A 17-year-old Australian entrepreneur is desperate to obtain a visa to work in the United States in order to launch a start-up there, having already launched and sold three others in Australia.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lachy Groom is a serial entrepreneur who graduated from his Perth high school in December last year, and is currently in San Francisco.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Since the age of 13, Groom has launched and sold three businesses: PSDtoWP, PAGGStack.com and iPadCaseFinder.com. The financial terms of these deals remain undisclosed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n His fourth start-up, Cardnap, allows users to search for discounted gift cards as well as reselling their own. The site is currently only available in the US.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to Groom, the Australian start-up scene just doesn\u2019t compare to the likes of San Francisco and Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe only reason to stay in Australia \u2013 other than it\u2019s a great place to live \u2013 is if you\u2019re targeting the Australian market,\u201d Groom told StartupSmart<\/i>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe reason why Australia doesn\u2019t work is because the valuations are so much higher in the US.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIn San Francisco, there\u2019s a whole community \u2013 every company is a start-up. You\u2019re not going to get that back home\u2026 Ultimately, I see myself in my own start-up in the US.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A number of tech companies have expressed an interest in Groom. He has been interviewed by big names such as Twitter and Zynga, as well as a number of other San Francisco start-ups.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, the interview process always comes to a grinding halt because Groom does not have a work visa. This is due to his age and lack of traditional qualifications.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In essence, Groom doesn\u2019t qualify for the primary visa used by specialty field immigrants in the US because he does not have a degree.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to Groom, there are pros and cons to being such a young entrepreneur.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019m very aware of and I\u2019m very aware it\u2019s held me back in a lot of ways. I feel I need to validate myself to people,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe great thing about the internet is it\u2019s not face to face. People don\u2019t know my age unless they do a little bit of research, so I can hide behind the internet in a lot of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf I was 48, that article in The Sydney Morning Herald<\/i> wouldn\u2019t have happened because it\u2019s not as newsworthy. There are lots of pluses and minuses but I try not to let it stand in my way.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Groom admits Cardnap will not remain his main project, saying he\u2019ll probably sell it off at some stage and turn his focus to \u201csomething in education or something else\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a bit clich\u00e9d, but you\u2019ve got to have passion. You\u2019ve got to enjoy what you\u2019re doing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re doing it just to reach the end, whether that be money or prestige, it\u2019s not going to work. You have to enjoy the day to day.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBeing an entrepreneur is such a rollercoaster ride. There are such high highs and such low lows, but it can be so rewarding at the end of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A 17-year-old Australian entrepreneur is desperate to obtain a visa to work in the United States in order to launch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}