The 'Borderless Founder' Edge: How International Tech Mafias Rewrote Silicon Valley
Being foreign-born is becoming a structural edge in Silicon Valley, not a handicap. a16z profiles "Borderless Founders": international founders whose home-country networks land early enterprise logos (Stockholm's Pit closed H&M before traction warranted it), recruit stronger engineers, and get diaspora calls answered that normally wouldn't pick up. The catch is still getting in the door, which is exactly what the firm's new network is built to fix.