Tiger Sisters - The Game Is Rigged. Here’s How You Win Anyway (High Agency + Start Before You’re Ready) | Investor Kofi Ampadu

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

Sign up for our newsletter here: https://cherieluo.substack.com/subscribeWelcome to the very first installment in our new series called Tiger Sisters: Director’s Cuts. In these episodes, we revisit some of our favorite conversations from the past. Today, we’re digging back into our incredible episode with investor and 2x-founder, Kofi Ampadu. From navigating systems that weren’t built for you to betting on yourself before you feel "ready," Kofi shares the frameworks that shaped his career. He also reflects on how he's now living a version of the life he envisioned more than a decade ago. Tune in for lessons and new reflections on: ✅How to succeed when the rules of the game aren't designed for you✅Why high-agency people focus on what they can control✅The importance of writing down your goals (and sharing them with someone else!)✅ Why waiting for the "perfect time" can quietly derail your dreams✅ How Kofi evaluates whether he's having a good year, month, week, and day✅ What founders, investors, and ambitious people can learn from long-term thinkingThis episode is packed with frameworks and new reflections that you’ll want to apply TODAY! Follow Kofi: @kofiampaduTimestamps:01:06: Introducing the Director’s Cut Series 01:58: How to watch this episode 04:43: Introducing Kofi to the audience 05:32: How Kofi learned to navigate rooms where he was different 07:55: The importance of highlighting wins for founders of color09:31: A framework for making “the game” more fair for yourself 11:31: Inside Kofi’s journaling habit and takeaways 13:33: Making a life plan (and sharing it with a friend!)15:01: Kofi’s early side-hustles (hello DoorDash?!)21:53: How to be the captain of your own ship22:58: Kofi’s early founder days living with his sister30:18: Kofi and his wife’s “brown bag” research lunches 34:26: 3 Ways Kofi determines if he “won his day” 43:28: How failure is actually healthy47:30: Red Flags in investing 52:15: True or False questions 55:44: Cherie’s biggest takeaways from the episode 57:35: Jean’s reflections on “the rules of the game” being rigged1:01:22: Cherie and Jean reflect on the fear of failure1:02:17: Why more companies should be funding women1:05:55: Cherie’s reflections on Kofi’s family stories 1:10:07: Jean’s reflections on Kofi’s tracking systems 1:14:17: Closing thoughts 🐯👯‍♀️ We’re the Tiger Sisters — your Wall Street & Silicon Valley big sisters Decoding Money • Power • Love✨ New episodes every Monday | Shorts all week ✨💌 Want to partner with us? Sponsorships: [e-mail] trust us?▫️ Cherie Brooke Luo — 100M+ views demystifying tech, finance & MBAs▫️ Jean Luo — ex-Goldman Sachs, ex-Snapchat exec, 50+ AI patents, startup investor▫️ Together: 4 Ivy League degrees • built billion-dollar products • two startups — decoded for youWhat you’ll get (and keep):▫️ 🚀 Ivy League cheat sheets — no $250K tuition▫️ Personal finance playbooks (salary, investing, negotiation)▫️ Networking scripts behind $100M+ deals & job offers▫️ Real conversations with CEOs, operators & investors▫️ Mindset resets — clarity without the pricey coach▫️ Systems for career, money, and long-term growth💛 LET’S CONNECT~ CHERIE ~Instagram — /cherie.brookeTikTok — /cherie.brookeSubstack — cherieluo.substack.comLinkedIn — /cherie-luo~ JEAN ~Instagram — /jeanluo_LinkedIn — /jeanluo👉 Hit Subscribe & tap the 🔔, then leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Spotify & Apple Podcasts. It takes 10 seconds and makes a massive difference in helping new people discover Tiger Sisters.🛍️ Items:🍵 Sisters Matcha — www.sistersmatcha.com🌀 Everything else — https://amzn.to/3z0dx5b

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It's giving 60 minutes. It's giving behind the scene. Behind the scenes. It's giving good lighting. Sometimes the rules of the games are a bit rigged against you, but you knew that going in. I don't think there's any surprise that founders of color are underfunded. I think as adults, we get into this mindset of we have to be perfect before we do anything.

