This past week marks Xeal’s largest milestone to date. Nikhil, Xeal’s co-founder / inventor / CTO, earned his O-1 visa and has (officially) gained recognition of how EXTRA-ordinary he truly is.
When I think of sharing updates and milestones, I immediately think of all the times I reached out to mentors and PR outlets so they’d discover Nikhil. I think of doing everything in my power to help shed light on Nikhil’s distinct talent and unique ability, so he’d finally be recognized as an “Extraordinary” immigrant and gain his O-1 Visa to continue innovating in the US.
The O-1 visa process was something I was unfamiliar with at first. I studied up on how to sponsor, how to manage, and how to protect my co-founder’s right to work here.
In short, the process of gaining the O-1 examines key achievements of the individual such as number of patents, PhD level research papers, amount of investment raised to support the individual’s invention, news coverage, and “International acclaim” that all on the surface seems like reasonable requirements to be labeled as “Extraordinary.”
However, what the process doesn’t consider is just how much Nikhil sacrificed in pursuit of a mission.
At 8 years old, Nikhil began developing severe asthma from the air pollution in India driven by an overpopulated transportation sector. Severe asthma became permanent respiratory problems. Permanent problems became a desire to solve.
At 13, Nikhil made it his life mission to stop climate change (without bothering people).
At 17, Nikhil left his entire family in India to join a top energy engineering program in the US.
At 19, Nikhil sacrificed the entirety of his college spring breaks to travel to South America and build self-sufficient homes (micro-grids) for underprivileged communities.
Throughout college, Nikhil was waivered out of his undergraduate classes to work on advanced research papers and hands-on renewable energy projects.
At 20, Nikhil was the one student selected for the “Student Sustainability Leadership Award” with a fruit tree planted for him outside the University’s Honors College.
At 21, Nikhil was part of a select group of international students to get a job in the US upon graduation, and less than 1% to be hired by the #1 ranked renewable energy company in the US, Schneider Electric. Three short months later, Nikhil was promoted to lead innovation for the sustainable transportation division of that renewable energy company.
At 22, Nikhil left his safe dream job to join Xeal full-time. He knew that if the startup failed he wouldn’t just be jobless, but he’d be deported as well.
Extra-ordinary is a funny term. It’s often used to describe one’s ability, rather than their impact on others.
When I think of extraordinary, I remember attending a Ted Talk and watching a keynote speaker inspire an entire auditorium with his life mission of “Stopping Climate Change without Bothering People.”
After Nikhil’s Ted talk, I remember the adrenaline rush and excitement I felt from the idea of ditching everything I thought I knew to explore a new path. All because of one keynote speaker.
When I think of extraordinary, I think of the individual who asked me to be his co-founder, so he could focus entirely on building innovative solutions that the rest of the world could benefit from.
When I think of extraordinary, I remember watching my co-founder give industry veterans an energy engineering lesson in the heart of Silicon Valley. I remember watching these experts anxiously lean forward with ears glued to Nikhil’s voice, as we all delightfully learned something new.
When I think of extraordinary, I think of the person that took extraordinary risk.
The person that left his dream job, jeopardizing everything he worked for all his life for the possibility of building a brighter future.
When I think of extraordinary, I think of Nikhil Bharadwaj.
I wrote this piece in my iPhone notes almost two years ago in 2019 patiently waiting for this day. The next piece is an extended version I wrote in January 2021 that provides a little more context :)
Life as an Immigrant in the Eyes of Privilege
I left my job in NYC on March 19, 2019 to move to Huntington Beach, California with my co-founder, Nikhil Bharadwaj. The birth of our first apartment HQ.
We’d often get asked, “Why not SF or LA?”
Out of insecurity and fear of being judged, Nikhil and I would deflect and say, “There’s a great real estate market in Orange County where our target customer is.”
While this was true, the reality was Nikhil had to be close enough to his former job in Costa Mesa because he wasn’t able to quit and join Xeal full-time due to his immigration status.
For 6 months, I’d work alone during the day and then Nikhil would come home after a 9 hour work day to join me in the after hours. It was tough. It was lonely. It was exhausting. But we didn’t have a choice. Plus we knew this was only temporary.
All we had to do was raise money from investors to offer Nikhil a full-time salary so the startup could sponsor him.
Easy, right?
I spent the first two months trying to raise money from VC’s only to get immediately shut down once they found out both founders weren’t full-time. “Well Nikhil can’t legally be full-time as of now. He’s going to once we can support his salary.”
