? No. Even though I have specific proof which could get him at least sanctioned.

Do I care whether more or less business goes to Peter? Also no

His actions turned my life upside down. It took me years to fix things. Abandoning me after rejection was worse. He talked to me the day before rejection in a very positive discussion. After the rejection he didn't reply to any email nor returned any call. His paralegal kept responding to me.

I am not trying to be vindictive here.

I am just trying to help fellow entrepreneurs. I went with Peter based on his AMA. It ended up being a huge mistake in my case. Hope others can use my experience as a data point to do further due diligence!

Well, sole reason Peter is doing this is to get more business.

My post has two parts. First part was tips related to choosing a firm and knowing what is at stake if things go wrong.

Second part specifically about my experience with Peter. It's an anecdote on internet. Take it for what you might.

I agree that I started the name calling for Peter which was the best characterization of my personal experience with him. You name called me where you had no idea about what really happened with me and how Peter actions completely turned my life upside down. Might be good to reflect on your own actions!

Peter does a thread here every few months. So I want to share a cautionary tale about Immigration lawyers in general and Peter in particular.

I had extensive immigration experience in US, where I did many filings. Worked with many different immigration lawyers.

In that end with your immigration you are dealing less with the law aspects and more with the paperwork filling which is more clerical work.

Things that I realized:

There are three types of lawyers:

1. With big firms like Berry Appleman, Fragomen etc. Very conservative in their opinion. Will not be responsive. Have good portals to enter information to help with your application.

2. Single lawyer operation like Peter Roberts: Very aggressive. Will give advice not really inline with the law. Very disorganized so you will spend a lot of time filling documents. Will make many mistakes.

3. 4-5 lawyer firms: These are the best in my opinion. They will pay more attention, have more experience and have decent process.

Issues with immigration filings:

When things are clear and you keep getting approved - things are great.

However as soon as things get complicated and you get rejections - now it will have negative impact not only on your future filings in US but also other countries. Many countries ask in their immigration application if you ever get rejected in any Visa application. Five Eye countries share all the non immigration paperwork with each other.

Issues with Peter:

He was a mix of Snake oil salesman and Fly by night operator.

He would consistently give advice which was very hackish. That works when you are trying out ideas for your business, but can have major consequences when you are dealing with the government. His advice was not in the letter and spirit of the law. He completely messed up my otherwise stellar immigration situation. I later checked his advice with multiple immigration lawyers and every single one of them said that Peter was wrong!

But the worst thing was that as soon as my application was rejected, he stopped all communications with me. He wouldn't reply to my email and stopped returning my calls. I had to find some other lawyer to clear the mess. It hurt a lot more, because I was in a very vulnerable situation in my personal life and Peter knew that!

I also know others who have bad experience with him. People probably don't speak out due to fear and not wanting to rock the boat!

My advice to all founders: Be careful when you deal with immigration filings. Find someone competent and professional!

I think you are a bit all over the place. I would suggest a few things:

Go through Naval's podcast "How to get rich". Listen it once a month for 4 months. Make notes and see how his suggestions apply to you. Focus on the things that you disagree with and understand why do you disagree with them.

Now on to my feedback:

You are worrying too much about big competitors getting you out of business or idea already launched. Unless your product has a very small market, there is always opportunities for new players. Looks at the instant messaging space over the time we have had IRC, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, Google Chat, Skype, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, Slack and there will be a lot more.

If an idea doesn't work out, you don't lose 2 years. You would have learnt a lot through this time. You are investing in your learning and capabilities.

Think of startup as a series of sprints. You sprint, strategize, sprint, strategize.

So my high level suggestion would be:

Start building what you want to build right now. Don't wait.

Don't think about doing startup in binary terms. Figure out which product you want to build next and try to find whatever time to make progress on it. During this phase if you have to sort out personal things do that. If you need to take a job to support finances do it. These are things that you have to take care of along the way. There will always be news stuff when you have taken care of the personal and finance part. Don't lose focus on your startup and keep chugging along.

If you get a job, make sure you don't use company hardware to build it. Make sure that there are no clauses which make products developed on your personal time as company property.

It is a digital product.

I don't live in US.

We do have outsourced customer service. But still I have to be aware of what the customers are complaining about. In some cases people are filing frivolous complaints to government agencies which you have to respond to. With Saas, I would go after the bad actors. With consumers the number of bad actors is endless.

No worries.

Glad that we could figure this out like reasonable adults.

I pitched my ideas just twice and got some funding for them.

However either my approach was wrong or I wasn't working with the right people. I felt that funding was too big of a waste of time. Without traction, everything I did was being second guessed. And too much time was being wasted pitching.

I haven't raised any money for 20+ of my ideas including the current one. But I can imagine it would be easier for me to raise money on better terms in future!

I use the nanny vs parent analogy for involvement with a product.

When you are working for someone else, you are a nanny. The product isn't your baby. Be careful how much you get invested. If you get sentimental and attached you will end up hurting yourself.

If you own your company, it's like being the parent. You have sole responsibility but except government no one else can interfere.

VC funded business can be like a wild ride. You may start as a parent, but you will eventually end up as a nanny. In some rare cases you can have majority voting rights till the end. Only famous case for that I know is Facebook.

As I mentioned in other posts, I focussed on learning and pace.

I first went moderately deep on technology skills. Then on a need basis, I kind of did a BFS on all skills needs to build and run a startup.

Eventually all the skills are important.

One other thing I really put a lot of effort in is trying to put me in the shoes of other parties. E.g. if I am trying to launch an idea I try to get in the shoes of engineer, pm, design, marketing, analytics and end user. Given that I have played all of these roles to some extent, it helps me make better decisions.

I feel that it's better to learn skills as a part of getting traction vs try to acquire skills in vacuum.

So have a razor sharp focus on building and adoption. If things are going great then cool. If not, introspect and seek advice till you figure out how to make progress. You will acquire skills along the way.

There is no magic bullet. Naval said that for success you need Product, Market, Founder fit. I would suggest go through his podcast "How to get rich".

I had kids after my startup was successful!

70% of expenses are marketing.