Hello Everyone.
Been on this forum for the past 6 months learning, reworking and trying to understand the technation requirements.
I’ll be finally applying and want to get your feedback @Francisca_Chiedu @alexnk @somdipdey @alex_james @May @femibiwoye @oluwabig and everyone else.
I will be applying as a promise under the growth marketing category. However my previous career use to be as a startup founder.
Aside the Cv and personal statement detailing my vision, how I started, journey so far and next steps in the uk.
Letter of Recommendation
- A Techstars backed regtech founder who I worked with for over 12 months however we’ve known for abour 2 years.
- A GSV backed edtech founder who I’ve known for over 4 years and worked with in training people as well as growth for his startup
- A fintech CEO who we once founded a AI startup together who has raised over £400,000
Mandatory
- Letter of support from a manager on how I grew revenue to £20,000,000
- (An award given to me by the minister of technology Belgium) 1.5pages, another award given to me by Microsoft (1 page) and lastly a $10,000 award given to me and my team by an Australian company.
- 5 News articles about my previous startup and how I was disrupting the African tech market using AI(my name was mentioned in all 5)
- 6 Banners and links (not much) of events I’ve spoken and moderated in both locally and internationally. (Egypt, London events )Also included an email from Startupbootcamp asking me to come as a guest to their African road show event.
Oc2
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A tech tv show on local tv which I currently cohost in Nigeria where we showcase innovations in STEM as well as discuss STem topics. We’ve invited over 200 enterpreneurs to the show and some of them shared screenshot of how it helped them. Some have gone ahead to be receipients of the GTV. Also included analytics of YouTube where we post short clips. (Over 5000 views in the past 1 year)
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News article where my story as a marketer is showcased and I’m asked to share my opinion on the African startup market and how to scale.
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A platform where I have been training young kids and adult since 2019 on Stem field in partnership with 3 other companies. I’ve trained over 9000 since it’s started till date and I attached a reference letter from one of the partner companies.
Oc3
- Growth for the £20,000,000 showing dashboard as well as screenshots of job well done from the CEO’s email and salary spike (didn’t state the salary) and how they collapsed a full department in the company and merged them with mine for me to head.
- Growth of a fintech showing data and marketing dashboard and revenue generated to over $150,000 and included equity reward contract given for job well done. Company recently got into a US based accelerator.
- growth of a food tech showing data and marketing dashboard, marketing strategies that brought over 40% growth and revenue increase in 6 months including opening conversations with VC’s to fund the startup. and included equity reward contract given for job well done.
With the fact that tech nations process is getting stronger daily. What do I need to tweak or rework to stand a better chance.
Please do help out as I’ll be applying this month.
Thank you .
I think you have some solid evidence. I have some questions and suggestions you may want to consider.
Evidence one letter from immediate manager is may not be suitable. Get a senior executive in the company to write it but I think you need this letter more in OC3 to demonstrate your impact.
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The Award give to you by the Belgium Govt, what’s the award about? If this is an award of recognition for your contribution to the sector or excellence. I think the award should be a standalone evidence.
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What’s the Microsoft award about?
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Banners of event is not sufficient, you need to show evidence of you speaking, what if you show a banner and didn’t eventually speak at the events? Evidence of you speaking on the main stage, invitation/thank you letter or a reference letter from the organiser confirming you spoke and why you were asked to speak.
For the Mandatory criteria you could follow this order, evidence of Award from Belgium’s Minister of Techy, News clippings, conference speaking. I am not sure of the Microsoft evidence?
OC2 is fine, ensure you demonstrate that the activities have advanced the sector
OC3. It looks OK but get a letter from your employer detailing your impact.
Is there a reason you are not using evidence of high salary for MC or OC3?
Thank you so much for your feedback.
The letter for MC is not an immediate manager but the head of another department in the organization as our both departments work closely. I’m trying not to use the CEO. Will move this to OC3.
The award from Belgium govt was an award for solving a solution they noticed in the African fintech industry. I brought the best solution that was scalable.
The Microsoft award was a gold away from a 3 month hackathon. Was also paired with some fintechs and I solved their problems.
Events I shared links and emails of 2 events while others (about 6, i just out banners) will the links for the 2 be sufficient as I’m looking at not exceeding 3 pages.
I’ve taken note of the order for MC.
For salary, I’ve come to realize is very tricky. Hence why I choose to use equity and point out the value. Each of the 2 startups I have equity in is valued at over £1,000,000.
Was thinking equity letters show much impact that actual letters
I have seen some feedback suggesting that Hackathons don’t necessarily suggest that you have been recognised as a potential leader. A different assessor may think otherwise but I will give it less priority, the cash price is $10k, compared to other applicants, the value is not so significant.
The use of links as evidence is not encouraged, links are typically not assessed. Search rejected applications, you may find comments regarding the US of link, it’s also in tech nation guide. For the conference you can show invitation email, pictures of you speaking, try to show the Audience to demonstrate that there are over 100 attendesles. I believe you can cover all these using three pages.
For your salary, use payscale or Glassdoor to show that it is higher than the average salary in your home country. Then show you have substantial equity shares.
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Alright. I’ll rework the conference evidence.
Might not be able to do pictures of audience but I’m hopeful the other criteria’s in the mandatory will scale me through as it’s just promise.
Will also add the salary option.
Believe 2 evidence per criteria works?
Thank you.
Did you say Just promise? If you have been following posts lately then you will know your application needs to be outstanding. If you don’t have pictures of the audience get an organiser to write an confirm the number of attendees.
Alright.
Thank you for this feedback. Will speak with the organizers.