Dear Sophie,

I got fired and I’m on an H-1B. I have enough savings to survive for a while. What should I do if I am fired from my job?

I’m on an H-1B, have an approved I-140 and an I-797 expiring in March 2024.

If I have to leave the US, can my current I-797 be transferred to my next employer? Are there any issues I should watch out for?

— Restless and unemployed

The seasons won’t change for another 43 days, but it already feels like winter in San Francisco.

While an offshore weather system brings gusty winds and downpours, local employers like Twitter, Lyft, Stripe, Brex, Opendoor and Chime are laying off thousands of workers. This week, Meta will reportedly announce the first large-scale workforce reduction in its history.

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This is a particularly difficult time for tech workers who are immigrants, as their ability to stay in the US is dependent on their work.

Most visa holders have a 60-day grace period after an unexpected layoff, but with thousands of skilled workers entering the market at once, the clock is ticking.

We normally run the column by Silicon Valley immigration attorney Sophie Alcorn on Wednesday, but in light of current events, we did it yesterday (without a paywall).

First order of business: If you’ve been affected, don’t wait any longer. Start searching now for a new position, and tell everyone in your network that you’re open to work.

“During an interview, be direct about your need to transfer your H-1B to a new employer. If the company doesn’t want to sponsor you, move on,” Sophie advises.

“Ideally, you should not accept a job offer more than 45 days into your 60 day grace period unless you have applied for a different fallback status, as it can take several weeks to prepare and submit the H-1B transfer .”

Brace yourself: more layoffs are coming. Update your resume, save as much money as possible and most importantly, don’t panic.

Thank you for reading,

Walter Thompson
Editorial Manager, australiabusinessblog.com+
@yourprotagonist

2023 will be the year of cyber risk quantification

Image Credits: Olemedia (Opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Numerous factors determine a company’s valuation, and cybersecurity is one of them.

Public companies experiencing a breach tend to see a -3.5% drop in share value after the news is made public.

That’s why cyber risk quantification (CRQ) has “slowly evolved from a nice-to-have to the foundation for addressing the most critical concerns about a company’s cybersecurity posture,” writes John Chambers, founder and CEO of JC2 ventures.

How ButcherBox Started Up to $600 Million in Revenue

Mike Salguero at ButcherBox’s dry ice factory

Grocery delivery service ButcherBox ran a Kickstarter campaign in 2015 to identify customers who wanted to receive 100% grass-fed beef.

Since then, the company has “generated $600 million in revenue without making a cent in outside investment,” reports Haje Jan Kamps, who spoke with CEO and co-founder Mike Salguero about how the founding team got their D2C startup started.

“I met meat farmers in parking lots and bought a few garbage bags full of meat — I’m sure that didn’t seem vague at all,” he said.

“But it was too much meat for my freezer, so I ended up selling the excess meat to friends or people I worked for.”

New Data Shows How SaaS Founders Are Coping With Public Market Whiplash

Image Credits: puruaan / Getty Images

According to OpenView Venture Partners’ SaaS benchmark report for 2022, “an overwhelming majority of respondents are cutting spending regardless of the flow of money.”

In this year’s survey, which covered 660 companies, OpenView business partner Kyle Poyar and senior director of growth Curt Townshend found that “the rule of 40 is back,” as the need to generate profits has fueled investors’ obsession with growth. has caught up.

“There’s no need to hit 40 every quarter,” they concluded. “But it’s required to understand what caused a dip or peak, and what can be done to reach 40 in the long run.”

How to attract investors who fund groundbreaking companies?

Image Credits: Kelly Sullivan / Getty Images

It’s conceivable that a SaaS startup could be ready for the product market within a few months of launch, but companies working with hardware and robotics can wander for years in the pre-revenue wilderness.

To learn more about how investors approach risk when it comes to emerging technology, Tim De Chant moderated a panel at australiabusinessblog.com Disrupt with Milo Werner (general partner, The Engine), Gene Berdichevsky (co-founder and CEO, Sila), and Erin Price-Wright (partner, Index Ventures).

“Hire people to do the technical stuff,” Berdichevsky said. “Keep an eye on it, but then go learn the other bits.”