San Francisco: Silicon Valley venture capitalist Kate Mitchell said her startup companies have a message for their employees who are foreign nationals: Don’t travel outside the country right now. “Common sense would say, why take the risk?” said Mitchell, co-founder and partner at Scale Venture Partners.
Silicon Valley draws on a global workforce. These young businesses depend on hiring quickly from every corner of the world, traveling globally to find customers and having access to Silicon Valley venture capitalists to raise funding.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order a week ago that put a 120-day halt on the US refugee program, barred Syrian refugees indefinitely and imposed a 90-day suspension on people from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
It triggered widespread protests, and the chilling effect has spread far beyond citizens of those nations. “Here and now, today, we have businesses that are stopping because their employees can't travel in and out of the US,” said David Cowan, a partner at Silicon Valley firm Bessemer Venture Partners, one of the oldest top-tier venture practices. “This will be the No.1 cause of missed business plans in 2017.”
The immigration issue is still unfolding, but the broader and potentially more injurious effects could include a blow to the nation's competitiveness in technology, hindering job growth and sending more capital overseas to the detriment of the American economy.
