$100,000 a day? The US-based tech co-founder became the talk of the town after he publicly stated that he would be happy to pay a staggering amount on a daily basis if it meant hiring the best global talent for his company.
At a time when Donald Trump’s $100,000 increase in the H1-B visa fee has left many foreign workers in the U.S. in shock, a comment from the founder of San Francisco-based Metaview caught everyone by surprise. Shahriar Tajbakhsh, co-founder and chief technology officer of Metaview – made the “$100,000 a day” remark in response to user X’s comment that the H-1B visa fee should be set at $100,000 per year, not a one-time payment.
What was the contribution?
In posts on LinkedIn and X in September, Shahriar Tajbakhsh advertised a list of available positions for H-1B candidates at his company. “If you’re on an H-1B visa and your company doesn’t value you enough to pay the $100,000, see if one of our roles might be a good fit for you,” he said.
The US-based company even ran ads in India saying, “Yes, we still sponsor H-1Bs. $100,000 won’t stop us.”
When Tajbakhsh’s post, along with an ad image, resurfaced and caused quite a stir – one user X commented: “The $100,000 fee should be annual, not one time.”
To which the co-founder replied, “Do it in a day. I’ll set up a recurring payment.”
Earlier this month, Tesla chief Elon Musk said Indian talent has benefited the US immensely. India dominates H-1B visa approvals, with more than 70% approved in 2024.
H-1B talent in the US
The US is a “huge recipient” of talent from India, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said, expressing strong support for the H1B visa program and warning that closing it would “actually be very bad” for America.
The American tech billionaire said this in an interview with investor and entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath on his “People by WTF” podcast, which was published on Sunday.
“Yes, I think America has benefited tremendously from the talented Indians that have come to America… America has benefited tremendously from the talent from India,” Musk said.
Who is Shahriar Tajbakhsh?
Prior to founding Metaview, Shahriar Tajbakhsh worked as a software engineer at Morgan Stanley and then at Palantir Technologies. He studied computer science at University College London.
Tajbakhsh — an Iranian-born entrepreneur and engineer — has consistently argued against hoarding money when it comes to building tech companies, insisting that talent must come first.
“When you sum up the value created by people’s hard work, $100,000 just doesn’t matter,” he told Business Insider in an earlier interview.
“The only way to build anything meaningful that changes people’s lives is to have a world-class team. Trying to save money on talent is the most irresponsible thing a founder could do,” he told the paper.
