Immigrant founders building startups in the US don’t just navigate pitch decks, seed rounds, and product roadmaps—they’re also building within the limits of the country’s visa system. That system can shape when they leave jobs, ownership structures, and how much capital it takes to stay compliant as they scale.

What some see as constraints, Nitin Pachisia sees as infrastructure—and in some cases, even an advantage, forcing immigrant founders to see problems differently and build with a different level of resourcefulness.

As the founder of Unshackled Ventures, Pachisia treats visa issues less as external friction and more as part of the operating reality of building a company in the US for immigrant entrepreneurs. In a discussion with Founder Brew and in follow-up emails, Pachisia explained how his firm works with founders to navigate visa requirements alongside fundraising, hiring, and growth decisions—structuring companies so they remain compliant while still scaling.

How is building a company as an immigrant founder different from building one as a US-born founder?

One thing that immigrant founders have to think about is visa status, legal status. Until you become a permanent resident or citizen, you are limited by whatever visa you’re on. If you were born in the US, you don’t have to think about that.

There will be adversity. There will be times when you need support from friends and family. If you immigrated as an adult, most people, for example, would come for college as a young adult, and then stay in the US and start businesses. Their family and many of the friends they grew up with are in their home country, and so you have this natural shortage of that support system of friends and family—not just from a capital standpoint, but also moral support and emotional support. I don’t think this gets discussed enough, but I think the company-building journey for immigrant entrepreneurs becomes lonelier than it is for others.

Read more.—JH

New Orleanians like Cole Ashman know what it means to lose power during a storm. Ashman lived in the city through Hurricane Katrina and other major storms, and as residents turned to generators for backup power, he felt that there must be a better way for people to take care of their families, homes, and businesses during natural disasters.

That nascent mission drove him to product engineering jobs at companies like Tesla and Span, working on residential powerwalls and panels that allow homeowners to bank (and save money on) energy. But Ashman wanted to create a product that would let everyone, everywhere take advantage of battery-powered storage.

“Focusing on the human element, in a funny way, is what allowed us to see the mass-market opportunity,” Ashman told Morning Brew. “Just shrink it down to: What do we actually need to do here? For a lot of folks, it’s just their refrigerator in a power outage, or keeping wi-fi on.”

To do those things, Ashman founded Pila, a company that makes storage-scale batteries that can be plugged into any outlet and power appliances during outages. The product, which sells for $1,299, was recently named an honoree at CES’s 2026 Innovation Awards, and Ashman’s coworkers and collaborators told us that his strong vision and amiable leadership style got him to where he is today.

Read More.—TC

Orbital data center startup Cowboy Space Corp—the newly rebranded venture from Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt—announced it raised a $275 million Series B. Investors have so far included Index Ventures, Blossom Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz. (Bloomberg)

TikTok-famous skincare startup 4AM, co-founded by college friends Sabrina Sade and Jade Beguelin, raised $4 million in a seed round with investment from CAVU Consumer Partners, B4 Capital, Type Capital, and various angel investors, including a number of other beauty brand founders. (Beauty Independent)

AI chip giant Cerebras, led by CEO and co-founder Andrew Feldman, is looking to net $4.8b in an IPO this week. (CNBC)