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In our second podcast episode, Relogate co-founder Roman Tsuper speaks with Daria Berman and Lev Zabudko. Both are founders. Both went through UK visas designed for talent and entrepreneurs. And both speak honestly — not only about success, but also about challenges: refusals, stress, grey hair, and life in London on a “£5,000-a-month household budget.”
Daria Berman is the founder of FUSS and Uptown.
The UK was a deliberate choice for her. Daria studied there and had been thinking about how to return ever since. She didn’t qualify for Global Talent due to age and career stage, but she already had a working startup in Armenia and Russia. And just as she was seriously considering taking a full-time job to move on a work visa, the UK launched the Innovator Founder visa. Daria applied on her own — and was approved on the first attempt.
Lev Zabudko is a former top manager at Yandex who grew from developer to C-level executive. He completed an MBA in the UK and later co-founded two companies there:
Lev moved to the UK on a Global Talent visa — on his fourth attempt. There were three refusals, feedback about a weak case, and even accusations of plagiarism due to similar recommendation letter wording. In the end, Lev rewrote the entire application himself — and received approval.
On paper, the Innovator Founder visa looks fairly straightforward:
In reality, as Daria explains, the main challenge isn’t just the volume of documents — it’s the lack of clear examples and “right” templates.
“For Global Talent, there are plenty of experts and ready-made cases. For Innovator Founder, when I applied, there was basically nothing. You’re constantly guessing: is this good enough? How are they even reading this?”
Daria approached the process as pragmatically as possible:
“I wasn’t trying to invent the best business in the world. I wanted anyone with a checklist to be able to tick the boxes: Innovative? – Yes. Scalable? – Yes. Viable? – Yes.”
The phrase about “putting a case together in two or three evenings” sounds appealing, but she repeatedly stresses in the podcast that this is not the norm.
“If you got the impression that anyone can prepare a case in two days — please don’t listen to me. I already had a lot of materials ready: financial models, metrics, internal analytics. Without those, it would have been much harder.”
Based on her experience, realistic timelines look like this:
There are also very real reasons why preparation can take longer:
Lev’s story is a good antidote to the illusion that “real talent always gets a green light.” At first glance, everything pointed toward a successful Global Talent application: a strong track record at Yandex, friends who had already moved on this visa, and confidence that “I’ll just do something similar.” The first refusal came with feedback along the lines of “the application is very weak.” The second and third followed after working with an expensive firm that generated recommendation letters in a similar style — which ultimately led to suspicions of plagiarism. In the UK system, plagiarism is a serious red flag. There’s no arguing with it.
In the end, Lev:
His takeaway is simple: Global Talent isn’t only about achievements — it’s about how well you package, explain, and communicate them.
One of the most important parts of the conversation is about money.
Both guests independently arrive at roughly the same figure:
£5,000 per month for a two-person household — the level at which life in London feels manageable: no luxury, but no constant stress either.
A typical breakdown looks like this:
Another major theme is networking in the UK.
Almost everything works through handshakes: finding a job through applications is extremely difficult, investment comes through personal introductions and recommendations, even renting a flat or applying to a university often requires referees.
Daria describes her “survival strategy” like this:
Her key personal insight:
“In our culture, asking feels shameful — like admitting failure. Here, everyone does it. What feels embarrassing to us is simply normal communication here.”
Lev adds that in London it’s surprisingly easy to reach people within one or two handshakes, as long as you’re not afraid to talk about yourself.
From the conversation, it’s possible to draw a very practical conclusion about the Innovator Founder visa.
To have real chances of approval, several things must come together:
Not “one day we’ll build a great platform,” but a concrete product with logic behind it: clear use cases, an understanding of competitors, and a working business model.
Innovation means how you differ from existing solutions —
through technology, business model, market approach, or a new combination of all three.
The business must be designed for growth, not survival:
4. Viability
Financial models, assumptions, market logic, and the team all need to align into a story that can at least theoretically work as a business.
5. Documents are a separate challenge
This is not an afterthought — it’s a product in itself:
And perhaps most importantly: this is not a path you should try to walk alone. Unlike the podcast guests, you already have their experience — and access to teams that specialise specifically in these cases.
Relogate builds its service around people like Daria and Lev — founders, product leaders, CTOs, and CEOs who don’t want to “leave at any cost,” but want to restart their careers and businesses in another country.
We help you:
And not only for the UK. We also support relocation to France and the US for highly qualified professionals, founders, and their families.
If you’re reading this and thinking, “Sometimes it feels like life might be better in London / Paris / New York — but I don’t know where to start,” – this is exactly the moment to stop figuring it out on your own. Write to us — the first consultation is free. We’ll review your situation, suggest the optimal route, and help you move forward without unnecessary refusals — or grey hair.
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