Immigrant-founded startups find growth opportunities with Global Detroit Universities able to access a larger number of H-1B visas than businesses Nonprofit assembles "task force" to help further program's reach Global Detroit Paxafe co-founders Ashok Seetharam (left), an immigrant from India, and Ilya Preston from Russia, moved their company from Milwaukee to Ann Arbor when Seetharam was able to get an H-1B visa through the University of Michigan. Entrepreneurs tend to face a common set of problems: securing capital, striking deals, implementing them properly, and so on and so forth. Those issues still exist for business founders like Ashok Seetharam, but there's been a whole other issue to contend with as well: the United States' immigration system.