Hi All,
First, thanks to everyone for helping each other as a FAMILY!! Really every QA has been very helpful.
I am 24yo. Graduated in 2021. Co-founded a startup in 2022. I am going to submit my application in 2 days. Please review my application and share your insights!
3 LoRs:
1 - A Successful Local Entrepreneur & Founder & CEO of a SaaS Startup, has raised funding of 200K+
2 - Founder & CEO of one the largest Tech Startup Accelerators in the country
3 - Global Program Manager for DevRel Communities at Google
4 - By entrepreneur of the year at the national level. Founder, and director of one of the biggest tech communities. Working as CMO for an IT company
5 - By senior project manager at one of the top IT companies at the national level
6 - By one of the top android developers at the national level. Senior Software developer at some company.
> Question 1: Which LoRs are more suitable? (you can mention the numbers please, better to rank these 6 please from the top best to the least good)
OCs Selected: OC1/Innovation as a co-founder + OC2/work beyond
My 10 pieces of evidence:
Awards and Judging Experience (global programs) MC + (OC2)
Technical Certifications and Digital Badges MC
Thought Leadership & Online Mentorship MC + (OC2)
which includes: online articles at medium/dev and online mentorship sessions (ss attached of user dashboard, have done 4 sessions and total 100+ minutes till dates)
Top Tech Communities Acceptance & Involvement MC + (OC2)
which includes Google, Microsoft & Amazon AWS
Acceptance in International Leadership Programs MC
Acceptance in Accelerators Programs as a Startup Founder MC + (OC1)
Innovation & Technical Contributions in Founding and Developing Product-Led Startup (OC1)
Reference letter from industry expert and startup accelerator director OC1
Reference letter from an industry expert MC + OC1
Contributions to the Advancement of the Digital Technology Field Beyond Occupation (OC2)
Note: This also includes: Completing 1 time OpenSource challenge, Hactoberfest, at the international level and getting an award, StackOverflow (among the top 10% overall globally)
Suggestions needed:
@ 10th Evidence: Question 2: Should I add StackOverflow as a separate file and show my user dashboard ss or it is good to go as I have enlisted it under the above-titled document?
//
@7th Evidence. Innovation & Technical Contributions in Founding and Developing Product-Led Startup (OC1)
I need your help with it, please. How to make it better.
Situation: I don’t have transactions done as we are offering 12 months free trial and it has not ended yet. I am working as the co-founder and CTO. And got acceptance into many global and local accelerators and founder programs. In this above-titled document, I have covered the following points:
Intro and overview of the product (front end, live website marketplace, Pitch Deck link)
Around 20 B2B clients that we have onboarded and are enlisted on our live website.
Back-end admin dashboards + website user traffic and analytics picture
Link to blog post reference that has been published by the startup accelerator on the acceptance to the program.
Question 3: Is it good to go? What else can I/should add? Should I add the pitch deck as a separate file or link inside that document is fine? (having almost 15 slides in total) Also, is it good to go for the OC1 or I better target OC2 on the basis of my Co-Founder/CTO and Accelerator programs acceptance. But traction and sales are an issue as I have no records. Yes, the idea/product is unique and live.
> Question 4: I am a founder and CTO. What should be the answer to the following questions, there’s no CTO or Founder category etc. Is it fine?:
Please indicate your sector = Apps & Software Development
Please indicate your specialist skill = Software Engineer
Side note: My CV includes my past roles as a digital project manager though as I was passionate about it. And now I am working as a Co-Founder & CTO.
Thank you so much!! Waiting for your valuable input and tips!!
P.S. Total four (4) questions have been asked, you can simply answer with the Q reference. Hope it helps!
Remember technation has raised their standard far high now days , they need all the evidence online like news cuts, YouTube/online publishers or opensource contribution ( easily verifiable)
RL alone not enough.
even OC3 you need to show the company awards and HR letter for salary increment for your work and you must be highly paid in your field ( you need to compare and show online).
The product must be spoken online on news cut minimum.
Q1: Based on the very few detail of the referees, here are my rankings
Strong: 2 > 1 > 4 > 5 > 3 > 6 : Weak respectively
Please Remember that the LOR needs to know your work for more than 12 months though. And if the person is well-known in the news media with many success stories, they can be considered stronger.
Also, 1 suggestion is the you may also use some of the LoR for the evidence to strengthen your MC or OC as well if needed.
Evidence:
Awards and Judging Experience (global programs) MC + (OC2)
Alex: Sounds good. This needs to be a significant with specific niche to your specialty.
