Transcript
Tuesday August 2, 2022
U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services
Re : O-1 Visa Petition
Dear Immigration Examiner:
At General Catalyst I am an early investor in market-leading companies like Stripe, Livongo (acquired by Teladoc in an $18.5B merger, the largest in digital health history to-date), Samsara (NYSE: IOT), Snap (NYSE: SNAP), Fundbox, Grammarly, Gusto, Applied Intuition, and Anduril. I am an advocate for Responsible Innovation, aligning innovation with the long-term interests of society by engineering for growth and good with greater intention, fewer unintended consequences, and increased inclusivity. In my 2022 book Intended Consequences: How to Build Market-Leading Companies with Responsible Innovation, I lay out an actionable framework for founders and executives on how to create innovative companies built for growth and for societal good that withstand the test of time. As part of this, I am also co-founder and chairman of Responsible Innovation Labs, a non-profit consortium of leaders aiming to create standards of innovation to serve the needs of a global society, and to help build enduring companies that re-center technology as a force for good. My 2020 book, UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance, co-authored with Dr. Stephen Klasko, CEO of Jefferson Health, details our thesis for how the healthcare system needs to transform a "sick care" system into a Health Assurance system designed to help people stay well, bend the cost curve, and make quality care more affordable and more accessible to all. In Unscaled, released in 2018, I articulate the need for accountability, transparency and explainability as AI permeates every aspect of our daily lives.
I wound up with five degrees from MIT because I was hoping to pursue an academic career: M.Eng. EECS, S.M. Operations Research, S.B. Biology, S.B. Mathematics, and S.B. EECS. In hindsight, that was excellent training for being a venture capitalist because I am always curious about new areas of innovation.
Alongside my work at General Catalyst, I serve on the Stanford School of Medicine Board of Fellows, have worked on climate and energy issues as the co-founder and Chairman of Advanced Energy Economy, and I am a founding board member of Khan Lab School, an innovative K-12 school.
I came to know Raeez Lorgat while he was still a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — at the time I was teaching a course on entrepreneurship. After he dropped out to cofound Stripe with Patrick and John Collison, he reached out to me for investment in their new company. It is no exaggeration that without Raeez Lorgat, General Catalyst would not have its position in Stripe today.
As is typical of a founder of any technology company, Raeez Lorgat's responsibilities at Stripe included every responsibility imaginable: from raising funds, to writing up documentation and communicating to customers and investors, to building software. His role in founding Stripe, especially at the young age of 19 years old after having dropped out of a leading institution such as MIT, exhibits Raeez Lorgat as having risen to the very top of his field of entrepreneurship. He is unquestionably of extraordinary ability.
After Stripe, Raeez Lorgat has gone on to lead a very successful career in academia, securing rare research fellowships at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, as well as Foresight Institute. This has further led him to secure an international reputation for his extraordinary achievements. This rare combination exhibits Raeez Lorgat not only as one of the top business minds working today, and one of the finest the country has produced in decades, but also as a leading researcher. It is my understanding that both of these extraordinary traits are now proving fruitful in the founding of his latest company, Persona.
Raeez Lorgat's petition therefore has my unreserved support. I urge you to approve it right away.
Yours truly,
[signed]
Hemant Taneja
General Catalyst
Claims supported by this document
- Hemant Taneja came to know Raeez Lorgat while Raeez was a student at MIT, while Hemant was teaching an entrepreneurship course there.
- Raeez Lorgat "dropped out to cofound Stripe with Patrick and John Collison" — Taneja's exact language.
- After dropping out, Raeez reached out to Hemant for investment in the new company. Hemant credits Raeez with General Catalyst's position in Stripe.
- Raeez Lorgat's responsibilities at Stripe included fundraising, writing documentation, communicating with customers and investors, and building software.
- Raeez was 19 years old at the time of dropping out.
- After Stripe, Raeez held research fellowships at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Foresight Institute.
- The letter is submitted on General Catalyst letterhead and signed by Hemant Taneja, under penalty of perjury, as evidence in support of Raeez Lorgat's O-1 visa petition before USCIS.
Caveats
- This is an immigration support letter, not a Stripe corporate document or press release. Stripe's current public leadership pages list Patrick Collison and John Collison as Stripe's public cofounders. This letter establishes Raeez Lorgat's early founding-team involvement and General Catalyst's perspective on his role, not his current standing on Stripe's executive leadership roster.
- The reference to "his latest company, Persona" describes a different Persona from the publicly listed identity-verification company also named Persona. Raeez Lorgat's Persona was an art community and gallery-studio in New York City (@personagallerynyc), 2020–2023.