Hi there,
I am in the early stage of my application. I would really appreciate your review/ input on my case. For context, I am currently under Skilled Worker Visa (Tier 2) and work as a Corporate VC at a Big 4 (separate legal entity, not in consulting, audit or tax). My work involves a lot of product development (blockchain & marketplaces), startup mentorship (strategy, commercial) and some due diligence/investment.
My purpose for transferring my visa is because I receive a job offer to work as a venture manager supporting Web 3 startups and more importantly, I want to focus on building my digital health startup (with web 3 elements). My current visa restricts my ability to work on my startup.
TLDR: my main problem is identifying optional evidence 1 (innovation) vs 3 (impact). My main work revolves a lot on innovation but most of our work, albeit directly for the firm’s assets are P&C and I’m under NDA - so not a lot of evidence I can produce beyond company website.
Recommendation letters:
- CTO of a global firm (top 100 people in Tech UK)
- Head of Digital at Digital Bank
- Unsure - Maybe my network from Innovate UK or colleagues from corporate venture arm or founder of a startup (any suggestions?)
Mandatory: Recognised as a potential leading talent
- Evidence 1: led the growth of / led the marketing or business development at a product-led digital technology company
- Ex founder – link to startup website and tractions
- Reference letter from Angel investor covering both growth and business dev
- Proof of successful exit
- Evidence 2: Awards - received nationally or internationally recognised prizes in digital technology
- McKinsey Next Generation Women Leaders Award (not my company)
- Nominated for WeAreTheCity Rising Star Award – Digital
- Evidence 3: You command a high salary or other remuneration for your services,
- employment contracts with salary information including any bonus and equity options and history of earnings from current company
- employment contracts with salary information including any bonus and equity options and history of earnings from job offer
- Evidence 4: Additional – selected to Founders programme
- Oxbridge Generate Accelerator
- Established VC Future Founder Programme - highly selective (one of 8 out of 1000 applicants) email to programme
Option 2: demonstrate that I have been recognised for my work outside of my immediate occupation that contributed to the advancement of the sector
- Evidence 5: evidence of speaking at high-profile digital tech events – FinTech event
- a reference letter from the conference organiser with explanation of why ( + event size/attendance estimates)
- Pictures from the event
- Podcast hosted on inspiring women entrepreneurs and social enterprises with over 1000
- Evidence 6: An op-ed or news article that exemplifies thought leadership, evidence of mentorship.
- Links to news article, internal research published
- Evidence 7: Evidence of mentorship (these programmes are structured but rarely documented due to sensitivity of the candidates we mentor)
- Reference letter from the Embassy (Women in STEM, Lean In)
- Reference letter + certificate of appreciation from programme coordinator (1:1 mentorship for underprivileged students from home country)
- Reference letter from UK uni from entrepreneurship programme
Option 3: Innovation
- Evidence 8: Documents detailing my significant contribution towards commercial success of a IoT company (cold-chain monitoring) I worked part-time for:
- Product release: strategise production of a market-leading IoT monitoring product
- Web development: revamped the whole digital marketing and customer journey
- Document showcasing sales pipeline built and operations streamlined
- Letter from employer + salary information
- Evidence 9: Evidence of innovation/product development in my current job building a digital marketplace and innovating in decentralised finance
- Marketplace website ( note: new product just being released so no revenue yet – which is tricky; the other product has revenue but im under NDA so I can’t release the figures)
- Evidence 10: Evidence of product from the company I exited
- Website to our products and services
