I’m considering applying to GTV as Exceptional Promise. I’m currently a CTO but also a devops and backend dev with a lot of experience regarding data processing. Totaling 5 years of experience (It’s ~8 years in fact but I’m unable to account for the other years due to using different freelancing platforms and not keeping track of them).
Letters of Recommendation
VP of growth and co-founder of a US startup
Serial entrepreneur in the UK
Founder of a marketing company in the EU
Mandatory Criteria
1) How do I demonstrate that I have been recognized as (or recognized as having the potential to be) a leading talent in the digital technology sector?
I’ve been working for the company I’m at for 3 years and managed to help it grow from 2 employees to 12, increase sales from 2XXK to >1mil, launch 2 closed SaaS products + optimizing/maintaining its entire IT infrastructure to reduce costs by more than £18k/m.
I also have a ~£4k salary, hold shares in the business & represent it during international fairs/events.
I’m a bit lost regarding how I should demonstrate this. It’s the same company in LOR 3.
Optional Criteria
Basically, these are my personal projects that I’ve worked on outside of my day to day job(s):
Educational videos (~3k) to learn specific subjects using games : screenshots + links
Job boards CMS : operational in 35 countries/domains (~low traffic)
Finalizing a HR/Hiring SaaS : screenshots + links + credentials for access
My education (Bsc+Msc) was in Management / Finance but I was self-taught dev since ~11yo and choose a career in IT at the same time. I handle both the business and technical side of any entity I join including my own personal ventures.
I’m at the collecting Stage 1 docs myself, I might be wrong, but anyway. Hope experts would correct me…
I think Letter 3 might not be a good choice, as it’s not a product-led technology company or the founder is not an expert in your technology field. Check the Letter 2 for the same.
For MC - how exactly did you managed to help a company to grow from 2 to 12 employees? You led a team or a product? Build processes?
Launching product seems like OC1(innovation) to me. And the rest (salary, sales) seems like OC3(impact) to me.
I didn’t choose OC2 (volunteer) for myself. Can’t suggest much here. But I saw posts here, that low views/traffic could be rejected for “gained to low traction” by assessor.
The company in LOR3 is a product led one, we offer SaaS solutions for marketers but do not run marketing/services on our own.
The serial entrepreneur is not an expert in technology but at least 2 of his latest startups (with funding and all) are product led, does it count ?
Both. I basically built and managed the entire IT infrastructure and process (removing the outsourcing company and making everything internally), recruited the devs/analysts & I currently manage them. I am also responsible for anything technical within the company including the 3 SaaS products we have (I handle everything: writing the statement scopes, building prototypes, dispatching tasks, reviewing code, supervising the deployments, etc …).
I will not choose this neither as I have nothing to show for it.
Thank you so much for your reply and good luck to you during this process!
you actually don’t have a strong evidence for the mandatory criteria. How does the evidence you listed show that you have been recognised as a leader? Since you are not doing OC2, you should show external recognition of your work.
I’m applying for Exceptional Promise and not Talent, I thought that didn’t require me to be already recognised as a leader but shown potential of becoming one which is clearly demonstrated by the progress I spearheaded and achieved in just 3 years & the side projects I’ve made.
I don’t do open-source, how can my code get external recognition ? I thought the application is validated with only 2 OCs and it isn’t required to fulfill all of them, no ?
I am planning to share access to the solutions (links + documentation I’ve written myself) I made within the company (no code allowed, NDA) and share the private repos + live links for my personal projects.
You are required to show evidence that you are a potential leader. Someone in this forum posted a rejection feedback which stated that there is no external evidence demonstrating that he met the mandatory criteria. You are welcome to submit what yo think is acceptable. You asked folks to rate your application and I am sharing based on the guide and feedback from other applicants who did not get endorsed.