I Shut Down Our Most Profitable Service (Because I Couldn't Stomach It Anymore)

December 4, 2025

I killed a $300K/year business line last month.

ANC's Canada Start-Up Visa consulting—helping international founders build businesses while securing PR—is dead. No more clients. No more SUV applications. Done.

Not because it wasn't profitable. We were making great money. $25-50K per engagement. 12-15 active clients at any time. Good margins.

I killed it because I was running adult daycare for wealthy people who wanted to buy their way into Canada.

And I couldn't do it anymore.

What SUV Consulting Actually Was

Here's what we told people:

"Deep strategic partnership helping founders build real businesses while navigating Canada's Start-Up Visa program."

Here's what it actually was:

• Months 1-3: Business validation workshops (they nodded along, then ignored everything)
• Months 4-6: MVP development guidance (they outsourced to agencies, shipped nothing real)
• Months 7-12: Incubator application prep (the only thing they actually cared about)
• Months 13-24: Hand-holding while they waited for immigration (business died, they didn't care)

The economics looked beautiful:

• $25-50K per client
• 6-12 month engagements
• 5-15% equity for upside
• Deep strategic partnership

The reality was soul-crushing:

• 70% only wanted the visa, not the business
• 50% had family money funding the "founder" dream
• 80% stopped building after getting incubator approval
• 95% never reached $1 in revenue during our engagement

I wasn't building businesses. I was running immigration theater for rich people.

The Moment I Knew I Had To Stop

October 2025. Monthly check-in call with a client. Let's call him Fang.

Wei had been with us for 8 months. His parents put up $60K total:

• $30K for ANC strategic partnership
• $15K for incubator fees
• $15K for "business expenses" (designer, some Facebook ads)

Me: "How'd customer interviews go this week?"

Fang: "Didn't do them. Was busy with other stuff."

Me: "You've said that for 3 weeks."

Fang: "I know. I'll get to it."

Me: "Fang, you're paying us $30K. Your parents put up $60K total. What's going on?"

Silence.

Fang: "Honestly? I don't really care about this business. I just need the visa."

Me: "Then why are we doing this?"

Fang: "My parents want me to have a path to Canada. SUV seemed like the best option. They're fine paying."

Me: "But you're not building anything real."

Fang: "I'll build something real after I get PR. Right now I just need to get approved."

That's when it hit me:

I wasn't a strategic advisor.

I was a visa facilitator helping rich kids check boxes their parents wanted checked.

And I'd been lying to myself about it for two years.

The Three Types of SUV Clients

Over 3 years, we worked with maybe 40-50 SUV clients.

They fell into three buckets:

Type 1: The Stamp Buyers (70%)

What they wanted:

• Canada PR (the real goal)
• A business that looked real enough for the incubator
• Someone to make them "application-ready"
• Strategic cover so their parents thought they were "building"

What they didn't want:

• To actually find customers
• To talk to users every week
• To make hard product decisions
• To generate revenue
• To keep building after getting incubator approval

What happened:

We'd work together for 6-12 months. Build something that looked credible. Get them incubator approval. Get them SUV approval.

Then they'd stop.

Business would die while they waited out their PR timeline (18-24 months). By the time they got PR, the company was dead. They'd get a job or pivot to something else.

They got what they wanted: A stamp.

We got equity in a dead company.

Type 2: The Permanent Children (20%)

What they wanted:

• To build a real business (genuinely believed this)
• Strategic guidance on every single decision
• Permission before doing anything
• Someone to validate every pivot
• Weekly calls to "stay on track"
• Indefinite hand-holding

What they couldn't do:

• Ship without approval
• Make decisions independently
• Handle uncertainty
• Function without a babysitter

Every single week:

• "Should I talk to this customer or that customer?"
• "Should I build this feature or that feature?"
• "Should I charge $99 or $149?"
• "Should I pivot to B2B or stay B2C?"
• "Should I hire a developer or learn to code?"

They'd finish our 6-month engagement, then:

"Can we extend? I'm not ready to do this alone."

Translation: "I'm paying you to be my dad."

What happened:

Half extended for another 6-12 months at $5-10K/month. Half found another consultant to babysit them. Both groups never shipped.

They wanted the identity of "founder with strategic advisor."

They didn't want to actually build alone.

Our equity: Worthless. The company never made money.

Type 3: The Real Ones (10%)

What they did:

• Shipped MVP by Month 2 (with or without our help)
• Got first paying customer by Month 4
• Stopped needing weekly calls by Month 6
• Came to check-ins with updates, not permission requests

They used SUV as one option, not the only option. They built businesses that could succeed anywhere.

What happened:

They didn't need us after 6 months. They kept building. Some hit $50K+ MRR. Some got acquired. Some are still compounding.

These were the only clients where our equity meant something.

Our equity: Actually valuable. But only 10% of clients.