And then if perfection is always the aim, you're more than likely not going to try new things. Kofi wrote down his plan. You can have it in your head. You can talk about it with your friends. But when you write it down, it makes it so much more real. He wrote it down and then he emailed it to his best friend. Maybe do that. Two steps.

Write it down and email it to your friend because then they'll have- Or email it to yourself. Or email it to us. Yeah. We are your Wall Street and Silicon Valley Big Sisters. And we're a top 10 business podcast bringing late night sister talk meets boardroom strategy. What up? What up, what up, Tiger fam?

Welcome to this next episode of Tiger Sisters podcast, Director's Cut Edition. We're bringing you the best of the best, our favorite interview. over the past two years on Tiger Sisters podcast. And these are the interviews that you guys told us in the comments that you absolutely love, but you guys want something more. So here we're going to bring the interviews and the behind the scenes, directors, cuts of the best takeaways that Jean and I have of these conversations. And we are filming these episodes with the benefit of time and looking back on these episodes

and our new experiences and having kind of like had time to reflect. on the learnings from these episodes and bring you guys a little bit of a fresh take. And if you guys haven't noticed, we are in an amazing new studio. Shout out to Spotify. It's a little dramatic. It's a little sexy. And it's perfect for the director's cut series. So I highly recommend watching these directors cut episodes all the way through kind of just chronologically because we're going to show the interview with our guest. And then after that, Gene and I will have the conversation, the takeaways, and some of the reflections of the episode. But if you've watched this interview recently, it's totally fine to use your scrubber bar

and skip directly to the director's cut after the interview. Okay, this episode of the Tiger Sisters Directors Cuts is with Kofi Ampidu, who is a longtime investor, a former founder. And I just love this conversation because Kofi is such a cool guy. because he is extremely accomplished, but he's also very honest with us. And he's very, like, practical, measured and smart. Methodical, yeah. Yeah. I love it because throughout the episode, he gives us a ton of frameworks that you can apply both to career and also to your personal life.

At one part of the interview, he literally goes through his framework of how to figure out if he's having a good year, good month, good week, good. day and it's kind of amazing to see someone's brain work like that and be like oh I can definitely take this and apply it to my own life as well yeah and like spoiler he is adding data to this calculation every single day it's incredible yeah last thing I'll say before we get into the interview is that I really admire cofi's tenacity like you can just hear in the story that he tells and the way that he lives his life and also has created his career. I just love that he doesn't let anything stop him. And when I was watching this interview back, I was just like, yes, I need more of that

energy because whenever there's an obstacle in front of Kofi, he is not deterred by that. He figures out a way to go around it. And just seeing someone with that grit and resilience, again, like I need kind of this interview on repeat for me and my life because it reminds me that, I'm not. I can do anything that I put my mind to. Yeah. And one thing you'll hear in this episode is how intentional he is and how he has had like a plan for himself from a very young age that he shared with his best friend that his best friend then brings up. And he's like, look, you shared this like list of life goals for yourself and you achieved all of them.

Basically, he's doing everything he said he wanted to do over the last decade. Yeah. And like, that's kind of like, you know, a cheeky little line I have is that like my biggest flex is I'm doing everything I said I would do. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Be like Kofi. Be like Kofi. Be like the Tiger Sisters.

Yeah. All righty. So let's get into the interview. Welcome to the Tiger Sisters podcast where we talk about money, power, and love. Hi, Kofi. Hi. Could you please introduce yourself in your own words to our audience? Yeah.

Hi, everyone. I'm Kofi Ampedu. I'm a partner at Andresen Horowitz where I have the pleasure of leading the Talent Times Opportunity Initiative. It is a program where we focus on finding founders who have the talent and drive to build big businesses. I'm excited to be here. Thanks for being here. Wait, vibe check first. You have good days, bad days.

Is this a good day? Is this a good day to film? Actually, it's a great day because I'm here with you guys. Great day. Oh, good. I'm so relieved to hear that because I didn't want to mess up your streak. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

It's a green day for us. Kofi, on our podcast, we talk a lot about intersectionality. So you're Ghanaian American, you're an immigrant, and also a person of color. You've had to navigate many rooms where people don't look like you. In the startup world, in the VC world, was there a turning point where you decided I'm going to play this game differently? I think I actually use my different hyphen-hyphens as an advance. I think oftentimes as a person of color, when you're in the room, you probably work the hardest to be in that room. Right? So you know you work the hardest to be in that room. And I also think about it as a chance to change minds where it's what stereotype can I debunk when I'm in that room.

And I think for me, it's understanding. And it's always, I always tell founders this. It's you decide to play a game. Yeah. You know the rules of the game. Unfortunately, sometimes the rules of the games are a bit rigged against you. But you knew that going in, right? I don't think there's any surprise that, specifically speaking about founders, I don't think there's any surprise that, okay, founders of color are underfunded, right? So I think it does you know good to start playing a game.

And while you're playing a game, you're complaining about the rules that you knew were already rigged. Right? So I think you show up to the game and you just say, okay, I know the rules are not set. up for me to win, but I'm going to win despite. And as I'm going to try to build some allies along the way, right? And so for me, it's always about understanding the game that I'm trying to play and then playing within the rules, but trying to change the rules along the way. Right? Because it's really hard to, I think, decide you want to play a game. And then your rookie year, you're axing the commission of the league to change the rules.

It's like, who are you? You haven't done anything. So I think as you make progress, you then start using your bullet pulpit to make change. I'm going to win despite. Exactly. Wow. That's very powerful. And I feel like now you're in that position now where you have the bully pulpit

and you're making change for everyone else who's playing the game. Yeah, that's what we're trying to do. I think it's really important to highlight the wins when I think about founders of color. One of the things I notice is oftentimes there's this unfair weight on founders where I know it's a high failure rate environment.

I know a large number of companies are not going to make it to the other side. But as a founder, it's sort of you started to play the game. You start realizing, okay, the idea that I'm bringing to market, maybe it's not working. I've done several pivots. but you're so resilient and you don't want to give up

because you feel like if you give up, you're stopping maybe the next black founder, maybe the next female founder from being funded. And I talk to founders and that's not necessarily your responsibility. I think your responsibility as a founder is to just do everything you said you were going to do. There are so many founders that say, I'm going to do X, Y, and Z. And they actually don't do X, Y, and Z.

They start doing A, B, C, right? And what happens is you start. to lose trust. But if as a founder you decide you did everything that you set out to do and it didn't work out, it didn't work out, I think investors are astute enough to know that not every company is going to work out. Right. So I don't think founders need to put that weight on themselves. And that's one of the conversations that I constantly have with founders to say, okay, resilience is a great thing, but it's also a double-edged sword where you can be too resilient and then start compounding your opportunity cost. Yeah. I feel like that's almost like a

really good framework to go into a lot of different situations where the two things you said were like, one, recognize the game for what it is. Like understand the rules and the bounds and like the same rules don't necessarily apply to you. And then also you're kind of saying just like get that understanding in your head and then get it out of the way. Like don't be thinking about it all the time for everything that you do, but just like know that going in. And then you can act within the rules that are applied to you. Yeah. It's a distraction, right? If you, if you're thinking about it. all the time. It's unfair. It's unfair. It's like, yep, that's a fact that's unfair, right? You're playing a game. How can you eventually make it fair for yourself? It resonates so deeply. I think more than you know, it resonates

really deeply with me and also the ethos of our podcast because one of the goals of Tiger Sisters podcast is to really break open. Like traditionally gate-kept institutions like tech and VC and also like Stanford and Harvard, we're like, if you don't know someone who knows someone who knows someone who know someone, like how the heck are you supposed to figure out the game of everything, of like applications and recommendations? And then, you know, when you're trying to, for interviews, it's, it's really difficult on the outside. And so I think creating more opportunities for people. Yeah, that's a really powerful thing. So, Kofi, one question that we like to ask our guests is for a piece of advice that they'd give their younger self. So I'm about to enter my 30s, genes in her mid-30s.

So when you're looking back to your 29-year-old self, what would you tell him? Yeah. So I journal a lot. And I was actually talking to a friend, and they were just like, man, you're doing everything you said you were going to do. And I was like, what are you talking about? And they sent me a doc that I wrote in 2012. I sent them a VC plan, and the plan was very, very, very. close to what I'm doing now.

Visi as in like the startup of you? Yeah. So it's like, well, it's, I sent them a plan around a fund that I was going to start. And it was very, very close to what I'm.

It's like 85% overlap to what I'm doing. And I kind of thought to myself, I'm like, what happened along the way? Like it felt like it took me too long to start doing this thing, right? Because I took different paths. Like I took a job as a consultant.

Right? So my advice, like my younger self would be like do the thing right now. Right. There's no perfect. I think I was looking for like the perfect time to do something. And often it's so easy to convince yourself or tell yourself a story, right, where it's I'm going to do this and then I'm doing that and then I'm going to come back and do this thing.

As opposed to what's the thing you want to do now? Like why don't you just like do it? So like read them back, like looking at that plan. and then like flipping back through my journal and seeing how this is the thing I wanted to do. But I took these like roundabout turns to get there. I would just say just try to do the thing now. And I think you're always going to be rewarded for failure. Right.

Like if you put your best foot forward, like people are going to see you're trying. Right. And you may get a shot like a lot sooner. I have this one professor who says the two most dangerous words are not now. So if people keep saying not now, they keep pushing it later and later and it becomes not ever. I think to give yourself some credit, you're doing what you said you would do. That's crazy. No, it was like bonkers.

That's wild. I was just like, wait, what? You manifested. Yeah, and it made me happy because there was a time where, because, you know, I went from being a founder and now I'm a VC. And I'm like, did I just like leave the founder dream too early and move over the thing? to the other side of the table, did I just become like an investor because it's like the new hip thing that everyone wants to do. So it did make me feel good about my life decisions. I was like, oh, okay, this is, this was the plan on. You're like, deep down, I wanted this more than a

decade ago. Yeah. Yeah. That also, that's a good friend that you had someone, a friend that you were so close with, that you sent them like your life plan. Yeah, it's my best friend. I, yeah, we share, like I tell them everything. So you love that. Well, almost everything. Quick pause, Tiger fam. Please take five seconds to subscribe to Tiger Sisters podcast wherever you're listening or watching this. And in those five seconds, you're about to subscribe. Gene and I are going to sing. Love.

Subscribe. Love. Wherever you get your podcast. In two different keys. Thank you guys for subscribing because that means you'll be notified when a new episode of Tiger Sisters drops. All righty. Now back to the show. Okay, Kofi, back to your founder days now.

So not the like LinkedIn version, but like the real version. So let's start with an open question. Tell us, where did your founder journey first begin? Founder journey first began when I realized I didn't really like my job. Classic. And then like looking back, I felt like I was always a founder. During my time as a strategy consultant, I just didn't enjoy what I was doing. and a friend threw me a lifeline.

He said, I have this idea at a startup beverage company, and I want you to join me as the co-founder CEO. Yeah. That was only where I was leaving my job. I needed to be CEO. No, but I was like, man, it's the lifeline I need it. And it just, the ball just started rolling. And then in retrospect, sort of like looking back,

I felt like I've always been a founder. I remember, and I'm going to date myself a bit, but when I was in high school, I had a bunch of different side hustles, right? I would burn CDs and sell them to classmates. So I was making mixtapes. And then one of my side hustles were it was, we would actually, my senior year of high school,

you can go off campus to go get lunch. I would take food orders from underclassmen, and I would just charge them a delivery fee. DoorDash, who? Right? So looking back, I actually... Inventing. DoorDash.

I actually think I came up with door that. Just kidding. But it's just sort of having that in the back of my mind of, hey, I want to do something that is not restricted to, I'm doing a nine to five. And that's what entrepreneurship really gave me. So my first company was age two melon. We started a beverage company that was a health and wellness beverage company. So this is, think back in a day where you can sell a 12-ounce bottle of juice for $10. and know I'm not bad an eye.