They didn’t care. Nobody cared. At least none of the hundreds of investors we talked to. They had a checklist to fill out and had no patience for overlooking our biggest weakness.
That’s okay though, I’d tell myself. We’ve always been underdogs. We’ll find a way out of no way and figure something out.
For the next two months, I spent my efforts raising capital from close friends and former colleagues. They were much more understanding.
They knew me as an individual. They knew my character. They knew that when I attach my name to something I go ALL in like my life depends on it, so when I described Nikhil’s situation that didn’t phase them.
They trusted me and knew this was a team that they wanted to invest in. It was a great feeling and honestly a pivotal moment in my life. Not because of the money, but because it proved the value of staying true to your character and maintaining authentic relationships in all aspects of life.
After that small win, I tried sponsoring Nikhil with the F&F funds and we got shut down again. We needed real paying customers and a few more things that at the time seemed impossible given the timeline it would take.
Again, we didn’t have a choice. We kept building, brick by brick, not letting doubts and temporary challenges slow us down in the process.
After 6 brutal months, we did it. We really did it. We had a fully operational technology, customer pilots, and I even scored a 97% on the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration exam. The Company could finally sponsor Nikhil!!
When I told Nikhil I passed with flying colors, I’ve never seen someone more frightened. Yes, you read that right — Nikhil was terrified. It wasn’t that he never planned on quitting, it’s just that it didn’t really hit him until that moment.
He was working at his dream job, earning a comfortable living, and had a clear path to obtaining his green card and eventual citizenship if he stayed at that job.
Alternatively, if he left that job he was not only risking financial security, he’d be risking everything. His parents in India sent him to the United States to build a successful career and eventually gain citizenship. If the startup failed, he’d be deported back to India and all of his academic and professional achievements would die in vain.
On top of that, Xeal could only support this visa for two years. By June 2021, the visa would expire and he’d be sent back to India regardless of the state of the startup.
After weeks of obsessive planning, we devised a plan after finding one available solution. Nikhil could shoot for the moon and apply for the “Extraordinary” O-1 visa that’s only given to the top 1% of experts in a specific industry. In order for Nikhil to get this visa we couldn’t just grow like a typical startup. We had to really invent something that would transform the industry enough for Nikhil to be classified within the top 1% of engineers in our space. We got this.
On October 16, 2019 Nikhil quit his job at Schneider Electric to join Xeal full-time.
We did it, two full-time founders; we’ll be unstoppable now!!!
Over the next couple months, we expanded the product offering from an energy optimization technology to an all-in-one EV charging platform with digital access control and a revenue-share application to maximize ROI for building owners. We evolved from an energy company to an IOT tech company. We went live at nearly a dozen Fortune 500 workplaces and luxury apartments.
Towards the end of 2019, we showcased our new technology and traction at a global mobility competition and won first place in our category! We were given a cash prize and offered a free trip to London.
I felt like a little kid again. I called Nikhil right away ecstatically only to be told I’d be going alone. Even though the competition was paying for both founders to attend, Nikhil would not be let back into the US if he left.
This was my first time truly understanding Nikhil’s situation, and just how much his life has changed since leaving his job for Xeal.
I was a different person when I returned from the London trip. I felt a deeper sense of responsibility. A real sense of commitment. This was bigger than myself.
In March, we raised our seed round to complete a major tech milestone and grow sales and operations.
We were moving fast, but it wasn’t enough. At least not for us. We had to create something new. Something entirely different. Something that has never existed before to expand and move the EV industry forward.
In May 2020, we were awarded a grant from the California Institute of Technology to support our second patent-pending technology. The technology that would later be the catalyst for our inflection point.
In December 2020, we did a soft launch of our new technology and partnered with some of the largest names in real estate. Partners that understood the value of our new technology right away and were excited to deploy Xeal EV charging stations at scale.
Then finally, as we crossed the new year into January 2021, we got the news.
Nikhil got his O-1 VISA! Nikhil did it!!! He really did it!!!
Aside from the enormous amount of joy I felt, it was also an overwhelming feeling of relief. Someone believed in me enough to jeopardize his entire life, he followed me, and we did it together. We conquered the goal, but more importantly, we built ourselves in the process. We turned our biggest disadvantage into our greatest strength. Hurdles became solutions. The never ending anxious maze of solving our own problems with limited resources created the framework for an uncapped, exponentially evolving culture.
While we are just getting started, the road behind us is finally beginning to pave the future we want to live in.
