Endorsed - business applicant

Stage 1
1

Hi all - posting the outline of my application in case this helps anyone. Was endorsed in about a week after second submission of my application at the beginning of July (submitted 1st July, endorsed on the 9th). I was rejected last year for context.

A few pointers for business applications:

  1. Tell a complete story that is supported by every piece of evidence; everything should complement and work together to show you as a complete candidate. I recommend spending time outlining your story and then working backward creating your evidence to support it.

  2. Everything should demonstrate quantifiable impact, including examples given in your letters of support. Demonstrate financial outcomes, growth created, industry impact - this really matters.

  3. Do not assume that the assessor understands your company or your role. You have to explicitly (and consistently) explain and demonstrate both across all of your evidence, ensuring that both meet the TN criteria.

  4. If you have evidence that doesn’t fully meet the requirements for the Mandatory or Optional Criteria, weave it into your Letters of Recommendation or Support. I had a good amount of volunteering/speaking experience but none of it felt sufficient to stand on it’s own as evidence so I asked my letter-writers to include it into their stories about me and reference specific examples of events/panels/etc. This can help round out your application and give the assessor a fuller picture of you as an applicant.

good luck!

MC:

  1. Letter of Support (LOS) from CRO of leading AI company, has known me for ~4 years from working together at a different company
  2. CTO of a leading marketplace company - worked together during my time in sales and sold my company’s solution to his organisation
  3. Significant commercial success: evidence of exponential growth of the company I worked at over 8 years from annual statements, confirmed by LOS 1.
  4. Evidence of high salary: I included screenshots across the last 5 years of my salary + equity + bonus history of all my roles as well as public benchmarks for my role from sites like glassdoor.com

OC1:

  1. 3 Slides from a major client sale I completed. Slide 1 = background on the project + my role. Slide 2 = digram illustrating my commercial and technical strategies to win the business Slide 3 = diagrams illustrating the commercial and industry outcomes of winning the business
  2. Same thing for a different client
  3. Same structure outlining an internal operational strategy I designed and delivered in a different role resulting in significant revenue uplift for my employer

OC3:

  1. Letter of Support from a CTO client that attested to my impact on the acquisition of his company
  2. 3 Slides outlining this acquisition process, my role, and media attention
  3. 3 slides demonstrating sales contracts I’ve closed (totalling ~$5 million)

Sending encouragement to anyone still in the process - keep at it! It’s hard and stressful but success is possible. Best of luck!

2 Likes
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Thank you this is extremely helpful as I’m currently in the process of reapplying. Can I ask how did you incorporate evidences like media attention and sales contracts into slides? I’m struggling on this as I don’t want to attach too many links but also don’t think it makes sense to include the whole document just for authenticity.

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I took screenshots of the important bits (dates, names of businesses contracting, amounts) and then ensured any relevant recommendation letters included mention of these contracts to confirm authenticity

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Thank you, congrats again!

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Congratulations @cmk123 .
can we connect on linkedin please? https://www.linkedin.com/in/adedoyinsola-adeyeye-csmÂŽ-b88b74233/

Currently preparing my documents too, to apply by July ending

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Congratulations @cmk123! Glad to see that your hard work didn’t go unrecognised! Welcome to the Family and wishing you success in your future endeavours :pray::heart:

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Congratulations and thank you for sharing, i will be applying again in November.

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Hi there, I’d like to thank you again for your help. I submitted a new application with most evidences structured in slides this time and received my endorsement this week. Your advice was truly a huge part of it. Thanks again!

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Congratulations @burninup

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Thanks for sharing! Your example in organising the evidence is truly inspring. Wondering on the OC1 - how did you prove the ‘new digital field/concept’ through the evidence, or are you founder/senior executives of the company?

Asking as I’m a business applicant, also not founder/senior executives. I found it’s difficult to prove the projects I’ve been doing are in the ‘new digital field/concept’. Thanks in advance!

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@Cheryl_Lu - apologies for the late response. I used screenshots from industry research firms that classified my company as “category creating” and hyperlinked the source. I was an early employee at a startup that eventually went public and I used screenshots of financial outcomes to prove that the market success reflected the “newness” of what we were building. Hope this helps and good luck!

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Thanks a lot for your reply! It really helps :pray:

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