How to Prove My Role as Founder & CEO for Scholarship and Immigration Applications?

Hello everyone, I am the founder and CEO of a company that has been providing software development and digital marketing services. Additionally, the company has created a startup product—a mobile app. I founded this company with a friend, and it is registered in his name, not mine. There is no partnership agreement due to our mutual trustworthy friendship. The company is registered in his name because of some documentation issues at that time, and we wanted to expedite the registration process.

I am currently applying for a scholarship and immigration. My question is, how should I demonstrate my experience with this company? What should the experience letter entail? Should I mention my designation as Founder & CEO? As a follow-up question, is it preferable to simply write "Founder" or "CEO," or is "Founder & CEO" the best option considering the startup and small business context? In the letter, regardless of the designation chosen from the options above, who should sign the letterhead?

Dear friend,

I recommend that you obtain a backdated appointment letter from your friend. Specify the designation as "Director." Additionally, request an employment certificate from your friend that includes details such as the date of joining and the last working day.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

It seems to me the company is a proprietary firm, and the friend of the querist is the sole proprietor of the company. In this case, there cannot be any sort of agreement between the querist and his friend. It is a benami transaction between both of them. The querist cannot be called or consider himself as a founder. Also, he cannot be designated as "Director" in a proprietary firm. He can be a "CEO" of the company with due documentation signed by the proprietor.

Hope you will agree with me.

Yes, KORGAONKAR is correct. This is the case.

Okay, so can I write "Co-Founder & CEO" on the letter and get it signed by the other "Co-Founder & Director"? The thing is, I want to mention that I founded the company and not merely served in a job as CEO or whatever.

Another question, just for knowledge, what will be the experience letter of the other person in such a case who is the sole proprietor? Who will sign that?

You cannot be a Founder or Co-Founder in the eyes of the law. What legal proof do you have that you are a Founder or Co-Founder? If you founded the company, what stake do you now have in this company legally, which is a sole proprietorship? You can be a Founder or Co-Founder in the eyes of the public, but not in the eyes of the law, as many politicians have a number of (benami) companies.

For a sole proprietor, there is no experience certificate issued by anybody. The individual has to provide a self-declaration of sole proprietorship, the date of its commencement, along with documentary proof such as Gumasta registration or any other similar registration, bank account details, etc.

Regards, ARSLANZAIDI

Your query is not about an experience letter from an employer to an employee for the service rendered by him on some particular assignment. Your need is for the purpose-based experience of a founder and CEO. So, a passing reference to the purpose, "I am now applying for a scholarship and immigration as well," is not sufficient to advise you appropriately unless you give a clear description of the nature of the scholarship and its conditions. Not only that, if an experience letter is necessary for the purpose of immigration, that may be of a separate nature.

Instead of asking a question of a generic nature, be clear in your purpose, whether for a specific type of scholarship or for immigration purposes. However, as far as your main question is concerned, "who will sign the experience letter of a 'Founder & CEO,'" naturally the proprietor of the firm, not you, will sign if the experience of a responsible position is to be shown.

Proving Your Role as a Founder for Scholarship Applications

The purpose is, of course, to show that I have founded a startup solely for a scholarship application, as I have mentioned in the Statement of Purpose. Let's leave aside the immigration aspect for now. What do you suggest? What can be done if I have to prove that I founded the company?

By the way, for the scholarship, the university is abroad, and I do not think the university is going to verify this legally. At most, they can visit the official website, where they will find the truth about me being the founder in the About section.

I don't think your approach is correct. In the normal course, the requirement of foreign institutions/organizations offering scholarships is not the experience certificates, but self-write-ups of the achievements of the candidates through their applications. Since thousands of applications throng for such scholarships, I don't think there is any system of verification of the experience certificates from the organizations before the grant of scholarships due to the paucity of time with them. The possibility of the experience certificates being fake cannot be ruled out in the case of several candidates. They typically judge the capabilities from the structural effectiveness of the applications to shortlist the candidates.

