TK 🐜

[Steven Bartlett @StevenBartlett]

I spoke to 600+ founders in San Fransisco. By the end of the night, I felt annoyed. Not at them. At us in the UK...

A woman told me she'd failed twice times, burned through her savings, and moved back in with her parents at 31. She listed these like credentials because in that room, they absolutely are...

A guy pitched me his company in the toilet. Didn't flinch. Didn't apologise afterwards. Smiled confidentially the whole time.

Several founders told me they were sleeping on Sofa's, working multiple jobs to fund their dream and working around the clock to build something which had very little chance of succeeding...

👃🏽 One married couple were building a robot that makes you your own personalised perfume...

🍳 One guy was building a robotic arm that cooks your breakfast for you...

🤖 Another guy was building 3D printers that could make any item you want

Everyone speaks the same language here... belief.

A city-wide delusion that walls are made of paper, that ignorance is temporary, failure is great, that you should applaud attempts (not just success), and that the only real failure is the one where you didn't swing...

In the UK, we tell founders to be realistic. To stay humble. To not get ahead of themselves. To have a backup plan.

And if they fail, stutter, or make a mistake - we mock them, ridicule them, and write about their downfall like it's entertainment.

I'm not dumb. I realise there is no Linkedin post, that is going to have any impact on our very well established nature. But on an individual level, it helps to realise that other people succeeding in the UK helps everyone - more jobs, a growing economy, more tax receipts, better public services, and so on..

So to celebrate their failure is a form of self-sabotage.

We often think the difference between Europe is talent, access, capital.

But honestly... the real gap is something else entirely.

And I can summarise it in one word...

Permission.

Permission to be obsessed. To be unbalanced. To have terrible work-life balance without someone on LinkedIn telling you you're toxic. To choose one thing and let everything else suffer for a while.

Permission.

To look stupid asking a question. To look arrogant giving an answer. To pitch a stranger in a bathroom. To fall flat on your face without having to endure collective ridicule.

That permission costs nothing. But it appears to make all the difference!

With this in mind, I'm starting work on a new project to give high-potential, under-represented entrepreneurs the implicit permission to pursue their own dreams! (more on that soon 🤐) let me know if you're working on this!

And, let me know what you think we do to better enable all of our great talent in the UK?

[TK 🐜 @tundde]

@JKnow62762 @taylor_vahey @GeringerAdam This tracks. I actually met my wife on twitter. 5years in + 1 two year old bundle of joy.

Unlike your husband, I went straight for the DMs though😅… great conversations in there before she agreed to meet.

[TK 🐜 @tundde]

Funniest comment I’ve seen all night 😂
#ElClasico

[TK 🐜 @tundde]

Lol. 17yr olds pocketing the “Galacticos”

#ElClásico

[Vendease @VendeaseAfrica]

Happy #WorldFoodDay! 🌍 We’re proud to have reduced food waste to just 0.2%, moved 1.5M metric tonnes of food, and saved $12M for restaurants. Together, we’re building a more sustainable future, one meal at a time. #FoodForAll #Sustainability #Vendeaseafrica

[Vendease @VendeaseAfrica]

Congratulations @tundde! 🐜🐜🐜

[Vendease @VendeaseAfrica]

📢 Big news for food businesses! Our latest updates to our platform make managing your operations easier than ever. Simplified management, real-time tracking, and new features to streamline your operations.

#VendeaseAfrica 🐜🐜🐜#Updatedplatform #NewMarketplace #Helpingrestaurantsgrow

[Vendease @VendeaseAfrica]

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#FraudPrevention #BusinessSafety #Vendease #Helpingrestaurantsgrow

[TK 🐜 @tundde]

I wish I had the empirical data to back the intuitive answers I have for the above questions. But I don’t. Looks like we have to wait a few years for that.

So let’s revisit in a few years when the data shows up.

PS - founders have very long memories. It’s a job requirement ✌🏾

[TK 🐜 @tundde]

“If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on”
- S Sandberg.

I think the above statement is a little obvious - if you’re thinking straight at least.

The less obvious, unsaid part is - how do you recognize a rocket ship?

[TK 🐜 @tundde]

How do you not miss the opportunity of a lifetime because you focused on the wrong incentives?

How do you avoid being on the wrong side of history?

[TK 🐜 @tundde]

@francisosifo Bruh!

[TK 🐜 @tundde]

Lol. No pressure… finally going to get shirts I can wear without someone’s disapproving eye trailing me. 🙃

[Momo @themoyosola]

Tunde’s letting me shop for him today. I won’t have anyone to blame if I complain about his shirts. 🤦🏾‍♀️ no pressure.

[Dan Garon @dangaron]

Looks like @Waymo has cracked the code for driverless ride hailing in San Francisco. The user experience blows Uber out of the water, and with zero marginal labor costs, Waymo likely has the greatest flexibility to price everybody else out of the market once it decides to compete head to head.

Still a drop on the bucket compared to Uber, but damn, once Waymo opens the floodgates….

[Paul Graham @paulg]

What's uniquely hard about running a startup is that you don't merely have to endure adversity, but have to solve intellectually difficult problems while doing so. It's like trying to find integrals while being chased by a lion.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

Because startups are so much harder than they look, a lot of people think that successful startup founders just got lucky and had piles of money dropped in their laps. But this is so not true. Between t=0 and piles of money, they deal with novel crises every couple months.

[TK 🐜 @tundde]

I feel seen.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

Even in the most successful startups, even many years in, the founders are dealing with hair-raising problems. They mostly conceal these struggles from the outside world and even from their own employees. There's no upside in talking about them. But I hear about them.

[Vendease @VendeaseAfrica]

Our CEO, @tundde helped welcome 17 high-impact entrepreneurs at Endeavor's 47th Virtual ISP! Check out the full story here: https://t.co/yxqKraLXBe

#VendeaseAfrica🐜🐜🐜 #Endeavor

[Pritika Mehta @pritika_mehta]

I was talking to an Indian American founder yesterday. He mentioned that after exit, his biggest lifestyle change is that he doesn’t need to do laundry or vacuum + has a full time chef and trainer.

Then he said - “It’s like my life in India”

[TK 🐜 @tundde]

It’s not coming home. Will it ever come home? It’s a full on stray dog now.