Katya Stelmakh

Actually, what's your name? What are you building? My name is Katya Stelmakh, and I'm building a business immigration law firm. We believe that talent should not have borders. So we help startup founders with work visas and green cards. And why is that so important to you? It's actually helping founders with their immigration. I'm a founder myself. I'm developing another business on this side. And I think there is so much talent out there. And obviously, there are a lot of founders who want to build business in the U .S. So I think it's a great niche. I really help them to build the business, move their family here, and innovate the U .S. economy. And what were you doing before this? I've been working in the legal field for a while. I studied law in Belarus. I studied law in the United States. I worked in commercial litigation as an associate attorney. I worked for the World Bank and the legal department. And then I thought immigration is my calling because I was an immigrant from Belarus. So I could relate to people who wanted to immigrate and build their future in the United States. And how long have you been doing this? I started my business in 2008, so for a long time. And what brought you here to San Francisco? I came for San Francisco Tech Week event because I want to build referral partnerships with VCs and accelerators and the whole startup ecosystem. I also came to meet foreign founders because there are many of them in the Bay Area. How else are you supporting founders? I give life advice. I connect them with all other experts, tax attorneys, IP attorneys. They get advice basically how to register a company, how to move forward with their business, introduce them to investors. So we kind of almost like connect our old service for them. And what's next for you in the law firm? I think we just want to help more and more people build businesses in the U .S. in the And what specifically, why do you want to sponsor so many founder events rather than just reach out to founders yourself? Because you get access to many of them at the same time and at the same place.