Over the past few months, one rejection reason keeps appearing again and again, evidence dismissed as self‑authored. When applicants book consultation calls with me, many don’t fully understand what this means. Others feel their evidence was unfairly judged. But the truth is this, in most cases, Tech Nation’s feedback on this is true.
I’m not saying applicants are lying or fabricating documents. Most are not. The real issue is how the evidence is presented and the type of evidence being submitted.
What “self‑authored” really means
People think self authored only means you made it up. But it’s deeper than that.
If your evidence can be easily created by you or anyone else, Tech Nation may treat it as self authored, even if it’s true.
For example:
Dashboard screenshots made from something like a Canva templates
Charts created in Excel
Self designed visuals showing revenue, users, or growth you manually entered
These things can be created by anyone in minutes. There is no external validation. No third party source. No independent confirmation. Even if your numbers are real, Tech Nation, I believe will begin to doubt.
And let’s be honest, mistakes happen when people manually enter numbers into Excel or Canva. That alone, is enough to creates doubt.
What I Believe Tech Nation trusts more
From my experience with successful applicants. Evidence from credible, external, independent sources carries far more weight. Let’s continue with the instance above, instead of using canva template or excel to show earnings, use
Payment gateway earnings (Stripe, PayPal, Flutterwave, etc.)
Audited financial statements
Signed statements of account from a Bank
These sources are harder to fake, harder to manipulate, and easier for Tech Nation to trust. Because it involve people, organisations, platforms they can trust, contact if they need to.
The simple rule to avoid rejection as a result of self authorship
This is one of the simple rule that has helped most of the successful applicants I have guided. If you also want to reduce the risk of your evidence being dismissed, make sure every piece of evidence comes from, or is backed by, a credible platform, organisation, or individual.
If it looks like something you could have created yourself, Tech Nation may treat it as self authored, even if it’s genuine.
Your evidence should remove doubt, not create it. Your job is to make Tech Nation’s job easy.
All the best,