My projects looked different until I compared the work underneath them
My EB-1A petition covered three initiatives that did not look identical on a resume. Startup Dream Team ran from 2012 to 2014 as a summer bootcamp for young entrepreneurs.
Topic
My Story
A collection of 12 issues
Redaction should remove identity, not evidence logic
The public version of my petition protects private identities. Names and contact details can be removed. A recommender can become **the co-founder of the organization**. A judging inviter can become **the event organizer**.
My future-work section started with work already in motion
Most of my EB-1A petition looked backward. It described roles I had held, initiatives I had built, media coverage I had received, judging I had done, and recognition already in the record.
I treated every critical-role claim as two separate cases
The leading or critical role section of my EB-1A petition looked like one argument. While drafting it, I found it more useful to treat it as two.
A timeline can show continuity without pretending every year is equal
Before I drafted final merits, I put thirteen years of evidence on a timeline. The short version of that exercise is simple: list the dated facts, sources, and exhibits before trying to write a story about sustained work.
I did not give all five criteria equal space
I filed my EB-1A petition with five criteria. That did not mean I had five equal drafting assignments.
Final merits is a closing argument, not a recap
By the time I reached the final merits section of my EB-1A petition, I was tired. The criteria sections had already done a lot of work.
The first thing my EB-1A had to explain was my field
Before my EB-1A petition could explain why I was extraordinary, it had to explain what field I was extraordinary in. That sounds obvious. It was not obvious to me at the start.
The 13-year timeline I drew before I wrote a word of my final merits section
Before I wrote my final merits section, I drew a timeline.
Not in a fancy tool. A list, in a Google Doc, by year, from 2011 to 2024.
For each year, one line for every concrete thing on record: a press piece, a launched program, a judging invitation, an award,
I had Forbes coverage from 12 years ago. Here's how I used it as EB-1A evidence.
In December 2011, Forbes ran an article called "Can't meet Eric Schmidt in Paris at LeWeb'11!? No Worries." It covered an event I had organized called the LeWeb Student Warm-up, held just before the main LeWeb conference in Paris. I was 22.
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