Thursday was one of those days packed with value that many people would feel lucky to achieve in a year. For those connected to the Innovator Founder Visa route who didn't know, Innovator International sponsored Venture Café’s Thursday meet-up, where Innovator International (represented by Karen, James and myself) teamed up with Tech Nation and Venture Café to co-host a session focused on the IFV and Global Talent visa routes.

As always, the team at Venture Café hosted a full and fun-packed evening. Charlotte Roach and the team at Irwin Mitchell spoke about the legal aspects of the visa route, whilst Stephen Lee hosted a fun and informative workshop dealing with the stresses that come with visas, from application through to achieving your ILR. He should know – he’s walked the walk.

And then, the main session. It was great to open the stage with Fernanda and our host, Sibel Dbila, talking about the visa routes in general, before the main act – four amazing people, two with ILR from the IFV route and two from the Global Talent route. The wisdom they shared on that stage was plentiful. Thank you so much to Will Baker, Manoj Narayanan, Jessica Mendoza, Vinay Muttineni (hosted by Liam) for this fabulous session and the stories you shared. And congratulations on your achievements through the routes.

My takeaways, which I will use again and again with the permission of the founders:

  • “It’s just a connection game at the end of the day.” Will talked about how his success was based upon building a network and a pilot programme that showed him there was something incredible waiting to be achieved.
  • “Be proud of your status.” (xxx) explained that by going through this journey, you've achieved a status and level of approval that many other entrepreneurs haven't. Be proud of this. If you have the IFV, the UK Government has effectively stated that you have a business that is innovative, viable and scalable. Use this to your benefit.
  • “Strip back the extras, focus on the innovation really well.” Will’s advice towards achieving ILR is to make sure you do what you said you would do in the plan. Don't get tempted by side strands and hustles. Just do what you said you'd do, and do it really well.

Following the session, we were bombarded with questions – and we wouldn't want it any other way. So many amazing conversations about the visa route, evidence, funding, investment and more. To every person who asked us a question and took the time to wait while others were asking theirs, we thank you all.

We also met four people who had recently secured their visas and were absolutely delighted, along with so many familiar, friendly faces from those who already hold IFV visas in our community. To each person we met, and those we didn't have time to speak to, thank you for coming and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

From the pre-evening snacks with Matt and Al at GGBA through to the post-event wind-down drinks with the team (and Charlotte and Catherine from the Global Entrepreneurship Programme – I’ve not tagged you as we’re not connected on LI, sorry!), it was an amazing day.

Last, but by no means least, thank you so much to Callum Baker for an amazing set of photos.

So, to everyone – but in particular Liam, Fernanda and Kim – thank you for helping to make this such a fantastic evening. We're already thinking about the next one!