Are there any founders/entrepreneurs here?

Stage 1
1

Hi folks
I have looked at multiple posts and applications here for stage 1 endorsement, but haven’t come across many founders of product companies who seem to have applied (or shared their experience here). In case there are any here, would love to connect and get inputs on how you structured your application.

Context: I’m the Co-Founder and CEO of a SaaS company focussed on the real estate industry. We were earlier focussing on the opportunity for our product in Asia, but are now shifting focus to the UK. I’m looking to figure out how best I can shape up my application.

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Hi!

I am a non-technical co-founder so I made a business application and I was endorsed. I chose optional criteria 1 and 3 because I felt I had the strongest evidence for those. Some of the documents I included was proof of leading multiple fund raising rounds, financial documents about the company, sales pipeline, proof of product in the market etc.

Do you have any specific question you can share them here, I’ll be able to answer them.

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@Ajay_Kumar - founders/entrepreneurs are generally welcome under the TechNation visa. Do you have specific questions?

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Thanks for the response Temi and Shreenivas. My specific questions are as follows -

  1. Does TechNation have any benchmarks in terms of the scale your business must already achieved? (Ex. $1M in Revenue, etc.)
  2. Is there any threshold for financing that your company must have raised? (Ex. $5M in capital, etc.)
  3. Is it important that you already have customers for your business in the UK, or can you make the case that you will come to the UK and then find customers
  4. I am a 2X entrepreneur. While my current company is purely a technology company, my previous venture was a technology enabled service business (which I have now completely exited). Would that be ok, as Tech Nation seems to be more inclined towards pure tech businesses.

Would love to hear your inputs!

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Hi Ajay,

I am a technical Co-founder and I recently got endorsed for GTV (Stage 1). The following response is based on my experience.

  1. There are no benchmarks in terms of the scale, in my understanding
  2. No.
  3. Existing customers are not a necessity criteria. Describing your plans in the UK in your personal statement will help.
  4. Having started multiple ventures will not look bad in your story as long as you prove the impact of your digital business and the role you played.
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Based on my experience and reading these forums and just like @nipunbalan has shared

  1. As far as I know they do not, as most startups are unprofitable at this stage.

  2. None that I know of.

  3. My company doesn’t have customers in the UK, I simply explained how we plan to scale into the UK in my personal statement.

  4. Interestingly enough, I’m also a 2X founder. My first startup is tech-enabled and I mentioned it in my application. In my opinion, it helps tell your story as a leader/talent better. I used my resume and personal statement to highlight my work at this other tech-enabled startup. However, I made sure all my evidence was tied to work done for my current startup that is a SaaS business. I did this so that there won’t be any grey areas that would allow them to discredit a piece of evidence because it didn’t tie to work done for a product-led company. I wanted to make sure all my evidence was admissible for the best possible chances.

Ps. Just sharing what worked for me as I was endorsed for GTV Stage 1. This is not official TechNation advice.

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Appreciate the insights shared Temi and Nipunbala - Will keep these in mind! Thank you :slight_smile:

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Hello Temi, does that mean you did not answer mandatory 1 question or repeated similar answer for optional 3 question, they seems to be tied or related in my case as a technical co founder

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Hi, No. There’s no way not to provide evidence for Mandatory criteria so I provided evidence for that. However, for the optional criteria, you are advised to choose and I chose 1 & 3. Similar evidence but different documents.