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Package Description:
- 5 high-touch coaching sessions (90 min each) - Idea-to-validation roadmap (problem-solution fit, customer discovery, MVP scoping, validation milestones) - Founder-track visa strategy (EB-2 NIW positioning while building) - Company structure decisions (incorporation timing, fundraising strategy, role definition) - Investor narrative + pitch deck review - Go-to-market strategy for AI-era startups - 90-day execution plan - Direct Slack access for 5 weeks
What you'll get from this package
A validated founder thesis: a clear articulation of what you're building, who it's for, why now, and why you specifically — sharp enough to repeat in a 30-second pitch or expand into a 30-page memo
An idea-to-validation roadmap with concrete milestones for problem-solution fit, customer discovery, and MVP scoping — so you stop iterating in your head and start validating with real users
A founder-track visa strategy memo: a custom assessment of your EB-2 NIW pathway, evidence portfolio gaps, and timing recommendations to protect your runway as you build
Company structure recommendations covering incorporation timing, founder equity, role definition, and fundraising structure — calibrated to your specific visa situation and stage
A reviewed and refined investor narrative + pitch deck with sharper positioning, cleaner story arc, and the immigrant-founder framing that turns your background into an asset, not a question to address
A go-to-market strategy designed for the AI funding climate: category positioning, early customer acquisition, and the credibility moves that compound for early-stage AI startups
A 90-day execution plan with weekly milestones, decision frameworks, and the specific actions that move you from current state to your next validation milestone
A 3-month post-engagement check-in call to pressure-test progress, recalibrate strategy, and address whatever's surfaced in the months after we wrap
Clarity on the founder-with-a-clock decisions: when grad school helps your venture, when it hurts it, what to build, what to kill, and what to delay through the lens of someone with a visa timeline
Additional details
Coaching delivered via live sessions and .
Across our 5-week engagement: we pressure-test your thesis, design your validation roadmap, develop your visa pathway alongside your company-building decisions, refine your investor narrative, and build your 90-day execution plan. Each session is 90 minutes. Between sessions, we use Slack to keep momentum — I'll react to your customer discovery findings, give you tactical feedback on positioning shifts, and help you navigate the decisions that come up in real time as you build. I'm an active operator. I run two AI companies right now while finishing my MPA at Harvard — Aware.ai (voice AI for maternal health, in clinical pilots) and Demystifyd (career platform serving thousands of international students). I navigated F-1 → OPT → STEM extension → EB-2 NIW approval while building. I know which visa decisions in year one quietly limit year five, which company structure choices look fine at incorporation but break during a fundraise, and which positioning moves work in the current AI funding climate vs. which ones are already stale. Most founder coaches assume you're a U.S. citizen with no clock running. International founders are operating under constraints almost no startup advice accounts for. The visa decisions, the fundraising structure, the incorporation timing, the role definition — all of it interacts with your immigration pathway in ways most generic startup advisors don't see. I'll push you on the hard questions — Is this worth building? Are you actually validating, or are you just iterating? Is your visa strategy aligned with your company strategy, or are you optimizing each in isolation and creating a collision later? And I'll be in your corner, because building as an international founder is hard enough without doing it alone.
Refunds: Available within 7 days of payment, before our first session begins. After session 1, the engagement is non-refundable. If you're unsure whether this is the right fit, I encourage starting with a single Founder Strategy Session ($599) before committing to the full package. Timeline: 5-week engagement with five 90-minute sessions. Sessions should be scheduled within the 5-week window. Please give 24-hour notice for rescheduling — last-minute cancellations may count against your session allotment. Post-engagement check-in: I'll happily offer one extra 60-minute check-in call scheduled 3 months after our final session, to pressure-test progress and recalibrate strategy as situations evolve. I want to see you win!
Services included:
Ideation
Hiring
Business Strategy Development
App Development
Web Development
Fundraising
Go-to-Market Strategy
AI Fundamentals
Market Research
Talk to a team member
Schedule a call with a Leland team member who can help you explore your options.
Schedule a call
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Offered by David A.
Joined March 2026
Ex-Apple, NVIDIA, Tesla • 2x Founder + EB-2 Visa — Coaching Int'l founders
I run two AI companies while finishing my master's at Harvard. Demystifyd, a career platform serving 2,000+ international students across 38 countries. Aware.ai, an AI maternal health platform. Before founding, I shipped product at Apple, NVIDIA, and Tesla. The U.S. government awarded me an EB-2 National Interest Waiver green card for my work in AI and entrepreneurship. I coach a specific kind of founder: international builders who want to start, scale, and stay in the U.S. — without losing their visa, their company, or their runway in the process. Most founder advice assumes you're a U.S. citizen with no clock running. International founders are operating under conditions almost no startup advice accounts for. The visa decisions you make in years 1-3 of your company shape whether you're still building it in year 7. The fundraising decisions you make affect your immigration options in ways most lawyers and most advisors don't connect. The structure of your company, your role inside it, the timing of when you incorporate, who you raise from, when you file what — all of it interacts with your visa pathway. What I help international founders with: - Founder-track immigration strategy: O-1, EB-2 NIW, and the long game beyond H-1B - Company-building decisions that protect your visa runway (incorporation timing, role definition, fundraising structure) - Positioning your venture for credibility — with investors, with USCIS, with universities and accelerators - Navigating the school question: when grad school helps your venture, when it hurts it, when to defer - AI startup positioning specifically: category, go-to-market, narrative for the current funding climate - Deciding what to build, what to kill, and what to delay — through a founder-with-a-clock lens I'm not an immigration attorney. I'm a founder who built and structured my way through this system, and now I help a small number of others do the same. I take very few founder-track clients per cohort because the work is intensive and the stakes are high. If you're an international builder serious about scaling a U.S.-based company and protecting your future here, I'll be happy to help.
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1h+ of coaching