To the Best Talent in the World: an Invitation

Vancouver is a vibrant, diverse city in absolutely stunning surroundings. Photo by Adrian Yu.

Almost exactly 25 years ago, I arrived in the United States as a university student on an F-1 visa. I was 17 and brand new to California – didn't know a soul in the state – but I was starry eyed and brimming with curiosity. It was the year 2000! What could we make this new millennium about? I was eager to learn, and even more eager to do. I had been bitten by the entrepreneurship bug as a kid, and California felt like the place I was supposed to be – where better to roll up your sleeves and take big swings? I fell in love with it almost overnight.

What I couldn't have predicted was how arduous the fight to stay in the US would be. It would take 20 years before I got permanent residency in the form of an "Einstein visa" through the EB program. It was a colossal time suck, and an even bigger distraction.

To someone who hasn't been through this process, it's hard to express how precarious the basic contours of your life feel in this situation. Everything seems speculative. How do you make firm plans? How do you build an existence, a business, lasting relationships, a life? What if a family member back home gets sick when I'm between statuses and waiting for the latest approval I need? What's my threshold for leaving and choosing to be where I'm needed, even if I might be denied re-entry? If you have to hedge your bets and keep a foot in each world, do you ever get to fully unpack?

Let's put some context around this – I immigrated from Canada, English is my first language, and I did my university training in the US in an advanced domain of strategic importance. I have a history of economic impact and job creation in the US as a serial entrepreneur, and have been recognized for contributions to my field. I had the money and skills to navigate a Byzantine system of immigration policies, and pay for professional legal advice. I was already lucky, by anyone's definition. If it was that hard for me, it's hard to fathom how hard the system makes it for others – and the scale of amazing talent the United States is denying itself access to.

I know – viscerally – that a system that treats all immigrants as criminals-in-waiting isn't just morally wrong, it does us all an economic disservice too. And that was before yesterday's news of H1-B changes.

It doesn't have to be this way.

When we founded Aloe, my American cofounder and I decided that Canada was the better place to build this company. It wasn't an easy choice for me to leave – I had chosen California as my home, and some of the humans I hold most dear still live there. But what Aloe is doing requires the best people in the world, no matter where they happen to have been born. We will cut no corners in our pursuit to be the best place on the planet for them to come do the most important work of their careers together with us.

• If you are in the US from overseas and would be affected by the H1B changes,
• If you are an American and want to live in a society with the intellectual humility to recognize that the very best talent can actually come from anywhere in the world,
• If you were considering joining a team in the US and are turned off by the immigration changes we're seeing there,
• If you are already in Canada, and want to be part of an exhilarating new chapter of AI,

...come and talk to us. Be part of a team that is already defining the state of the art and is just getting started. We are hiring for a number of roles across AI research, software engineering, user experience, and growth. If it's a fit, we will do everything we can to help you come be at home with us.

If you are extraordinarily ambitious and want to help shape the frontier of AI to benefit humans everywhere, there's no better place to be.

Time is precious. Photo by Aditya Chinchure.