Frequently Asked
Questions

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Contact us at questions@resilientventurestudio.com and we'll get back to you as soon as possible with an answer.

Why immigrant founders?

Immigrants are often forced to jump through hoops in the hopes of winning the lottery—both literally and figuratively—to acquire and maintain a US work visa. Starting a new company as an immigrant is even harder, with countless company and role-specific requirements that must be met to sponsor and maintain Visa status. We believe these immigration-related risks and hurdles are keeping the next generation of extraordinary immigrant entrepreneurs on the sidelines and that the venture studio model can be an attractive means to mitigate these risks and support aspiring founders in making the leap into entrepreneurship.

What's a venture studio?

A venture studio combines company building with venture funding in order to compress time, iterate quickly, and scale more ambitiously than would otherwise be possible. Partnering with an established venture studio can be a great way for aspiring founders to reduce visa-related risks while accelerating the pursuit of their dreams.

Who is High Alpha Innovation?

High Alpha Innovation (HAI) is a dedicated team of company builders, strategists, and designers that apply a proven venture studio playbook—pioneered by High Alpha—to help organizations innovate through systematic startup creation. Learn more about High Alpha Innovation at highalphainno.com.

What do we do?

We partner with talented entrepreneurs and large organizations to conceive, launch, and scale new businesses. We are constantly exploring and validating new business concepts. We design, prototype, and validate our top concepts during our quarterly Sprint Week process, which serves as the primary forcing function for launching new startups. Upon launching a new company, we surround the startup with world-class expertise in every discipline required to build a market-leading company. We compress the amount of time it takes to move from an idea to a world-class business. Our dedicated teams span practice areas, such as brand and design, product, talent and HR, sales and marketing, and finance.

What immigration-related support will be provided?

We have and will continue to engage immigration legal counsel to ensure that the Resilient program itself, as well as immigrant founders that we launch companies with, meet all US requirements. Immigration-related service provider and application fees will be considered studio services and will not be paid for out of pocket by the entrepreneur. Rest assured that we will do everything in our power to understand the entrepreneur's unique immigration-related objectives and challenges and partner with them and any outside stakeholders to mitigate risk.

Would the new company need to be located in Indianapolis, IN?

No. While High Alpha Innovation's Indianapolis office is a great communal working space available to portfolio companies, we defer to the founding team on where best to base business operations in the United States. The High Alpha Innovation team itself is remote-first and has team members from coast to coast.

Do I have to have an idea to apply?

While we prefer applicants to have a rough idea for a startup, we encourage potential founders to apply even if they don't have one. If you don't have an idea, we will work with you to explore potential startup areas of interest.

What do you mean by "idea," and what kind of ideas is Resilient looking for?

We broadly define an idea as either an early solution to a customer problem, an in-process technology platform, or even a fully-fledged business plan complete with co-founders that you want to commercialize. The studio will initially focus on launching and scaling software startups.

How do I know if my idea is fit for a software startup?

Software startups fit into two general categories: horizontal software-as-a-service that solves problems for specific functions across industries and companies (e.g., sales or marketing teams, business intelligence, e-commerce, etc.) and vertical SaaS solving problems for specific industries and companies (e.g., financial services, retail, education, etc.). Even if you are not sure where your idea stands, we encourage you to submit it and our team will quickly assess a potential fit.

What happens to my idea after I share it with Resilient?

Information shared in the form is kept confidential and only viewed by the High Alpha Innovation team. You retain ownership of your idea throughout the process until a decision is made about whether to incorporate a new company.

When will decisions be made on whether to launch a new startup?

We like to move quickly. While timing may vary due to a variety of factors, High Alpha Innovation typically makes a go/no go decision on incorporating and funding a new company within a matter of weeks. Once a decision is made, we'll work together to get the company funded and up and running as fast as possible.

What is the equity split between founders and High Alpha Innovation?

Equity split at incorporation can vary based on founding team experience and the stage of the idea prior to Sprint Week. Given our initial seed investment and our hands-on approach to acting as co-founders, High Alpha Innovation typically takes a majority share of common equity at incorporation. However, we thoughtfully structure the cap table to ensure the founding team has a meaningful equity stake and a sufficient employee equity pool to attract top talent. As a co-founder, High Alpha Innovation’s equity is subject to the same vesting schedules and rights as the founding team to ensure our incentives are aligned around the long-term success of the startup.

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