Indian H-1B visa holder risks immigration status after losing job at startup, seeks immediate employment on LinkedIn

On LinkedIn, AI Engineer Prayut Jain has shared his difficult experience with his startup. Now, he seeks immediate employment.

Jain joined Rayni early, treating the company as his own. He took full ownership throughout, beyond his official job description. He cared deeply about the product, customers and overall architecture.

His father was then diagnosed with severe pneumonia. Jain urgently flew to India as his condition worsened significantly. His father was placed on a ventilator, then later on ECMO support. Despite this crisis, Jain continued working and staying involved remotely.

Two weeks later, he received news that his employment would end. This came just weeks before his important equity cliff milestone. As an H-1B visa holder, he was directly threatened with immigration status. It also jeopardised years of career-building work within the US.

His major equity vesting milestone was scheduled for October. Losing his job meant losing ownership earned through nearly a year's effort. Simultaneously, doctors revealed his father's lungs weren't recovering properly. A lung transplant became his father's only remaining medical option.

“I understand startups have to make difficult choices. But accountability toward the people building those companies should be part of their foundation,” Jain wrote.

“Unfortunately, experiences like this aren’t unique to me. They point to a larger problem in startup culture,” he added.

According to Prayut Jain, early employees are often asked to think and act like owners. Yet, ownership shouldn't simply disappear once employees become inconvenient, he argued.

Jain questioned whether losing everything before an equity cliff would feel fair. He acknowledged that contracts might technically allow such outcomes under the law. Still, he asked whether this reflects how startups should treat builders.

“For me, this chapter ends with a lot of learning and things I’m proud of building. Now I’m looking forward to building something even greater,” Jain wrote.

Jain is now seeking new opportunities in Applied AI or GenAI. He's also open to Founding AI Engineering or technical leadership roles. Given his H-1B status, he emphasised that he’d need to move quickly.

“I’m on H-1B and need to move quickly. If you know someone I should speak with, I’d deeply appreciate an introduction. Or, if you’re building something ambitious and reading this, hit me up. Let’s build something,” Jain wrote while asking for employment.

LinkedIn reacts

“It’s definitely a pattern, and I’ve had a very similar experience, having my employment ended just days before reaching the one-year equity cliff. HR failed to even address my equity question formally and swept it under the rug,” commented a LinkedIn user.

“Sorry for your situation. Unfortunately for any company, start-up or otherwise, the main priority is topline/bottomline growth. For the majority, the Human aspect often comes last! That's the hard reality,” wrote another user.

Another user posted, “Honestly, these days it's very difficult to trust the founder material. The least they could have done is let your equity vest.”