London-born tech entrepreneur Shahriar Tajbakhsh is sending a message few in the U.S. tech industry are willing to voice publicly amid rising political pressure: world-class talent is worth any price.
The CTO and co-founder of Metaview AI — a startup that builds software to automate job interviews — recently reignited debate over America’s escalating H-1B visa costs after the Trump administration announced a steep $100,000 annual fee for companies sponsoring H-1B workers. Tajbakhsh’s response was blunt and humorous:
“Make it per day. I’ll set up a recurring payment.”
His remarks resurfaced this month after Metaview’s hiring posters in India went viral. The ads, plastered with bold messaging, read:
“Yes, we still sponsor H-1Bs” and “No, AI won’t build itself.”
Hiring in the H-1B Heartland
While the new fee has shaken much of Silicon Valley, prompting several companies to reconsider foreign hiring, Metaview is moving in the opposite direction. The company is actively recruiting in India — the world’s largest source of H-1B talent — and openly dismissing the fear that now grips much of the industry.
“When the fee was announced in September, he called it a ‘rounding error’ compared to what H-1B staff members contribute,” the company said in a statement.
At a time when many U.S. firms are quietly scaling back global recruitment due to cost concerns and political backlash, Metaview is expanding its U.S. footprint and preparing to file additional H-1B petitions in the next visa lottery.
A Founder Who Isn’t on an H-1B Himself
Interestingly, Tajbakhsh himself is not an H-1B holder. Of Iranian origin, he is relocating to the U.S. under the EB-1 visa category, a fast-track immigration route reserved for individuals with “extraordinary ability,” outstanding researchers, and senior multinational executives.
His own immigration journey underscores his broader philosophy: talent is the true engine of innovation.
“The only way to build anything meaningful that changes people’s lives is to have a world-class team — there’s no shortcut around that,” he said. “Trying to save money on talent is the most irresponsible thing a founder could possibly do.”
From London to Silicon Valley
Tajbakhsh studied computer science at University College London before joining Palantir Technologies, the Silicon Valley data-analytics giant. In 2018, he founded Metaview AI in London. The company has since expanded to the U.S., where demand for AI-driven hiring tools is rapidly accelerating.
Earlier this year, he told Business Insider that even executive orders tightening immigration would not alter his conviction that people — not policies — determine a company’s success.
By calling the $100,000 H-1B fee insignificant, Tajbakhsh is taking a rare and unapologetic public stance at a time when many tech leaders are quietly resetting their global hiring strategies. But Metaview’s leadership appears undeterred.
As the CEO put it simply, “$100,000 just doesn’t matter” when weighed against the value created by exceptional engineers and researchers.
For a startup betting on AI to reshape the future of hiring, it is perhaps the most self-consistent position of all.
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