Application refused need guidance

Stage 1
1

Dear All,

I have applied for the endorsement in mid of august I received the refusal on 31st and then the refusal of appeal is received yesterday. I happy to share the my document with you guys if any one can help me guiding to make my next application more stronger?

brief about my self. I have been working in IT from past 15 years currently working in the UK on work permit. I have a small Startup based in Dubai we have a product for business automation platform. I mainly used my startup experience to file the endorsement.
I covered the mandatory criteria with below points and i thought that this will enough.
“You led the growth of a product-led digital technology company, product or team inside a digital technology company, as evidenced by reference letter(s) from leading industry expert(s) describing your work, or as evidenced by news clippings, lines of code from public repos or similar evidence.”
to cover the above criteria, all three reference letter were referring to my role in my startup, also i have submitted a newsletter which talks about my product.

“You command a high salary or other remuneration for your services, as evidenced by commercial or employment contracts with salary information including any bonus and equity options and history of earnings.”
I have submitted my salary certificate from Dubai based company, also submitted the inital agreements between partners of startup.
technation accepted those docs but the refusal I got is

MC refusals

“The applicant has not shown how they have achieved a level of national or international recognition in the digital technology sector. They need to demonstrate leadership through a mixture of references from a wide network of established industry leaders or experts that detail how, what, and why they are a leader in their field; examples of significant media recognition; examples of high-profile speaking engagements such as keynote presentations at major tech conferences or published profiles or interviews in leading media outlets; or other forms of recognisable contributions.”

“The applicant has not been a keynote speaker at any major tech conference or event; he has not received any prizes or awards; he has not been profiled in any leading media outlet; and, he has not made any significant contributions to the wider community.”

to OC1 i have submitted a document which talks about the innovative work i did for Sharjah Govt UAE, three projects were presented in GITEX 2017-2018 and 2019 and the 2018 project has also got the best E-Service govt award. i have summited the reference letter which stats that 2018 was delivered by me along with it I have also submitted the Audit reports of my company but the refusal they didnt say anything about the gitex document they said that audit reports and other company document doesnt proof innovation.

OC3
i have submitted the technical details of my product where i had clearly mentioned my work but along with that i have submitted my current salary details which i am getting in the UK.

the refusal i got is that i didn’t provide any evidence of technical impact and my current salary which i am getting in the UK is does not proof any impact.

The appeal which i darfted was very log of 8 pages :frowning: i tried to explain each and everything but the appeal refusal was almost the same.

can anyone please guide me

2

Mistakes which i believe i did was

  1. i gave too much commercial information like Startup salary, audit reports and current salary getting in the UK.

  2. There is no direct media recognition, although I had the reference letter from the customer that I did that project but it was not considered.

  3. in my CV and LinkedIn profile I didn’t mentioned anything about the product.

3

You still don’t get the feedback on your application. It is not because you gave too much commercial information you just didn’t provide evidence that you are a recognised leader. No speaking event, no strong external public profile in the media about you and your work in the field. Also you didn’t show a wider pool of industry leaders you know your work. No award …

4

Dear @Francisca_Chiedu,

thank you for the response, it is true that i didn’t give any evidence of public speaking and external profile but i believe this is one of the criteria not that something you should have if you want an endorsement. Also the reason why i think that i gave too much of commercial information because i got a response from technation that your startup remuneration, salary and company audit reports doesn’t proof innovation, for me it is strange i gave this information but these things were mentioned as accepted evidences.

any way can you please guide me for the next application?

5

@Francisca_Chiedu
one more thing i would to mentioned here. they didnt accepts my reference letters authors as expert in digital technology and strangely in the refusal tech nation mentioned that “they are not from product led digital technology leaders” the authors of my letters are very high profile IT professionals. 1st one is CEO of my startup, 2nd one is CIO of digital payment solution provider company and 3rd one is head of digital transformation in a digital solution provider all have 20+ years of exp.
can you guide me who could be the ideal candidate for these letters?

6

Basically NO press release + public speech = NO endorsement. You need to get them.

7

The issue is that most of your evidence is interna. MC can be a mix of internal achievement (e.g., leading the growth of a large-tech initiative with impact, supported by reference letters from senior global executives) and external-facing recognition (e.g., awards from recognized national or international organizations, speaking at recognized events, significant open-source contributions, etc.). The latter is important as an externally verifiable proof of your leadership.

8

Your recommenders may be founders but have limited public profile or their startup is not tech focused. The preference is to use leaders from product-led digital technology companies.

9

this my fear for the next attemp, i had provided enough proof that my founder are well established individual in digital technology. the startup is tech based, the product has been shortlisted by Dubai govt to be included in Dubai tech based startup incubator. anyhow i am preparing my self for the re-attempt will take your guidance once the docs are ready. Thank you for the support :slight_smile: