Welcome back! Over the last decade, I've had opportunities to collaborate with various startups, and even pitch to a few investors. However, the mindset of the latter has always remained enigmatic to me. Today I got a chance to fix that and interview Madin Akpo-Esambe -- an investment partner at Tacoma Venture Fund, a VC fund focusing on helping early-stage startups. Madin and I discuss various stages of his entrepreneurial journey (from his young years in consulting to running his own startup -- Trava, to later joining TVF earlier last year). Please, enjoy! TVF: https://tacomaventurefund.com/ Madin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjakpoesambe/ Need help in designing or building your startup: https://www.universium.co/clutch 00:00 - Introduction & early years in consulting 05:15 - Switching to build a startup, Trava 11:06 - What's unique about Trava? 16:48 - Joining the Tacoma Venture Fund 22:38 - Operator's mindset and helping founders succeed 28:28 - How did Madin learn to become an investor 35:30 - What does Madin's day-to-day look like? 40:26 - Delegating responsibilities & replacing yourself in a business 46:49 - The key factor which helps founders succeed My projects and links: X: https://x.com/stephanmazokha Instagram: https://instagram.com/stephanmazokha LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/stephanmazokha TikTok: https://tiktok.com/smazokha