And it just got me in the game and I don't want to leave the game. Like, I love it. I love being around entrepreneurs that inspires me and want to do more. Yeah. It sounds like you really had that entrepreneurial spirit from a very young age. And you've mentioned previously that your family or your dad ran a mom-and-pop shop. Did you feel like that entrepreneurial spirit or growing up around that influenced you? Might have, right.

So I think when I think back to my dad being an entrepreneur, I felt like he was an entrepreneur because he needed to be. He wasn't classically well educated, right? And he, when you moved to the States, he was a cab driver. Hated being a cab driver and wanted to do something else. And that's something else was, I'm going to start a small mom and pop shop. And he's still doing it now, right? And it's been his path out.

and sort of like looking back on it, he's happy. I remember having a conversation with him a few months ago where he's about to be 70 next year and he's still working. But I thought he was working to live, right? And so I was just like, when are you going to retire? He's like, what are you talking about? I love what I'm doing. And I was like, can you tell me about a typical day?

And when he described his day, I was like, oh, holy shit, he's retired. Like he's just sort of doing something he'd love. loves and it's just motivating him and keeping him going. That's the dream. That's the role. Like my role model. Yeah. I have these professors at Stanford who are like in their 70s, well into their 70s,

mid, late 70s, and they're still teaching. And I'm like, that's what I aspire to do to find something that drives me so much that I can continue working because I love it and because I want to. Yeah. Like he loves it. And it's just, it's so inspiring to see where it's just like how can find in something. that you can do for the rest of your life. I think it's the mission that we're all on. And I'm happy he found his. Do you feel like you found that? I think so. So for me, it's, I love being around

founders. I love being around people who constantly have ideas. No two days are the same for us. And I think that's what inspires me. I have a quest to learn. So whenever I, it's a cheat. It's a cheat code, right? So I think as an investor, you are meeting with a founder, even if you're, If it's a founder you're not going to invest in, you're learning about something completely new. And oftentimes you're meeting with somebody that's dealing with it on an everyday basis. So you're just accelerating, you're learning curve. And I love that. And then when my founders come to us with issues that they're having, we get to roll out sleeves up and work with them on trying to figure out those issues.

It's like you get to have a different job day to day, week to week. Yeah. And I don't have the stress of being a founder. Wait a minute. This is sounded pretty good. No, no, it's good stress, right? So when I was a founder, it was a time in my life where I made the least amount of money. But I was probably the happiest.

And the reason I was the happiest is whenever an issue came up, I felt like I was in control of either solving that issue. Oftentimes, I think, when you are an employee, when an issue comes up, you may not completely be the one who can solve it. But as a founder, you have complete agency. You can either hire somebody to help you solve it. You can go learn a thing to solve the thing. So there's so many things that I think being a founder of the flexibility that it gives you that I love. And I think for me, the role that I have with TXO, when I think back to it, so TXO started in 2020. I joined the firm in 2021. TXO was still being built from a foundational standpoint. And when I got

in there, I was able to help build a foundation. So I felt like it's, I still got to flex on entrepreneurial muscles. Right. And I think that's what keeps me excited about what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis. And we're constantly always trying to figure out like what can we do next. And we consider ourselves a startup within the firm. Yeah. We're constantly trying to figure out. like what can we do next to ensure that we're creating value for our founders? Yeah. I feel like this is a very revealing answer because it's so clear that you are a very high agency person.

Like that's how I would describe you. I feel like having known you for not that long, that's like probably one of your most defining characteristics. I would agree. No, in all seriousness, it's all about like what can I do to change something. Yeah. Right.

And I think it's been really helpful for my mental health where there's so many things in the world that you can stress out about. And so whenever I find myself stressing out about something, like I don't like the feeling of being unhappy and being stressed. So whenever I find myself stressed out about something, I ask myself that one foundational question, right? It's like, okay, what am I doing to change it? Like, what can I do to change it? And if you drill down and you can't do anything to change it, like oftentimes it's like, all right, so don't stress out about it. Because if you're literally, you're impacting your mental health for something that you can't make any change to, right? Oftentimes there is something we can do to change it, right?