The Economics That Kept Me Up At Night

Let's be honest about the money:

Annual Revenue:

• 12-15 active clients × $30K average = $360-450K

My Time:

• 2-3 hours per client per week
• 15 clients × 2.5 hours = 37.5 hours/week
• That's basically my entire work capacity

Profit: ~$300K/year after Vikas, contractors, overhead

On paper, this looks great. High-margin services business. Recurring revenue. Equity upside.

But here's what I couldn't account for:

Emotional Cost:

Every Sunday night, I'd look at my Monday calendar and feel sick.

Eight 1-on-1 calls with founders who weren't building anything real. Who were burning their parents' money. Who I was enabling.

I'd prep for calls knowing:

• Wei wasn't going to do customer interviews (again)
• Priya would ask for permission on something obvious (again)
• David would want to pivot (for the 4th time)

I was being paid $300K/year to watch people waste money and lie to themselves.

Opportunity Cost:

37.5 hours/week on client calls = zero time to build SimpleDirect.

I could be:

• Writing tools that scale infinitely
• Creating content that compounds
• Building systems that work while I sleep
• Doing 3-4 deep partnerships with actual builders

Instead I was on Zoom calls saying "Yes, talking to users is important" for the 47th time.

Compounding Cost:

90% of our SUV equity was worthless.

The companies died. The founders got their visa and moved on. Our equity certificates were toilet paper.

No portfolio value. No network effects. No compounding.

This work was profitable today but destroying my ability to build for 30 years.

The Industry Made Me Complicit

But it wasn't just about my clients. The entire SUV ecosystem is rotten.

The 35-Year Backlog Nobody Mentions

Canada's SUV program has a 35-year processing backlog right now.

If you apply today, you might get PR in 2060.

Every immigration consultant knows this. Every incubator knows this. Every lawyer knows this.

And they're all still taking applications—and taking money.

I personally watched consultants quote founders $45-60K for SUV applications knowing the program is effectively dead.

When I'd tell founders "Don't do SUV, the wait is 35 years," they'd say:

"But my consultant said I have a good chance. They said processing times are improving."

Their consultant lied. And charged them $50K for the lie.

The Incubators Don't Care If You Succeed

Canadian incubators get paid per approval, not per successful company.

Their incentive:

• Approve as many founders as possible
• Collect fees ($5-15K per founder - sometimes $25-50k per founder)
• Don't care what happens after

I watched incubators approve:

• Ideas with zero validation
• Founders with zero technical ability
• Businesses with zero revenue model
• Teams that would obviously implode

Because they get paid either way.

The founder gets SUV approval (enters 35-year queue). The incubator gets paid. Everyone wins.

Except the founder just wasted 12-18 months and $60-100K on a visa that won't come for decades.

The Parents Funding Theater

A lot of SUV applicants aren't self-funded. Their parents pay.

Parents put up $50-100K:

• $25-50K: Immigration consulting / strategic advisor
• $15-30K: Incubator fees
• $10-20K: "Business expenses" (fake MVP, Facebook ads)

The consultant doesn't care if the business works (they got paid upfront).

The parents don't understand the business (they're not founders).

The founder doesn't really want to build (they want the visa).

Everyone's playing immigration theater with someone else's money.

And I was part of it.

What I'm Actually Good At (And What I'm Not)

Two years of this taught me what I'm good at—and what I hate.

What I'm good at:

• Strategic thinking (where to build, when to move, how to structure)
• Systems design (AI-first ops, lean teams, high leverage)
• Long-term compounding (30-year portfolio thinking)
• Building tools (SimpleDirect, not consulting)

What I'm not good at:

• Babysitting adults who won't execute
• Watching people waste family money
• Being complicit in broken systems
• Selling false hope for profit

The SUV consulting model forced me to do what I hate.

SimpleDirect + ANC lets me do what I love.

What I'm Building Instead

I'm splitting the work into two companies:

SimpleDirect: Self-Serve Tools for Real Builders

A founder mobility platform for people who actually want to build.

WHERE Tools:

• Mobility AI: "Where should I build given my customers, team, funding?"
• Entity AI: "Where should I incorporate? Delaware? Canada? Both?"
• Banking AI: "Where should I bank? Mercury? Wise? Local?"
• Tax AI: "How do I optimize legally across jurisdictions?"

HOW Tools:

• Finance AI: "What's my runway? Am I burning too fast?"
• Ops AI: "What should I systematize? What's wasting time?"
• Hiring AI: "Should I hire? Contractor or employee?"

WHAT Tools:

• Roadmap AI: "What should I build next?"
• Pricing AI: "Am I leaving money on the table?"
• PMF AI: "Do I have PMF or am I lying to myself?"

The model:

• $97/month for everything
• AI-powered (adapts to YOUR data)
• Geography-agnostic (US, UK, Canada, UAE, wherever)
• Self-serve (you control it, not a consultant)

When you need to file visa paperwork, SimpleDirect connects you with immigration attorneys ($3-5K). You handle everything else yourself.

