Build Your Startup: Idea, Product, Visa (0 --> 1)
- 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's included
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.
- 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
Meet your expert
David A.
Ex-Apple, NVIDIA, Tesla • 2x Founder + EB-2 Visa — Coaching Int'l founders
I came to the United States as an immigrant on an F-1 visa without a clear roadmap. Over time, I built a career working with companies like Apple, NVIDIA, and Tesla, earned degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, and am currently completing my Master’s at Harvard Kennedy School. I also successfully navigated the U.S. immigration system and received an EB-2 National Interest Waiver (green card) based on my work in technology and entrepreneurship. Because of that journey, I understand the unique challenges international professionals face when trying to build a career in the U.S. My coaching focuses on helping immigrants and international students break into elite tech companies, craft powerful professional narratives, and position themselves for long-term immigration success, including strategies around sponsorship, career positioning, and entrepreneurship pathways. In addition to my work in industry, I’m the founder of Demystifyd, a platform dedicated to helping international professionals access better career opportunities and navigate the complexities of building a life and career in the United States. If you're an ambitious international professional looking to break into top tech companies and build a long-term future in the U.S., I’d be excited to work with you. Learn more about my work: https://davidajoku.com/
