Hi all, I’m preparing a Tech Nation application and would appreciate honest feedback from the admins
Background :
- SEO & organic Growth since 2019
- Product-led companies: (2019–2020) and (fintech, Sept 2022–present)
- Media-led role in between (2021–2022), but still SEO and Organic Growth
- Strongest product-led impact and recognition from 2022 onward, with most speaking/judging accelerating in 2025
Key questions:
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How did you decide between Exceptional Promise vs Talent when your strongest recognition was recent?
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My career has spanned from 2019 till date, but my product-led impact started in 2022 (not counting 2019, as this was my formative years in the industry)
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Is having the most measurable impact at one product-led company a concern in practice?
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Any advice on framing SEO / organic growth clearly as digital technology rather than “just marketing”?
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If I go for exceptional promise, won’t I be considered as ‘no longer early career stage’ ?
Also, kindly help me review my evidence outline and advice on how to structure better
GTV Application Plan
Main Narrative: Organic Growth Leader designing scalable acquisition systems for fintech with peer recognition and measurable commercial impact.
3 Mandatory references
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A respected Nigerian Techpreneur, software developer, investor and Thought Leader. He is actually a very prominent figure in the Nigerian Tech ecosystem – I started my career at his company in 2019 and worked with him for over a year - he knows my work
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Snr Software Engineer, CEO of my current company (YC-backed Fintech) - can vouch for my impact
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An Award-winning digital strategy leader. She is a globally sought-after keynote speaker at premier industry conferences and a dedicated advocate for increasing representation for Black professionals within the digital ecosystem in the UK. - Can vouch for my industry-wide contributions.
*Also, considering the founder of BrightonSEO or other conference organisers (In case any of the above referees won’t work).
Mandatory Criteria (MC)
MC1
- UK search awards finalist, October 2025
- Marketing Edge - Outstanding SEO Growth Manager of the year, October 2025
- A post by a business blog in 2022 listing me as one of the top 7 SEO professionals in Nigeria
PS: This awards review the work and impact done in the previous year before 2025, news clippings and evidence available.
MC2
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Selected to speak at BrightonSEO October 2025 (That’s arguably the largest gathering of SEO professionals worldwide) – The biannual industry event has been in existence for over 10 years. My session had over 2000 professionals in attendance from 20+ countries. I planned to show my evolution as an attendee from 2023, 2024, April 2025, till I eventually got on stage in October 2025. My slides are public and have been downloaded by over 100 people, and multiple outlets in the industry listed my talk as one of the best, alongside others. Due to how practical my debut talk was, I got a repeat speaker invitation for the 2026 edition in April
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I was on stage twice at the Digital World Marketing Forum in Amsterdam in Nov 2025: -Gave a solo talk and was also part of the panel session. Fellow conference speakers include folks from Google, LinkedIn, Adidas, Snapchat, Uber, and others, with my picture displayed alongside these industry professionals. I had plenty of mentions on LinkedIn thanking me for my session, as well as appreciative DMs for the template I shared on how to navigate the era of AI-powered search.
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Invitation to speak on Twitter space in 2024 – shared my knowledge on ‘Techniques for succeeding in the digital marketplace’ – invite email, space recording, event flier available (just 79 people tuned in
MC3
- Oped piece on how product-led SEO fuels user growth – Tribune 2023
- Opinion piece on retention as an underrated growth signal – TechCabal - October 2025
- Expert insight on business blog: how product-led SEO drives sustainable business growth 2022
OC2 A — Mentorship & ecosystem contribution
- A female-led NGO for women in Growth - 2022 (online but structured and there are feedback from mentees publicly mentioning my name on Medium and LinkedIn
- Africa Code Week (A UNESCO & SAP initiative) participated in the physical version from 2018 to 2020, when it became digital – and kept volunteering annually till 2022, when I relocated to the UK for my MSc (pictorial evidence and old tweets from 2018 available)
- FCDC (online but formal and structured mentorship)
OC2 B Independent media & expert commentary
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Lumar (Formerly DeepCrawl) published my insights (SEO predictions for 2026) in Dec 2025 – out of several organic growth & SEO professionals, insights from 20 professionals stood out, in which I was part of.
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Interview on Leadership News 2022
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Interview with Marketing in Action newsletter - 2025
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Panel session Customer Engagement Summit (London 2025).
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Podcast appearance at Customer Engagement Summit
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Spoke at Customer Marketing Summit (London 2025)
OC3 Significant contribution to a digital technology company (YC-backed fintech company)
OC3.A — Measurable outcomes on business impact – I planned to show I have helped the company organically acquire users (KYC completed), beyond just web traffic – my work directly contributed to the first 1M users.
I planned to show Baseline → outcome metrics Conversion, revenue, pipeline, or activation impact
Black Friday campaign 2024 – generated 6 billion in revenue and 40k new users
OC3 B – International Expansion – I have planned to show how I have helped the company acquire and scale users in 12 distinct markets using scalable systems like programmatic SEO etc – I planned to show the PRD, dated Slack and Notion screenshots showing how I collaborated with other teams
- Reference letter from the CTO or Head of Growth or Head of Marketing backing my claims
I’m aiming for a clean, honest application that reflects trajectory rather than over-claiming.
Thanks in advance! Really appreciate any insight. @Akash_Joshi @Raphael @Pahuja @Suyash @francisca_chiedu, please what do you think?
