In the 1920s, architects designed the 23-story art deco Exchange Building in downtown Seattle to house a stock exchange. But those plans ended when the U.S. stock market crashed in 1929.
More than 80 years later, this Second Avenue building will finally host an exchange company — an online one, that is.
That’s because Denis Kiselev, an entrepreneur from Russia, set up shop in Seattle with the help of a new U.S. immigration policy.
His startup company, SnapSwap, was able to sponsor his H-1B visa
“I was lucky because until recently only well-established companies like Microsoft were able to sponsor working visas for employees,” Kiselev said. “Immigration opened a special door for startup companies.”