Exceptional Talent - Endorsed

Stage 1
1

I would like to share my application in the hope that it may be of assistance to others who are planning to apply for this visa in the future. I have over 10 years of experience as a founding team member in product-led startups, where I led the development from an early stage. I applied for an exceptional talent visa based on my experience in startups, my contributions to open-source projects, and my involvement in establishing and managing numerous small communities. As optional criteria I chose OC2 and OC3.

Company A: I was the 4th employee, was responsible for all user-facing projects and actively helped the company raise funding.
Company B: I was the 1st employee, established all development infrastructure and working methods.
Company C: I was brought to take over the user-facing application and guide the company’s main product development.

CV: Talking about my achievements and innovations in each of the companies. I noted that I don’t have any formal education and that I have been volunteering in an informal manner for many years. Also notes that I have co-authored 2 patents.

Recommendations:

  1. Previously Head of Engineering in company A, now VP in company C who brought me on-board
  2. CTO and co-founder of a successful startup, company B (after 2 exists)
  3. CTO and founder of a startup that closed, company A (founder team member of Google Israel)

All talking about my contribution, innovations and leadership skills. (same for letters in my envidence)

Evidences:

  1. Open source contribution to a large project - Github screenshots
  2. Ongoing contributions to the open source community - Github/Stackoverflow screenshots
  3. Leadership and engagement in development communities - Whatsapp/Facebook screenshots + photos from events I perticipated (Panel and Meetup)
  4. Organizing events for the junior developers community - Whatsapp/Facebook screenshots + Thank you letter from a large conference organizer company
  5. Reference letter from a leading figure in the global open-source community
  6. Reference letter from VP R&D of company B
  7. Proof of significant contribution to company B - Github/Jira/Confluence/Slack screenshots + screenshots from Crunchbase and PR about the company’s funding
  8. Reference letter from VP R&D of company C
  9. Proof of significant contribution to company C - Github/Jira/Confluence/Slack screenshots + screenshots from Crunchbase and PR about the company’s funding
  10. Salaries, options and offers

MC: #1, #3, #4, #5, #6, #8, #10
OC2: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5
OC3: #6, #7, #8, #9, #10

My personal statement noted that I’m eager to work at the UK and believe I have a lot to contribute, but since I’m aiming for early stage startups skilled worker visa isn’t an option. Other than that it was focused on highlighting that company founders really appritiated my work and that I am constantly giving back to the community, even if it isn’t in a very large scale.

I thought that my OC2 was a little weak because it wasn’t public enough. My major talks were more than 5 years ago so I couldn’t use any of it, but luckly it was enough to get endorsed :slight_smile:

Submitted: 5 Mar 2023 14:16
1st Edit: 13 Mar 2023 12:06
2nd Edit: 14 Mar 2023 20:40
3rd Edit: 14 Mar 2023 21:39
4th Edit: 27 Mar 2023 13:58
5th Edit: 28 Mar 2023 09:40
6th Edit: 28 Mar 2023 12:47

Hope this helps and good luck!

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Wow! It helps. Congratulations @Ido_Moshe

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Congratulations for your achievement.
did you apply inside UK or outside UK ?

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Congrats
One question pls
Are your GitHub contributions just screenshots any need to provide the links of the commits

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From outside of the UK.

You need to provide reference links in addition to the screenshots in case they wish to validate it, at least for open-source contributions. Not specifically to the commits, a link to the repository is enough.

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Congrats @Ido_Moshe how did you link one document to more than one criteria - like doc #1,3,4,5 etc

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You upload up to 10 documents on one form and then on another you fill for each criteria separately which evidence supports it. There’s no problem using the same evidence for more than one criteria.

Note that it’s hinted in the Tech Nation guide under OC3

Submitting the same evidence for both criteria may not be sufficient if it does not meet these different requirements.

Stating that you can do it, submit the same evidence to difference criteria, but you should make sure it clearly setisfies both criteria.

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@Ido_Moshe Did you use any of the mentioned documents to provide the criteria mapping you wrote:

MC : #1, #3, #4, #5, #6, #8, #10
OC2 : #1, #2, #3, #4, #5
OC3 : #6, #7, #8, #9, #10

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You provide the criteria mapping as part of the application. Here’s a screenshot to better clarify.

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are you talking about this one @Ido_Moshe ?

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Yes, this is the one…

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Hi @Ido_Moshe quick question:
The instruction in the screenshot says

Whilst you can use multiple documents to support each criteria, each document must only contain a single piece of related evidence

But the way you’ve done, doesn;t it kind-of violate the above? eg - Evidence#01 contains evidence of mandatory leading talent and first optional criteria.

I’m planning to submit in the next hour. Response would be appreciated :slight_smile:

Thanks much.

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I personally found this part to be very open to interpretation. The way I understand it is that each document must have a single theme.

E.g. My Evidence#10 was Salaries, options and offers from the last two companies I worked for. The document is a couple of screenshots of the contracts, of the initial offer and my words explaining what this proves and providing currency exchange details to GBP.

There are many “moving parts” to the evidence but all are under a single claim that I’m perceived as a leader through the job offers I received. As to your example, my Evidence#01 contains only details about my contribution to a specific repository, and according to the guide open source contribution to a largely used library proves both that I am precived as a leader and that I contribute to the community outside of work.

The way I see it, most evidence could be used for more than one criteria, you just have to plan how you organize them in advance.

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I have also this doubts about if it’s possible to repeat the same docs as evidence for different criterias, was it accepted?
Thanks :slight_smile:

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The recent update says your evidence must be unique. You can’t repeat evidence.

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Are you referring to this point?:

  • At least 2 unique documents showing you are recognised as either a leading talent or potential talent (see Mandatory Criteria) and at least 4 unique documents showing you have any 2 of the other necessary skills (see Optional Criteria). You cannot use the same piece of evidence for more than one criteria.

It seems that they are saying that the “unique” documents cannot be shared as evidence. Which can be inferred as some evidence can be shared.

What do you think?

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You cannot use the same piece of evidence for more than one criteria. I believe this is crystal clear.

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Thanks for clarifying.

Do you know if the one or more of the three letters of recommendation (LOR) can be added as evidence in any of the criteria? I was thinking of adding the LORs as additional evidences for Mandatory criteria.
This is in addition to the 10 evidences.

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I think you should avoid doing so, just demonstrate you have a diverse network of experts who know your work.

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This seems to be a recent development, right? A lot of previous applications I saw have shared evidences across criteria.