From EIR to a16z Partner: How David Booth Secured His O-1A Before the Offer Went Cold
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"Unequivocally vouch for this team, worked their asses off for a quick turnaround, pull out all the stops. Give them a call."
Overview
David Booth has spent his career building the networks that power founders. From Co-Founder and CEO of On Deck, the global community that helped thousands of founders find co-founders, investors, and early hires, to Entrepreneur in Residence at Blackbird Ventures, one of Australia and New Zealand's most prominent VC firms, David has operated at the intersection of community, startups, and venture capital across three continents.
A University of Otago law and finance graduate, David had already earned a UK Tech Nation Exceptional Talent visa and held a previous US O-1 visa years earlier. But when Andreessen Horowitz came calling with an offer to join as Partner and Head of Ecosystem, leading the firm's global founder community efforts from San Francisco, the visa situation was far more complex than his track record might suggest.
His previous O-1 was old. The standards had changed. The new role didn't map to his prior profile. And the offer wouldn't wait.
Challenge
An Offer That Wouldn't Wait
Andreessen Horowitz is one of the most influential venture capital firms in the world. When they offered David the Partner and Head of Ecosystem role, the clock started immediately. If the visa process dragged, the opportunity risked going cold — and career-defining offers like this don't come around twice.
Updated Standards, Unfamiliar Role Category
David's previous O-1 approval was from a different era. Adjudication standards had tightened, evidentiary expectations had shifted, and critically, his new role as a venture capital partner didn't align with his prior professional profile. Despite years leading On Deck and advising at Blackbird, David had never formally held a VC partner title — the case needed to reposition a career spent building founder ecosystems into a narrative that satisfied the O-1A's extraordinary ability criteria for this specific role.
A Family Relocation from Hamilton to San Francisco
This wasn't just David's visa. His wife and two young children needed to relocate from Hamilton, New Zealand to the San Francisco Bay Area. New procedural rules since his last O-1 meant the consular interview couldn't be waived, and his children were now required to attend in person — adding travel logistics and coordination pressure on top of an already compressed timeline.
Government Documents Running Late
With the consular interview days away, critical government documents still hadn't arrived — threatening to derail the entire application at the last possible moment.
Strategic Partnership with Concord
Concord approached David's case on two fronts: strategic repositioning and hands-on execution.
On strategy, the team crafted a narrative that connected David's years of ecosystem building, On Deck's global community, Blackbird's founder network, Diaspora.nz's Kiwi diaspora platform, to the specific demands of an a16z Partner role. Rather than simply repackaging his CV, Concord worked with David to refine elements of the job description itself, sharpening the language to better align with O-1A criteria and make the petition as strong as possible.
"We found a really clever angle tying what he had done in the past with this role, and presented a lot of information around why he's going to be really good at it."
Concord team
On execution, Concord managed the entire family's applications, coordinating visas for David, his wife, and both children. The team prepared them for the new procedural requirements, including mandatory in-person interviews and the logistics of getting the whole family from Hamilton to Auckland.
And when the government documents failed to arrive on time, the Concord team didn't just flag the problem. They arranged to collect the documents themselves, then personally delivered them to the family's hotel the night before the interview, ensuring David walked in with everything he needed.
The Outcome
David's O-1A was approved quickly. The family relocated to San Francisco, and he stepped into his role as Partner and Head of Ecosystem at Andreessen Horowitz, now building the firm's global founder community from their Bay Area headquarters.
Today, David has over 13,000 LinkedIn followers, continues to curate Diaspora.nz, a platform profiling New Zealand founders and innovators around the world, and advises at Crimson Education. He's exactly where he needs to be, doing exactly what he's built his career to do.
For David, this wasn't just a visa approval. It was the difference between seizing the opportunity of a lifetime and watching it pass. And for his family, it meant starting their next chapter together, on time and without compromise.
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