Yes, a solo founder with no revenue and no employees can get a B-1. Pre-revenue is not a refusal ground, and nothing in the State Department's B-1 guidance asks how much your company earns. The officer is weighing you, the person, against two questions under section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Is this trip a bounded piece of business that a visitor is allowed to do? And will you go home when it ends?
A deck can carry the first question, provided people outside your company are expecting you on specific dates. It does almost nothing for the second. That second question is where pre-revenue founders get refused, because zero income, no Indian employer and a company that exists mostly in a Google Drive folder look, from across the window, a lot like someone with nothing holding them in India.
So the work is evidence. Third-party confirmation of what you'll do in the US, and Indian-side proof that the company, and your life, are anchored here. Get both right and a pre-revenue founder is an ordinary B-1 applicant. Get one wrong and it's a 214(b) refusal that follows you into every later application.
Which founders this is written for, and which it isn't
You're the person this is for if you run a company with no paying customers yet, you are the only full-time person on it, and you draw no salary or a token one. The company might be an Indian private limited, an LLP, a Delaware C-corp with an Indian subsidiary, or not incorporated at all. Maybe you have a co-founder who is part-time, or a couple of freelancers.
The trip is short and specific. Investor meetings in San Francisco or New York, an accelerator interview or demo day, a conference, customer discovery calls held in person.
This is not the right piece if your plan is to relocate and run the company from the US. That is employment in the eyes of both the consulate and CBP, and the B-1 has no version of it. India also has no E-2 treaty, so the investor-visa route that founders from some other countries use doesn't exist for you. If that's the real plan, the conversation is about an O-1 or an L-1 later, and about what you can safely do on visitor trips until then.
What the officer is testing, in the officer's own manual
Consular officers work from the Foreign Affairs Manual. The B visa chapter, 9 FAM 402.2, lists the business a visitor may do. Section 402.2-5(B) covers applicants who come to negotiate contracts or consult with business associates. Section 402.2-5(C)(7) deals with founders like you directly. An applicant seeking investment in the US is not ineligible for a B visa on that basis alone, but is "precluded from performing productive labor or from actively participating in the management of the business while in the United States in B status."
Read that last clause twice. Raising money is fine. Running the company while you're there is the line.
CBP says the same thing at the airport. Its B-1 Permissible Activities sheet, updated January 2026, answers yes to seeking investment on a B-1 as long as you aren't doing productive labor or managing a business. It answers no to starting a new branch, subsidiary or affiliate on a B visa.
The intent test sits in 402.2-2. The officer has to be satisfied that you have a residence abroad you don't intend to abandon, that the visit has a limited duration, and, under 402.2-2(D), that you have "specific and realistic plans for the entire period of the contemplated visit." For a pre-revenue founder, that phrase does most of the damage. "Meeting VCs" for six weeks is a plan in your head. To an officer it is open-ended.
Why zero revenue reads as zero ties unless you answer it
A salaried engineer at an Indian company walks in with an employer and approved leave. The officer's job is easy. You walk in with a company that pays you nothing, and the officer has to work out what is going to make you leave America. They usually have a couple of minutes to do it.
The DS-160 makes this sharper. It asks for your present employer and your monthly income in local currency. Founders either write their own startup with a zero, or list the US entity because that's where the investors are. The first invites the ties question. The second can tell the officer your employer is American, which is its own problem, and we've written about how that section gets read in US-incorporated company, Indian salary.
The answer is to show what actually holds you here, in documents that already exist. For founders, the ties that land are usually these:
- The Indian company itself: MCA registration, GST registration if you have it, and a company bank statement showing runway.
- Your personal record: income tax returns from earlier salaried years, savings and any property in your name.
- Prior travel where you went abroad and came back on time, especially earlier US visits.
- The people and commitments here, such as family, a co-founder in India, a signed coworking agreement, an Indian pilot customer even if unpaid.
None of these is decisive alone. Together they let you answer "why will you come back" with something better than "because I said so."
One thing most founders get wrong. They describe the fundraise as the first step of moving to the US, because that's how investors talk. If the honest answer is that the round funds an India-based team, say that. If the honest answer is that you plan to move, the B-1 is the wrong tool and the officer will probably hear it anyway.
