Stage 1 Endorsement Rejection

Hi all,

I got my feedback from Stage 1 and did not receive an endorsement. I met 2 of the 3 criteria but I fell short with the optional category of " innovation in the digital technology sector as a founder or senior executive of a product-led digital technology company or an employee working in a new digital field or concept"

I am a full stack software engineer for a blockchain company, so I didn’t think innovation would be too hard. I included evidence of the following:

  1. my research in decentralized governance / blockchain
  2. proof of fundraise (company valuation of over $10+ million dollars)
  3. evidence of my company in the news and gaining attention for the work we’re doing

Effectively, this is where I think I messed up. I had included an updated offer of employment with a high salary (6 figures) from a company that I am working for part time (which I was previously at full time but moved to the UK on a tier 2 visa so had to go part time until I can sort out this tech nation visa). In the letter, my employer states that this will be upon approval of tech nation visa. Therefore, the reviewers could not determine our contractual relationship and the examples I provided did not count towards it, which is unfortunate as they were key to my application.

The reviewers also stated that my impact at my companies is not in doubt (very strong in fact), but none of my letters spoke to my innovation.

I have a few questions:

  1. What are the best ways to demonstrate innovation in this application?
  2. Would it be best to get another supporting letter of rec that only speaks about my innovation in blockchain?
  3. in order to demonstrate a clear contractual relationship, what should I provide? I have an equity agreement and a previous employee agreement, but at the time my salary was lower since the start up was bootstrapped with very little funding and I didn’t think this would help my cause. Would it be best to get an employment letter from the blockchain company to confirm our relationship?
  4. Is it worth getting a review? Or should I just re-apply? I know you can’t change any evidence and I don’t know if I can explain our contractual relationship in the review form or if it’ll make any difference if I submit the same evidence?

All help is appreciated!

@Shreeniwas_Iyer @Alex_P @zamana @sojo @herman.komashko @happysoul @Mukesh_Adhvaryu

Sorry to tag / bother you but you all seem to be the experts! Would be great to get your feedback. Thanks so much!

Hi! Sorry to hear about your rejection result.

What are the best ways to demonstrate innovation in this application?

I have not a slightest idea. It seems that the rules were different when I was applying.

Would it be best to get another supporting letter of rec that only speaks about my innovation in blockchain?

That sounds reasonable, I would definitely try that.

in order to demonstrate a clear contractual relationship, what should I provide? I have an equity agreement and a previous employee agreement, but at the time my salary was lower since the start up was bootstrapped with very little funding and I didn’t think this would help my cause. Would it be best to get an employment letter from the blockchain company to confirm our relationship?

My best guess is that you can ask for an employment letter stating how long have you worked for them and what kind of salary you had. One question though, did they mention anything about contractual relationships or is it your guesswork?

Is it worth getting a review? Or should I just re-apply? I know you can’t change any evidence and I don’t know if I can explain our contractual relationship in the review form or if it’ll make any difference if I submit the same evidence?

I think the review is always a good idea, it is a free and fast way to have your case reconsidered. If you are unsure how to best approach that feel free to DM I may be able to recommend some legal advisers.

Ah amazing, thanks for the feedback - I appreciate it! Just send you a DM re the legal advisors and requesting a review. Thanks so much!

I am going to give what might seem slightly unpopular response here.

I think this is where you need to start. I have a feeling you are assuming that just because you work in a blockchain company, both the company and you are doing innovative work. That might very well be true, but you still need to provide a solid link yourself and innovation.

Blockchain is currently so much in the money that I think proof of fundraise or evidence of the company being in news isn’t direct correlated to anything but just popularity of the segment and, perhaps, the company. Your research in blockchain is probably relevant, however.

Additionally, the fact that you had to take a different company’s employment to UK seriously undermines the general narrative (at least from what I read in this post alone).

The arrangements seem complicated. Complications brings confusion. I think you need to establish a direct line of connection between yourself and the blockchain company, the same way you are connecting yourself to innovation.

@Shreeniwas_Iyer Thank you for your response. I was definitely looking for complete honesty and I really appreciate the feedback. It’s tremendously helpful because I don’t want to make the same mistakes twice!

To clarify some points:

a) I completely agree that blockchain / crypto markets are a bit crazy right now! There’s a lot of money being thrown around so it’s a very valid point that proof of fundraise / being in the news might not be innovative, it’s just a consequence of the state of things at the moment.

b) The work we are doing is genuinely transformative for the space! We are DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) and decentralized governance focused. We effectively build tools to help protocols (companies) increase voter participation (decentralized governance as it stands is quite messy and complicated) and decentralize how they operate (a lot of these blockchain companies claim to be decentralized but are in fact very much centrally operated). We are working with some of the biggest projects in the space to transform how they run their organizations. We are doing something truly unique so I definitely need to provide a stronger link between myself and the innovation - completely agree. I have been a fundamental architect of our platform so am very closely tied to the project. I only wish I’d done so from the start!

c) I agree that the narrative might be a bit messy and I can further clarify. My partner lives in London and I took the path of least resistance to get out here, which is what seemed best at the time (and I still don’t regret the decision!) - even if the role I took to get out here wasn’t exactly what I wanted.

I worked for this blockchain company full time for 1 year. I have been doing part time work for them (roughly 20 hrs / week) for about 4 months at this point. So I still have a direct connection to them, and I still hold equity in the company as well.

Please let me know if you need any points clarified further or if you think there’s any cause for concern. Thanks again!

Hey @floridaman - no need to explain it to me. Please use all of this context in your appeal/re-application.