Frederick Ng is the co-founder of Beyond Border, a company that helps startups get US visas and green cards fast. They have worked with venture-backed founders, including those from Y Combinator, Techstars, Antler, and 500 Global.

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👋🏼 How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

I help startups and founders get US visas and green cards fast.

As a co-founder, my job is simply to 1) do anything it takes to deliver outcomes (visa approvals) to our clients, 2) hunt and convince exceptional talent to join Beyond Border’s mission, and  3) build a culture of outcome obsession with the team. 

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🧐 What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

It’s actually simpler than most people think: I just focus my time on talent, process, and culture. If I do these 3 things right, all else is noise, and results follow. 

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🏆 What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

I’ve spent time working as a venture investor (2x) and as a venture operator at Glints. They were all amazing rides.

But nothing trumps the pleasure I get from building my current business.

Building Beyond Border, which is bootstrapped, profitable from day 1, and operating at a good scale.

Having the privilege of building this with Arnold, my co-founder/college flatmate, and exceptional talents from across all continents to join our mission is something I will look back on with great pride.

Exceptional build exceptional businesses - and we are very lucky to partner with people way smarter than us to build this company together. 

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🔍 What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?‍

AI-native services. For the longest time, service businesses were deemed not “venture scalable” because of human-in-the-loop complexities. All that changes as LLMs mature.

I'm particularly excited for this theme to take shape in SEA. It's such a massive unlock. Especially for the region, which has historically been home to many great service businesses and operators.

AI creates a phenomenal opportunity to unlock scalability and reduce cost to serve (at scale and in success). 

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💼 What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry? 

To aspiring founders: if you have an itch and have something to prove, just listen to your inner voice and jump into execution. Most startups die before they start because they remain just an idea in your head.

The moment you hit the market and try to make someone pay for the value you created, you know whether you are building something right. 

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🗣 What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours? 

War history. Napoleonic Wars or WWII.

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🎥 What's your favorite movie/TV show? 

Acquired (somewhat of a TV show these days).

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🍨 What's your go-to ice cream flavor?‍

Pistachio.

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FYI. We've edited this interview for clarity.

This was written in partnership with Beyond Border. Beyond Border is among the fastest U.S. visa service providers and exclusively works on U.S. O-1, L-1, EB-1A and EB2-NIW immigration cases.