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For international founders building in the U.S.

Where International Founders Connect, Grow, and Succeed

Visas, U.S. banking, hiring, fundraising. Practical answers and introductions from founders who have done it, starting in Austin.

Browse our resources
A wide circle of people seated in conversation across a daylit floor, several of them turned toward the camera and one standing at the back mid gesture, with IFN meetup slides on two screens and downtown Austin through a full height glass wall.

Built for founders starting from zero in a new country

Whether you moved here last year or are still planning the move, the same problems come up: visas, U.S. banking, incorporating, hiring across borders, funding rules nobody explained to you, and a professional network you are building from nothing. IFN is where founders work through them together, and it has met in Austin every month for more than six months.

  • Founders who have been through it before

    You will meet founders who have opened a U.S. bank account, worked through a visa, incorporated here, or made a first hire across borders. The perspective comes from someone who has been through it, not from a search result.

  • A monthly place to meet the network

    Once a month in downtown Austin, founders, operators, investors and advisors meet in the same room. Every date is published openly on Luma and Meetup, so you can see the history before you commit to anything.

  • Introductions through people who know your work

    Introductions happen: you meet someone at a meetup, they know the investor, the attorney or the first engineer you need, and they say so. A warm introduction from a founder who has worked with you is worth more than a list.

  • Resources you can use the same week

    The resource library covers immigration paperwork, U.S. banking, first hires, raising here and getting a product into the U.S. market, written from the questions founders actually bring us. Membership adds a private member channel and a members-only call each month.

What you actually get

Sign up, meet founders working through the same things you are, and keep the ones worth keeping. Everything after that (the member channel, the library, the monthly call) is optional, and you decide from there whether it is worth paying for.

  1. Sign up

    A short form: your name, your email, your LinkedIn address, and the stage your company is at. Nothing else.

  2. Come to a meetup

    We meet in person once a month in downtown Austin, at the address on the next meetup listing below. The speed-networking part is run by our format partner, so you are paired into short one-to-one conversations rather than left to introduce yourself to strangers on your own.

    One founder mid gesture in a small seated circle with the others listening, an IFN meetup slide on the screen behind them and the city through the window.

  3. Keep the conversations going

    The useful part usually happens after the evening ends: an introduction to someone who has raised here, a founder who will read your offer letter, an answer to the question you could not search for. Membership adds the private member channel, the resource library, and a members-only call each month.

  • Free to attend
  • Open to anyone building here
  • Come once and decide

Built from real founder questions

IFN began as a room full of international founders in Austin. The membership, the resource library and this website came afterwards, built out of what people kept asking for in that room: how to handle a visa while running a company, how to open a U.S. bank account, how to raise from investors who have never heard of your last company, how to rebuild a professional network from nothing.

We are a small, founder-run organization, so we would rather show you what already exists than describe a plan. We host the meetups in downtown Austin, and the rest of IFN is built from the questions founders keep bringing into the room.

Every month, in person
Monthly meetups in Austin, with every date published openly on Luma and Meetup.
Hosted in downtown Austin
A regular place to gather in the middle of the Austin startup community.
Structured one-to-one networking
Founders are paired for short conversations, so nobody spends the meetup standing alone.
Three people standing together in an open room, the one in the middle speaking with a raised hand, two of them holding drinks, with an IFN meetup slide on the screen behind them.

The next meetup in Austin

One meetup a month, in person. Open to anyone building a company here, and to the investors, attorneys and operators who work with founders crossing borders. Free to attend, whether or not you are a member.

Showing the next 4 meetups.

Also on the calendar

These dates come from our saved copy of the calendar, so they may be behind. Luma has the current dates (opens in a new tab).

See all meetups

Who we work with

Three named partners, and what each one does

  • Station Austin
  • Reuneo
  • Yani Partners

Station Austin hosts the meetups. Reuneo runs the speed networking that pairs founders into one-to-one conversations. Yani Partners provides fractional CTO and technology help for founders and small teams. These are working relationships rather than paid placements: nobody on this page bought their way onto it.

Read about each partner

What a meetup looks like

Photographs from the meetups in Austin. The rest are on the gallery page.

A line of people standing shoulder to shoulder facing the camera in front of an IFN meetup screen at the end of the evening.
About a dozen people seated in a wide circle in conversation, with daylight coming through a full height glass wall behind them and an IFN meetup slide on a screen at the left.
An IFN meetup slide lit on a wall mounted screen at night under a pendant lamp, with a second screen to the left and the slide reflected twice in the window glass over the city.
Meetup Photographs

Written guides for the parts nobody explains to you

Guides, templates and checklists on visas, banking, incorporating, hiring and raising here, sorted by the kind of founder you are and the stage you have reached, in the order the questions actually come up.

The library is being built now from questions founders bring to IFN. The first guides are being prepared for publication.

Use the left and right arrow keys to scroll through the stages.

  • Pre-Arrival

    Preparing to enter the US market from abroad.

    Being written

    • US Visa Pathways for Entrepreneurs
    • US Market Research from Abroad
    • Remote US Entity Formation Guide
    • 3 more in this stage

  • Landing

    Setting up your legal, financial, and physical presence.

    Being written

    • SSN & ITIN Acquisition Guide
    • US Business Banking Setup for Non-Citizens
    • Finding Legal Counsel Checklist
    • 3 more in this stage

  • Establishing

    Building credibility and operations in the US.

    Being written

    • US Credit Building Playbook for Immigrants
    • US Employment Law Basics for Foreign Founders
    • US Go-to-Market Strategy Guide
    • 3 more in this stage

  • Growing

    Scaling your US business and team.

    Being written

    • Fundraising as an International Founder
    • Building an American Professional Network
    • US Tax Obligations for Foreign Nationals
    • 3 more in this stage

  • Thriving

    Long-term success and giving back.

    Being written

    • Green Card Through Business Pathways
    • International Estate & Asset Planning
    • Giving Back: Mentorship Framework
    • 1 more in this stage
Browse our resources

Something missing that you needed? Email hello@ifn.community.

Questions founders ask us

Direct answers about what IFN is, what it costs (nothing for the meetups, $149 a year for optional membership), and what it does not do.

Who comes, and what happens

No. People come with a registered company, with an idea and nothing else, and with a full-time job they have not left yet. International students building a first venture come as well. If you are building something in the United States and you are from somewhere else, you are in the right room.

The center of the evening is structured one-to-one networking run with our format partner: you are paired with one person at a time for a short conversation, then paired again, so you never have to walk up to a circle of strangers. Around that there is open conversation with founders who have already worked through whatever you are on now, whether that is a visa, a bank account, a first hire or a first raise.

Attending, and membership

What IFN does not do

Something else on your mind? Write to us. A founder reads it, not a support desk.

Join the network. Meet the founders building here.

Founders who moved here to build are working through the same things you are: visa questions, bank paperwork, first hires across borders, and first raises in a market that has never heard of them. Join the network, and meet them at the next gathering.

What you are signing up for

  • Every month, in personMore than six months of monthly meetups, all of them in Austin.
  • Hosted by our venue partnerThe address is on every event listing.
  • Structured one-to-one networkingYou are paired for short conversations, one person at a time.
  • Free to attendRegister on Luma or Meetup. Membership is a separate, optional layer at $149 a year.

Membership is the paid layer and it is optional: the private member channel, the resource library and monthly office hours.