I can say this from my own personal experience, as applications of some foreign candidates, some years back, were drafted by me also, as a freelancer consultant for them. The rest of the job is completed based on the presentations of the candidates during their interview/counseling sessions. Your application should be so effectively impressive to make the selectors believe in your own statement rather than the experience certificate.

However, if you still believe that your experience certificate can work, or there is any specific requirement for the scholarship application, I have already expressed my opinion that the proprietor of the firm will sign the experience letter.

Respected PS Dhingra Ji,

Greetings of Ganesh Chaturthi!

I have questions for you, sir, with due respect. Can any proprietor certify that someone else is a Founder or Co-Founder of his Proprietary Firm? How can any third person be a Founder or Co-Founder of any Proprietary Firm?

Dear sir,

Let's weigh the aspects the way you count. Normally, I do not comment on issues other than core HR/ER. But here, I want to write a few words as a personal friend of yours. What is there in an experience certificate certifying you as Co-founder that would enable any scholarship or immigration certificate? You are the CEO, and as a role holder, it enables you too and much more!

Best wishes,

RDS Yadav Director Navtarang HR Services navtaranghrs@gmail.com

Sir,

In such a situation, let your friend who is the co-founder sign your experience letter. The point is what you have achieved as the Founder & CEO is important during the migration process. The co-founder's letter is very much valid from a legal standpoint. As a stakeholder of the organization, your leadership skills can be seen. Trust this helps.

Dear Kporgaonkar,

In addition to my last post, I would like to remind you not to forget to check the actual meaning of the term "founder." According to the dictionary, a founder is a "creator," "originator," "initiator," or "organizer," but it cannot only be the owner. So, a founder can be anyone other than the owner as well.

Thanks for your contribution to this subject matter, especially for your posts addressing me. You are a very senior professional with far greater and richer experience than me. What you said in your posts #12 and #13 is correct, but I feel that it is not applicable to a sole proprietorship or even to a partnership firm. My question was pertaining only to a sole proprietorship.

Even in a private limited company, a public limited company, or a limited liability company, a person should have some stake on paper to be called a founder, in my view.

In the examples given by you, the element of stake is seen in both cases, and therefore, in both cases, you can rightly call the person(s) founder(s) or co-founders. (I presume here the second case is not falling under sole proprietorship. The first one is a public limited company as you mentioned).

In a proprietorship, you cannot call a person who helped you in forming the company a founder. This is my view.

I submit this with due respect to you.

Regards

Views may differ from person to person. It is a question of interpreting the term. I have already stated that a founder is a "creator," "originator," "initiator," "organizer." The existence of a stake may or may not be present. Unlike the conditions prescribed for a subscriber of the Memorandum and Articles of Association (MAA) in the company case, there is a difference between the terms "founder" and "subscriber." If we see a building, our vision normally goes to its upper structure, not the foundation on which it stands. Similarly, in any organization, the founder usually fades into oblivion, and only the owner can be seen at the forefront.

So, from a management perspective, our vision should not be narrow unless prescribed or prohibited by the law of the land. Even upon review, laws are also liable to be treated as wrong. For example, the Government of India introduced Section 66A in the Information Technology Act in 2009, prescribing punishment of 3 years of imprisonment for sending offensive messages through communication services, etc., but in 2015, the Supreme Court of India deemed that unconstitutional. Thus, interpretations depend on the facts, circumstances, and characteristics of any case.

Regards, Koregaonkar ji

I thank you all for your valuable suggestions. However, I must assert that our focus has been diverted to "scholarship" and "immigration" rather than the actual problem which can serve as a case study for many entrepreneurs. We should not be debating on the purpose of the letter; I just cited that as an example. The core issue is "how to show the entrepreneurial experience if and when your startup is not in your name in legal documents?"

In a situation where you are not formally recognized as a Co-Founder, one way to establish your position would be to file for a joint patent for the products you have created. Another option would involve negotiating with the individual currently designated as the firm's owner to convert it into a partnership firm in accordance with the laws of the land. By doing so, you can attain a formal role and bring a semblance of structure to the organization.