No $50K consultant middleman extracting value.

ANC: Deep Partnerships with Real Builders

For founders who want strategic partnership, ANC offers:

Founder Sprint ($10-20K, 8-12 weeks)

• Pre-PMF founders
• Find PMF faster
• Geography is one piece, not the whole engagement

Strategic Partnership ($25-50K, 3-6 months)

• Early traction ($10K-100K MRR)
• Scale efficiently
• Holistic business strategy (geography included)

Executive Advisory ($5-10K/month, 6-12 months)

• Established founders ($100K+ MRR)
• Ongoing strategic counsel
• Geography as part of broader strategy

All three lead to ANC Ventures: We invest $10-50K + 5-15% equity, hold forever.

The new positioning:

❌ "ANC helps founders with Canada SUV" ✅ "ANC is an ecosystem for non-standard founders who don't raise VC"

Geography is part of it. But it's not the whole thing.

And we only work with builders, not stamp collectors.

Why This Compounds (And SUV Consulting Doesn't)

SUV consulting was profitable but didn't compound:

• Revenue tied to my time (can only handle 15 clients)
• Each client needed custom work (doesn't scale)
• Clients left after visa (no retention)
• 90% of equity was worthless (companies died)
• No network effects (clients weren't real founders)

SimpleDirect + ANC compounds:

• Software scales infinitely (same tool serves thousands)
• AI gets smarter with every user (data moat)
• Members connect with each other (network effects)
• Retention is high (geography strategy is ongoing)
• Equity in real companies (10%+ actually succeed)
• Portfolio appreciates over 30 years (Berkshire model)

This is the difference between:

• Time-for-money: Profitable today, dead end long-term
• Compounding leverage: Builds for 30 years

What If I'm Wrong?

The immigration industry will say I'm naive:

"Founders can't do this themselves. They need experts. They need hand-holding."

Maybe they're right.

Maybe most founders are permanent children who can't make decisions without a consultant.

Worst case:

• SimpleDirect helps a few hundred founders
• ANC partnerships still work (we've done 50+ already)
• I waste 6-12 months building the wrong thing

Best case:

• SimpleDirect helps thousands of founders save $50K and make better decisions
• We democratize founder mobility strategy
• The immigration consulting industry collapses (or adapts)

I'm betting on the best case.

Because I'm 28 and I have 30+ years to build.

Why I'm Doing This Anyway

I don't want to spend the next 30 years:

• Running adult daycare for wealthy stamp buyers
• Watching families waste money on broken systems
• Being complicit in an industry I despise
• Building a business that doesn't compound

I want to build something that:

• Gets better over time (data moat, network effects)
• Helps real builders (not theater actors)
• Aligns with my values (honesty, democratization, long-term thinking)
• Compounds for decades (software + equity portfolio)

SimpleDirect + ANC is that business.

SUV consulting was not.

What This Means If You're Building

If you're thinking about geographic mobility:

1. Stop thinking visa-first.

Don't ask: "Can I get a Canada SUV?"

Ask: "Should I even want a Canada SUV given my business stage, burn rate, customer location, and alternative pathways?"

Sometimes the answer is yes. Often it's "wait 12 months and build first."

2. Don't hire an immigration consultant.

They're incentivized to file, not to tell you the truth.

Use tools (SimpleDirect) for strategy. Hire an attorney ($3-5K) only when you're ready to execute. Handle the rest yourself.

3. Build a business so valuable that visas become easy.

If you're at $100K MRR with strong press and credentials, O-1A is straightforward.

If you're pre-revenue with a mediocre idea, no visa pathway will save you.

Build first. Move later.

4. Geography is strategy, not destiny.

Where you build matters. But it's YOUR strategic choice based on YOUR business.

Not a default assumption. Not what some consultant tells you. YOURS.

The Uncomfortable Truth

I walked away from $300K in annual revenue because I couldn't stomach being part of it anymore.

That's stupid by most business metrics.

But I'm optimizing for 30 years, not 12 months.

SimpleDirect + ANC might fail. But they'll fail doing work I believe in, building businesses that compound, helping founders who actually want to build.

That's worth more to me than $300K running adult daycare.

What's Next

SimpleDirect launches Q1 2026.
Join the waitlist: SimpleDirect.com

ANC partnerships are open.
If you're building something real, not raising VC, thinking long-term. Reach out to us at ANC: anccap.com.

The immigration consulting industry won't like this.

Good. They shouldn't exist in their current form.

Let's democratize founder mobility.

Let's make geography a strategic choice, not a $50K barrier.

Let's build something that compounds.

George Pu
Toronto, December 2025
Founder, SimpleDirect + ANC

Building the tools I wish I had 3 years ago—and walking away from the businesses I can't stomach anymore.