It may be, it may feel small and minute, but I think a lot of actions start from something that is small and minute. I think it's also really powerful to be surrounded by people who adopt a similar mindset. Like I am the captain of my ship mindset. Everything gets harder because you make a change in the short term things get harder. But then in the long term things usually if you make the right decision, like get better. But it's fun being around those people. Yeah. It's like folks who understand you have to optimize for the long term.

When you want lasting change, it's in the beginning. not going to be fun, right? It's like hard now. I think it's just like hard now, easy later. So if any, I think conceptually anything in life that's worth having in the beginning, it's just going to suck to do it. Right. So if you want to get in better physical shape, in the beginning you go to the gym, you're not going to see results. It's going to suck. If you need to wake up early, you're not going to be used to doing that. But once you start seeing results, when you start getting in better shape, it's going to be easier for you to say, I'm going to wake up earlier. So I think it's always kind of thinking about it from a standpoint of like, what do I need

to do now to optimize for the long term? So while you're bootstrapping, you told us that you moved in with your sister. We'd like to go there because we live together. Yeah, so we're bootstrapping. And we live together. We work and live my sister. So you kind of see where I'm growing here. I mean, was that sustainable?

Did you have to, like, put your pride aside, or was it just really easy? Like, how did that feel? Yeah, I had to put my pride aside. So, just to kind of paint the picture, I had the apartment in Manhattan that we all pre-game that. We were going to go out, right? So it was like, I had the balcony. I had, like, all, like, the amenities. The floor to ceiling, window.

I had that. And I know where we started. So, I think. think for me, it was also me telling myself, I'm all in. Like, if you're, if this is a thing you say you care about. Yeah. The thing you say you want to grow, what are you willing to give up for it? For me, it was like, it's pride, right? Like, hey, I'm moving back in with, I would have moved in with my parents if they live closer, right? Like, and being, being very serious because I think it was my way of saying, I'm all in. Yes. And I think being all in means, like, how do you reduce your burn?

Right. And I think as a founder, I often kind of think through, if you're a founder and you raise money and you hire a team, you should probably pay yourself the least. You should pay yourself enough to live, right? But you shouldn't pay yourself enough to save enough money for vacation because your payoff is going to be at the end of the journey. And so went all in and then I'm so fortunate that I have a supportive family. My sister was like, sure, like move in. And I think for her too, it was like, free child care. Because my niece was, I think my niece was like maybe two or three at the time. And it was like, I really, it was a great time for me. I got, I got a chance to get closer to my sister, my brother-in-law. And they actually also used my presence to as a carrot for my niece. So I lived in, I literally lived in a basement. I lived in a basement.

And if my niece was acting out, they were like, you can't go hang out with Uncle Kofi unless you eat your vegetables or you do this, right? So it was like they just liked having me in their space. I also made sure to contribute when I was there, right? So it was I may not be paying rent, but okay, how can I maybe buy groceries, do this and that? And then I would, during the day, I wasn't there. I was at my coworking space. So all of that kind of like worked out.

But I think I made that decision just because I needed to show myself that I was all It's really hard to kind of hold two troops, right? I can't be the guy who has a nice Manhattan apartment that French coming to pregame at. And then I'm talking about how it's really hard to build this company because I need money. When I can literally take money out of that apartment by not paying rent and then using it to build the company. It's walking the walk. Yeah. And it's about sacrifice.

What are you willing to do? Yeah, it's a good story to tell when you're pitching a VC, right? And like, how all in are you? And you said, I packed and moved in with my sister. I live in the basement now. Like my window is this big. Limited sunlight. It's very heartwarming to hear about your support system and your relationship with your family and your sister.

I want to turn the conversation to your eternal co-founder, your wife, who you've mentioned before is a really important support system. and has gone through all of it with you from the beginning. Yeah, I think it's so, I'm so lucky. It's a cheat code because even if you have a co-founder, it's sometimes you need to complain about your co-founder, right? And it's nice to have an outlet. Wait, what? Never.

