@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.