Exceptional Promise Application – Seeking Feedback on My Tech Portfolio

Stage 1
1

Hi everyone,

I’m applying for the Global Talent Visa – Exceptional Promise under the Digital Technology (Technical track). I’d love to get feedback on my profile and evidences.

Quick background:

Up to 5 years of experience as a Software Engineer (Full-stack) – majorly as a freelancer and founder, building scalable web applications.

Co-founder & Senior Backend Engineer at a teletherapy platform launched last year.

5,000+ registered users

6,000+ sessions initiated

1,000+ therapy sessions completed

Previously co-founded a football discussion (2015–2023) platform that grew organically to:

45,000+ registered users

200,000+ posts/comments

Caught attention from UK media (Mirror Plc reached out regarding user-posted content)

Evidence includes database, codebase, admin email threads, Facebook page, archive.org snapshots, and hosting records.

Mandatory Criterion 1

Technical leadership as Co-founder

Built and scaled the backend architecture and microservices from scratch.

Designed database schemas, authentication, and payment workflows.

Platform metrics: 5k+ users and 1k+ therapy sessions completed.

Supporting evidence: code commits, architecture diagrams, deployment logs, testimonials from co-founder.

Mandatory Criterion 2
Recognition as a technical founder (Soccer Forum)

Co-Founded, and maintained a forum with 45k+ users and significant engagement.

Supporting evidence: codebase, database, archived pages, screenshots, mentions on other forums, hosting and admin records.

Optional Criterion 1

Innovative teletherapy platform architecture

Built a HIPAA-style backend with microservice architecture.

Integrated scheduling, video sessions, notifications, and secure file uploads…

Supporting evidence: architecture diagrams, code samples, screenshots, testimonials.

Built unique freelance products end-to-end

Evidence: code samples, deployment URLs, client recommendation.

Optional Criterion 2

Product impact metrics (Teletherapy platform)

Impact on users: 5k+ onboarded, 1k+ completed sessions.

Evidence: dashboard screenshots, analytics, reviews.

Forum community growth and external validation

45k+ users, thousands of discussions.

Platform helped foster football community discourse.

Evidence: screenshots, database, Google Search Console analytics, hosting receipts.

Recommendation Letters

  1. My Teletherapy Co-founder — speaks on my technical leadership and product impact.

  2. Long-term freelance client (4 years) — speaks on technical depth, delivery, and reliability.

  3. Startup founder I worked with for a year — speaks on collaboration and impact.

Concerns

Most of my experience has been as a freelancer/founder (not as full time employee in big and well known companies).

Two of the projects tied to my recommenders are still in their launch phase, and the recommenders themselves don’t have a strong online presence.

The Soccer Forum was not incorporated, but I have verifiable evidence.

Feedback I’m Looking For

Is this portfolio strong enough for Exceptional Promise?

Are there any weak areas or evidence I should strengthen?

Thanks in advance :pray:

@Francisca_Chiedu @Akash_Joshi @Raphael

2

Hey Opzy, this summary isn’t enough. It’s way too sparse. Look at how others write their summaries in this forum. It needs to be broken down per criteria and be much more detailed.

3

@Akash_Joshi Okay I will do that and make necessary adjustments. Thanks.

4

@Akash_Joshi I’ve now updated my post with a more detailed breakdown and clearer summary. Would really appreciate it if you could take another look when you can.

5

Hi @Opzy Your work has potential but to meet the success criteria for GTV, you will need verifiable evidences backed by third-party across 3 criteria.

In MC, who was the recognizing body of your founder role? Was it a leading tech publication or news? What were you recognized for? What was the industry recognition here? Cofounding a forum is not industry leading evidence - it is not even a product-led tech company which is the core of TN asks. Your MC is weak.

OC1: Was this freelancing done for a product-led digital tech company? What was innovative and what is the third-party evidence here? You need to show proof of product in market and its associated market traction. Along with a third-party evidence like a letter, pictures of the live product in market, etc.

OC2 is about advancement of field beyond job and your mentioned list of evidences dont suit this criteria. You may try OC3 with the ones above but will neex external verifiable evidence.

  • Evidences as founder are ok if the company was product-led digital tech company. but as freelance, the evidences wont be counted as strong enough.

If the projects are still in launch, they are weak since you cannot show its impact and traction. Recommenders without online presence is a big red flag in recent applications.

Was this forum a product-led digital tech company? If not, it wont even be counted. Additionally if you dont have proof of incorporation and shareholding as a founder then its weak evidence and will raise many questions on the authenticity and strength of your role.

In its current form, this is a very weak set without strong third-party validation, established product-led companies and proven traction and impact.

6

You have not demonstrated sufficient evidence to meet the criteria. Besides you are not eligible for exceptional promise. Your soccer social media platform is over five years, so that makes you eligible for Exceptional talent but you need to show outstanding evidence to get endorsed

7

@pahuja Thanks a lot for taking the time to give this detailed feedback — really appreciate it.

I completely understand the concerns you raised, and I’ll try to clarify some points to better reflect the context of my work and evidences.

On the “product-led” part (for my past forum project):

The football platform I co-founded wasn’t a hosted community — it was a fully custom web app (PHP + MySQL) built and managed entirely by me and my co-founder. It had custom moderation tools, authentication, messaging system, timeline, user following system and other features. It grew to 45k+ registered users and over 200k posts/comments before it dissolved.

While it wasn’t incorporated, I still have digital proof (domain and hosting in my name, linked admin email, Facebook page, archive.org screenshots, and mentions on other forums).

Current company:
My current startup is incorporated and fully product-led. It focuses on digital mental health services. We’ve been accepted into the NVIDIA Inception Program and recently received $10,000 AWS Activate credits, both of which are external recognitions of our innovation and potential. I will be using these to support my case under MC and OC1, showing third-party validation and product impact.

MC:
I get your point about third-party recognition. For this, I’ll show traction, external startup support (NVIDIA/AWS), and product impact to demonstrate recognition beyond my role.

OC1
I’ll highlight the technical innovation behind building both products (custom system architecture, automation of therapist-client matching, and backend scalability). I’ll include architecture diagrams, technical documentation, and letters verifying my role in developing these systems from scratch.

OC3
I’ll focus on measurable outcomes — user growth, engagement, platform stability, and direct impact on therapy delivery.

Recommenders:
I understand the concern about online presence. All three recommenders are on LinkedIn, though they may not have very public profiles yet. Two of them are startup founders I’ve worked closely with as a freelance developer — their platforms are still in the launch phase — and the third is my co-founder at the therapy platform. Each of them can speak directly to my technical contributions, leadership, and product development impact.

Thanks once again for your valuable feedback. Please let me know if this additional information helps strengthen my profile or if there are any specific points you’d still like me to clarify.

8

@Francisca_Chiedu Thanks a lot for your feedback.
I’m wondering — would it make sense to remove the soccer forum from my evidences since my main professional experience really started within the last five years?

9

You can do that but be mindful that you need to show what you have been doing after school as assessors often query applications with unexplained gaps.

1 Like
10

@Francisca_Chiedu Okay, noted. Thanks for the heads-up. Could you please take a look at the updated evidences I’ve added to see if they make my profile stronger? Thanks again. Exceptional Promise Application – Seeking Feedback on My Tech Portfolio - #7 by Opzy

11

@pahuja @Akash_Joshi @Francisca_Chiedu Just tagging you again — can you please take a quick look at my updated evidences when you can? Thanks! Exceptional Promise Application – Seeking Feedback on My Tech Portfolio - #7 by Opzy