How do you build your startup in SF from another country? i will not promote

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Hey everyone, I'm a 27M solopreneur based in Seoul, South Korea. I used AI to help polish this post since my English is still a work in progress. For the past 2 years, I’ve been grinding here to build a B2C trading journal app. It’s designed to help retail traders build discipline and manage their psychology using a "Meditation AI." Last year, I spent 2 weeks in San Francisco. It was my very first time leaving Korea (aside from a short trip to Japan), and honestly, it completely blew my mind. I realized I had severely underrated how much your environment and the people around you affect your business. If you want to build a world-class B2C software company, you have to target the US market (English-first) and be in the literal epicenter of technology. I know I need to be in San Francisco to build this. But making that leap feels incredibly daunting because of a few major bottlenecks: No Visa: I don't have a legal way to stay or work in the US long-term yet. Language Barrier: My English is still a work in progress. No Team: I feel like the cultural DNA of Silicon Valley is completely different from Korea, so I’ll probably need to build a team from scratch over there. Information Gap: It is extremely hard to find accurate, practical advice on moving a startup to the US while in Korea. A lot of the information available locally is outdated or just incorrect. I'm incredibly hungry to make this happen and desperately want to build the absolute best platform for retail traders worldwide. But right now, the mountain looks too high to climb alone. So, I’d love to hear your stories and get some reality checks: How did you build your startup in SF as a foreign founder starting with no visa, limited English, and no US network? For those who made it, how did you get your visa? What are the most common visa pathways early-stage founders actually use (O-1, E-2, etc.)? Any brutally honest advice, stories, or resources would mean the world to me. Thanks for reading.   submitted by   /u/feels-flattered [link]   [comments]