The purpose evidence pack for a company that is still a deck
Officers rarely read stacks of paper. The pack exists so that every answer you give is true and backed if they do ask. We build it around the gap between what founders usually carry and what actually holds up.
| What founders usually bring | What holds up at the window |
|---|---|
| A list of funds you hope to meet | Emails from named partners confirming meetings on dates inside your trip |
| A generic letter from a friend's US startup | A signed letter from an investor, accelerator or conference stating dates, purpose and who pays |
| The pitch deck | Incorporation certificate, cap table, bank statement, any signed SAFE or term sheet |
| "Around two months" | A 10 to 20 day itinerary with a held return booking |
| LinkedIn and press mentions | ITRs and your passport's travel record |
The investor letter deserves care. It should come from a person at the fund, on the fund's letterhead or domain, and say what the meetings are, for example a first pitch and a follow-up partner meeting. It should say that you are paying your own way, or that any reimbursement covers expenses only. That matters because 9 FAM 402.2-5(F)(1) bars a B-1 visitor from a US-source salary while allowing an expense allowance or reimbursement.
What the letter should not say is anything about you "joining the team" or "building out US operations." Investors write these to be warm. An officer reads them as a job description. Ask to see the draft before it's signed.
Accelerators are a slightly different file, with their own grey zone around how much of the batch is attending and how much is building. That has its own piece, on getting a B-1 for YC or another accelerator.
Sentences that sink a pre-revenue founder at the interview
In the founder files we see, a single careless sentence sinks more interviews than any missing document. Avoid these, and if any of them is the truth, fix the plan before you fix the wording.
- "I'm going to set up our US office." That is starting a branch or subsidiary, which CBP's sheet says a B visa doesn't cover.
- "I'll be working from a coworking space in SF." Working is the word they hear.
- "We'll start pilots with US customers." Selling and negotiating are allowed. Delivering the product on site starts to look like productive labor.
- "I'll be there till we close the round." That has no end date.
- "The accelerator gives us a stipend." Investment into the company is one thing. A living allowance paid to you needs explaining.
The longer version of where pitching ends and operating begins is in fundraising in San Francisco on a B-1. If you're planning to incorporate in person, read the Delaware piece first, because the officer may treat that as setup work.
How we'd build this file at SaathiVisa
We start with timing, because the queue sets everything else. As of October 2026, B1/B2 interview waits in India run from roughly six and a half months at Kolkata to around twelve at Hyderabad, and age-based interview waivers ended on 1 October 2025. A founder who plans to apply "once the meetings are confirmed" usually finds the meetings come and go before the slot does. So we book the appointment early, pay the USD 185 MRV fee (as of October 2026), and build the evidence toward the date.
Next, the one-sentence purpose. We write it with you, and it has to be true and checkable. Something like "I'm meeting five seed funds in San Francisco between 10 and 21 March to raise a round for our Bengaluru company." Every document then points at that sentence. Anything that contradicts it gets fixed or dropped.
Then the DS-160, line by line against your MCA filings and your LinkedIn, because officers can see both. Employer, income and prior travel all need to tell the same story. If a co-founder is a US citizen or green-card holder, we decide in advance how you'll describe the relationship, which we've covered in this piece on US co-founders.
And sometimes we say no. If the trip is really the first month of running the company from California, we'll tell you the B-1 is the wrong vehicle and map the O-1 or L-1 sequence instead. A refusal now costs you more than a delayed trip.
When a pre-revenue founder shouldn't file this alone
Get a second pair of eyes before you submit if any of these apply. You've had a 214(b) refusal before, because the next officer will read the last one's notes. An O-1 petition is filed or about to be, which brings in the questions covered in B-1 trips while an O-1 is pending. Your only entity is the US one. Or your trip is tied to a hard date like a demo day or a term-sheet signing that the appointment queue can't reach without an expedite request.
Each of those turns a routine interview into a sequencing problem. Sequencing is cheaper to fix before the DS-160 is submitted than after a refusal.
What pre-revenue founders ask us about the B-1
Do I need an investor invitation letter to get a B-1?
No document is mandatory beyond the DS-160 confirmation, passport and appointment letter. A letter from an investor or accelerator helps because it turns "meetings" into a third-party fact with dates. Carry it, know what it says, and don't hand it over unless asked.
Can I list my own startup as my employer on the DS-160 if I take no salary?
Yes, if that's true. Name the Indian entity, state your actual income honestly even if it's zero or token, and be ready to explain how you support yourself, through savings or past earnings. Inventing a salary is worse than having none, because it can be checked against your tax returns.
Should I show my pitch deck at the interview?
Almost never. Officers aren't investors and the deck doesn't speak to either test they're applying. A one-line description of what the company does, and proof that it's registered and funded enough to exist, answers the question they actually ask.