Technical Certifications and Digital Badges MC
Alex: This is a weak evidence. I suggest you to include this in a small section of another relevant evidence or your CV.
Thought Leadership & Online Mentorship MC + (OC2)
which includes: online articles at medium/dev and online mentorship sessions (ss attached of user dashboard, have done 4 sessions and total 100+ minutes till dates)
Alex: This could be good. But ensure that you include the possible figures, ss, thankyou/invitation email, and certificates to maximize the strength of this evidence.
Top Tech Communities Acceptance & Involvement MC + (OC2)
which includes Google, Microsoft & Amazon AWS
Alex: This is a weak evidence. What is the detail of your involvement? Was it considered exceptionally better than others in the same field?
Acceptance in International Leadership Programs MC
Alex: This is a weak evidence.
Acceptance in Accelerators Programs as a Startup Founder MC + (OC1)
Alex: This is a weak evidence. It does not show a leadership or innovation.
Innovation & Technical Contributions in Founding and Developing Product-Led Startup (OC1)
Alex: No detail is given. You need to point out why your Developing work is considered Innovative, new concept, or new to the market. The business impact is not required in OC1.
Reference letter from industry expert and startup accelerator director OC1
Reference letter from an industry expert MC + OC1
Contributions to the Advancement of the Digital Technology Field Beyond Occupation (OC2)
Alex: Too few detail to provide comment. However, add more detail on how you are recognized that you have been actively boosting the advancement of the sector.
Note: This also includes: Completing 1 time OpenSource challenge, Hactoberfest, at the international level and getting an award, StackOverflow (among the top 10% overall globally)
Alex: Winning the award may help, you may need to add the detail of the event, how big was it, the topic of the challenge.
Great Stackover profile will also help OC2 a lot. Do add them in the main 10 evidence.
Summary:
Base on what I feel that you are a promising talent, I think you application still has the room for improvement, which I mean you can add more details to it to meet the expectation.
Some random awards and acceptance letters are not strong. But if you still want to include, you can add those 3 letters to a small part of a evidence with explanation.
Your OC1 Innovation’s detail seems missing and yet to meet the program expectation. Do add more details about your innovation.
It is best to secure at least 3 evidence for each of your criterion (MC, OC1, and OC2 in this case, for instance)
Alex!! You have been so nice and kind as always!! Means a lot!!
Could you please share your insights on these too:
> Question 4: I am a founder and CTO. What should be the answer to the following questions, there’s no CTO or Founder category etc. Is it fine?:
Please indicate your sector = Apps & Software Development
Please indicate your specialist skill = Software Engineer
Side note: My CV includes my past roles as a digital project manager though as I was passionate about it. And now I am working as a Co-Founder & CTO.
Question 3: Is it good to go? What else can I/should add? Should I add the pitch deck as a separate file or link inside that document is fine? (having almost 15 slides in total) Also, is it good to go for the OC1 or do I better target OC3/impact on the basis of my Co-Founder/CTO and Accelerator programs acceptance. But traction and sales are an issue as I have no records. Yes, the idea/product is unique and live.
If I understand your question correctly, you are asking about either “technical skill” or “business skill” in https://technation.io/visa-tech-nation-visa-guide/#typical-applicants/. My advise is to go for technical skill, while you can add your founder (business skill) in addition to strengthening your application.
You can add a few screenshots and explain what the deck is about and why it is evidence to show your MC or OC in your case. You can also add a link to your uploaded file in your Google Drive, in case the assessor wants to read the deck. But don’t expect them to read the external link thoroughly though.
OC1 is usually an easier criterion to achieve if you had been innovating software in your own company, or even worked in tech companies before. Just need to demonstrate how you work on the innovative project. The impact of the work is not required, which is usually more difficult to achieve. However in some cases, works are not innovative, but the role/job a person does may create a significant impact on the organization, OC3 will be easy to achieve. From what I read from your details, I think your product is still in the early stage, where it may be too difficult to show the impact of your work. The fund raised could also be an impact, but that is more in the business role.
Your OC1 is still a challenge for you to tackle. Perhaps you can find 1-3 pieces of evidence to show your innovation. You can also turn 1-2 LoR to support your innovation evidence. The Promising talent only needs 1 strong piece of evidence to meet each criterion.
Who’s better or preferable for one of the 3 LoRs:
A) Senior Technical Project Manager at my previous company
Side notes: He has great LinkedIn profile…and known as an IT industry leader as wel.
OR
B) Director of Engineering Department at my previous company
Side note: He doesn’t have a good visibility available on LinkedIn but his years of experience is much more stronger as per the CV too)