Software Engineer & Founder seeking Review: Exceptional Promise

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Hello All,

Hope you’re well. I’m Ayo. I’ve prepped my evidence for exceptional promise endorsement. Appreciate if you could provide any suggestions or feedback. @pahuja @Francisca_Chiedu @hsafra @ellagna

These are my evidences:

CV
Personal statement

LORs:
Letter from CEO of a fintech company (acquired my startup)
Letter from Founder of a developer tools company (acquired my open source project)
Letter from Senior Engineer at current company
Letter from Guinness World Record holder (for pro-bono work on nonprofit platform)
(all docusigned)

MC:
Startup Acquisition #1 (showed acquisition agreement, media coverage in national newspapers, product screenshots serving 130+ countries)
Fundraising & Incorporation (showed SAFE agreements totaling $61K at $1.6M valuation, Delaware incorporation documents, user metrics)
Technical contribution at fintech company (showed payment integration for Latin America market, technical blog post on company site, demo at international summit)
Multiple Product Launches (showed three products: crypto platform with $55K+ volume, prediction market with 74K+ visitors, enterprise SaaS with 99+ language support)

OC2:
Open Source Tool & Acquisition (showed 98K+ downloads on PyPI, acquisition agreement, industry award with 1,119 community votes)
Media Recognition & Speaking (showed features in 7+ national publications, government-backed tech event invitation, international speaking in Gambia)
Industry Recognition (showed award page, media screenshots, event certificates/photos)

OC3:
Pro-bono Work for Nonprofit (showed Figma designs, waitlist signup, public acknowledgment from Guinness World Record holder on social media)
Letter from Guinness World Record holder (docusigned)
AI Platform at Current Company (showed 57K+ user interactions, Product Hunt #1 Product of the Day, analytics dashboard, user testimonials, app screenshots)

Thank you for your time.

1 Like
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@agi Trust you are good.

For your LORs, the authors you’ve chosen (apart from the Guinness record holder) seem to be experts, but the key question is whether each of them has known your work for at least 12 months. You only need three letters, so you may want to prioritise the ones that best reflect long term, first hand knowledge of your work. The Guinness record holder could still be useful if the letter focuses on how your pro‑bono work created real value in the sector. Also, double check their LinkedIn profiles to ensure their career history clearly positions them as recognised figures in digital tech.

MC
Your Startup Acquisition is a strong recognition element, the acquisition itself, the national media coverage, and the product’s reach across 130+ countries all help establish recognition and external validation. The SAFE agreements and Delaware incorporation documents also count as third party validation.

For your technical contribution at the fintech company, the payment integration, blog post, and summit demo won’t show how you technically led the growth of a product‑led digital tech company, product or team which is what MC requires. In MC you need to show leadership at a company level, not just contribution. For the multiple product launches, think about whether you can show public repos, code ownership, or third‑party mentions linking the success of those products directly to your work.

OC2
Your open‑source tool can be okay, but once it was acquired, it may no longer count as work done outside your work. For the speaking engagements, it would help to clarify whether these were tech focused events, how many people you spoke to, whether you were invited as an expert, and what the impact was afterwards. Certificates alone are weak unless paired with compelling evidence of what you actually did.

OC3
Is about contribution to a product‑led company as an employee or founder, not voluntary work. For the AI platform at your current company, the user numbers and Product Hunt ranking are outcomes, but you still need to show your technical contribution that brought about the results. So say GitHub commits, architecture designs, or a strong reference letter from an executive who can talk about it would help.

You have some good evidence, especially the acquisition but I would recommend revisiting the Tech Nation guide to align each piece of evidence with the exact requirement of each criterion.Also, looking at how other applicants structure their evidence on this forum may also help.

All the best

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Hi Raphael,

Thank you for the detailed feedback - really appreciate you taking the time.

LORs: All three letter writers (fintech CEO, dev tools founder, current company senior engineer) have 12+ months relationship. The fourth letter is from a Guinness record holder for pro-bono work done 2+ years ago, so that relationship timeline is solid too.

MC: You’re right about the fintech contribution needing to show leadership rather than just contribution. I’ll restructure my MC to focus on clearer leadership evidence:

  1. Startup acquisition
  2. Fundraising & incorporation
  3. High remuneration (top 5% in region per Payscale)
  4. Product launches - I’ll add GitHub repos showing I was sole developer on all three products

OC2: Good point on the acquisition timing. The 98K downloads and award happened before acquisition - I’ll add timestamps. For speaking, I’ll add context (audience size, tech-focused, invited as expert).

OC3: You’re right about the pro-bono work. I’ll remove it and focus on the AI platform at my current company. I have architecture diagrams, GitHub PRs, and team Discord mentions attributing the work to me, which should strengthen the technical contribution evidence.

Appreciate the guidance - this helps a lot.

Best,
Ayo

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You are welcome, and all the best with your application.

1 Like