Hi all, appreciate the insights in this forum, it has been a super valuable resource for me so far.
I’m applying for the Exceptional Talent route in Digital Technology. I’ve been at a high-growth UK Large Language Model (LLM) startup for the past 4.5 years working many roles in the go-to-market and currently VP of Strategic Alliances. Prior to this, I spent 6 years as a digital strategy consultant in Australia. The company is post Series B with reputable investors.
My recommendation letters
- Former COO of the LLM startup (my direct line manager for 4 years)
- Current CEO and Co-founder of the LLM startup (direct involvement in many initiatives, he holds a PhD in language models from a renowned university)
- Sr Director/VP-level executive from one of my alliance partners (publicly listed company, we have worked together for 12 months)
Overall, my plan with the recommendation letters is to highlight three things: 1) I have led key pillars of the go-to-market strategy for the company during its growth phase and my P&L underpins substantial revenue and new customer acquisition, 2) I am expert in the field of commercialising LLMs through speaking events and by our strategic partners, and 3) I led very specific product initiatives in the hotel sector which have received public awards for innovation
Evidence: Mandatory Criteria
MC1: Employment offers showing promotion each year and salary/equity increases
MC2: My speaker profile at 2 global AI conferences and my presentations, in 2023
MC3: Letter from CEO of a reseller partner indicating that I led marketing and business development for a joint product with them to unlock substantial revenue for their business over the past 3 years
MC4: Sanitised screenshot from a recent board paper showing my team’s contribution to revenue (>£1M in first 12 months of formation) and leading other divisions in terms of sales pipeline metrics (conversion rate, average deal size etc)
Evidence: Optional Criteria 1
OC1: Letter from CTO and Co-founder highlighting my leadership in designing the hotel product features and requirements, and my leadership in a second product for a non-profit, and my leadership in leading our product integration efforts with major tech companies
OC2: Industry innovation award that we received for our product from a notable hotel body in 2023
OC3: News clippings and innovation awards we received for the non-profit product in 2022
OC4: Screenshots of our list of product integrations with major tech companies
Evidence: Optional Criteria 3
OC5: Examples of go-to-market materials that I created which underpin training for our entire sales organisation
OC6: Letter from our Head of Machine Learning referencing my commercial contribution in getting internal research priorities funded via our strategic partners, along with excerpt from published research paper where I am thanked and credited for my help in getting research funding
Any thoughts or feedback would be much appreciated!