CEO and co-founder Arko Chattopadhyay plans to hire up to 10 employees the following year for Bay Area-based AI startup Pipeshift.
The recent H-1B visa fee hike has not changed these plans, Chattopadhyay, who made a professional under the name Arko C, told Business Insider.
Last Friday, President Donald Trump signed the procurement of an executive order. H-1B visa The application fee is $100,000. The visa program has become a mainstay in the high-tech industry, allowing companies to hire highly skilled workers, such as engineers, from overseas.
There is news that a $100,000 price tag has rocked high-tech circles, with some founders warning that it will curb the startup ecosystem and make it difficult to compete for talent with large tech companies.
But Alco C, who also sits at Forbes Technology Council, told BI that he can either find the talent he needs in the US or use other routes to access top talent.
“We should be able to gain local talent, or we can hire offshore through a grant structure as a remote worker,” said Pipeshift CEO. “The best AI talents are in the US at this point,” he said.
Pipeshift was founded in 2024 with Y Combinator Bucking, securing $2.5 million in seed funding round this January. Startups provide a platform for companies to build and deploy open source AI models.
Four of Pipeshift's employees are based in the Bay Area, while seven others are based in India, where Arko C is originally from.
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Arko C and his two co-founders are in the US on an O-1 visa funded by the Y Combinator, he told BI.
The O-1 visa allows immigrants with “extraordinary capabilities” to work in the United States for up to three years. Applicants must demonstrate that they “maintain national or international acclaim” in science, education, business, athletics, or the arts. Most researchers and founders travel on these visas, Arko C said.
Pipeshift employs two employees in the United States. One person holds a green card and the other is taking part in an optional practical training (OPT) program. This is a general path for international students to start in the United States.
If you want to retain your OPT candidate after a one-year term, Arko C said you can apply for an O-1 visa. The particular candidate is a researcher working under a university research professor who was “one of the pioneers of the AI world,” and there will be applicable citations and reference letters.
Proving that they are extremely skilled is a challenge for developers and software engineers who are unlikely to build their qualifications and publish academic articles that count towards O-1 accreditation, Arko C said.
Prices are “manageable”
The founder said there was one “really talented engineer” who wanted to bring it to the US from Chennai, India at the end of 2025.
Exposing the engineer to a Bay Area high-tech circle and getting the opportunity to work directly with him hasn't helped, Arco C said. However, since the executive order was announced, the company had been reassessing whether it was the right time to spend the $100,000 it currently needs.
Pipeshift will wait a year for “he is better at being more skilled, he is more experienced” to make the investment, Arko C said. But if someone is exceptional, higher fees are manageable, he added.
“If the push sticks out and you have to go down that route, after Series A or Series B, I don't think $100,000 will have much of an impact on us.
Arko C has admitted that tech startups are “collateral damage” and are facing the brunt of this executive order as they lack the cash flow or spare cash needed to pay higher fees.
But he doesn't think the impact on startups will be as heavy as fearsome. Startups hire a limited number of people, and venture-backed companies could absorb the costs of extraordinary talent, he said.
“Seed-stage companies don't hire more than five or six people. If they employ five or six people, they just have two or three founders. For one or two of them, you'll probably get alumni and get someone who's already here or someone who's in OPT status.”
Overall, he doesn't think the H-1B price hike will undermine the US talent pipeline. It only ensures that the most skilled workers have access to the program, he said.
“What people are misunderstanding is that most of the world of top talent and technology is not run alone on the H-1B,” he said, adding that many talents come on the L-1 visa.
“The US will not lose its talent for quality AI, as it flows with this density of talent, the speed of AI development, customer discovery in AI, venture capital and money.”