Hasn't happened yet. You need to have an outlet, right? And like for me, I was super, super fortunate where she's a journalist has interest in photography. So she was taking product pictures for us. she would be helping us with like our social media post, right? So it was, I felt like she was also all in. I think it's important to surround yourself with people who don't second guess the decisions you make because they see you as a whole human who can make adult decisions and then they will support you.

And obviously, if you're going to fall, they'll be there to help, like, pick you back up. And I've been very fortunate to have that where the peaks and valleys of untruthers, of entrepreneurial journey has been something that I've gone through with her. And she is someone I can constantly talk to about what I'm doing. I think what also makes our relationship, I think, really cool is she is in a profession that has very little to no overlap with what I'm doing. She's a documentarian, a journalist, a photographer. And you like that?

Yeah, it's perfect, right? It's, it's, um, and I think the reason I think it's perfect is she also gives me a different perspective, right? Because I think oftentimes we can be so homogenous in our networks where it's an echo chamber. Like she gives me fresh perspectives, right? When I'm talking about something that I've seen, she may ask that question of like, I can be talking about a company that I think is interesting. And she gives me like the regular, quote unquote, like regular person's point of view, right? Because I think sometimes we're so surrounded by technology or immersed with technology. We don't understand, like, folks who may not be live in technology 24-7.

Yeah. And it gives me that person. Why do you need AI for that? Exactly. Right? Like, what do you mean? Exactly. So she's not, she's not a techno-optimist, which is good because it gives me, we have

healthy debates. Yeah. So we don't argue, we debate. So we have a lot of, like, healthy debates, right? where we actually even started doing this thing where we do brown bag lunches. You and your wife? Yeah. So you would research.

It's like a topic that she cares about. She'll research it and then pitch it to me and I'll like research something and I'll pitch it to her. So it's like me telling her. It can be about like AI and the benefits. The benefits I think AI is going to have in society, right? where I think that the means, like the ends justifies the means sort of like presentation and then she'll do the same. And I get to learn and have like different perspectives because I'm immersed and surrounded by technology all day and just having somebody who is maybe a little

suspect of technology, right, is helpful and keeps me grounded in how I look at technology and how I look at what the future could potentially look like. And so this could be any topic? Any topic? So I like, the last one I did was, it was an event about technology. It was, I just wanted to look at francophone countries in Africa and why their currency was pegged to the French system. Right? It's just like, okay, why is this thing? So it's like whenever we are like, why is this thing? It's like, why don't you research it and tell me? And then is her role to like ask you questions? Ask me questions. And then when she's also interested in something, she'll research it. And then I will ask questions about it. So. it's like our way of like teaching each other stuff. Wow. Wow. I've never heard of something like this. We're kind of dorky.

Yeah. We're so cool. We have that at work. Wait, I would call that a brown bag lunch in a professional setting or like a nerd date. Yeah. With your wife. Yep. I love that.

I can also tell how curious you both are. Yeah. And how there's, if I'm understanding correctly, like so much learning between the two of you, learning from each other. and also teaching. Yeah. I think I mentioned there's very little overlap in our professions. Yeah. But then there's the big overlap is we have to ask questions, right?

So for her, as a journalist or a documentarian, before she puts resources into doing a documentary, it's like, is this thing like a legit thing? Right. How do I figure out if it's like a legit thing? Let me question the folks, right? And the same thing as an investor, before we put resources into anything,

it's is this company a legit company? Let's ask questions to figure it out. So it's like trying to, like we have that ability to ask each other the questions to drill down to figure out, okay, should we invest time, resources, and money into anything. That's your shared interest. And I feel like your love language is like teaching each other new thing and like learning new things together. Yeah. Wow. Not to psychoanalyze you.

Your love language might be that. Yeah, I don't know. I've never heard it put that way, but I like it. That is so interesting. Well, something that I've been thinking about recently, so we talk about money, power, and love on our podcast because they're also interrelated. You have the career stuff that you do, professional stuff. You know, you also have a partner that's such a big part of your life. When I think about the partner that I'm looking for, it's someone who's also very curious about life, has a growth mindset so we can learn from one another.

Yeah. Because your partner, I guess, can be your lifelong learning partner. too. And that's kind of what you guys have created for each other. Yeah. Think about it when the zombie apocalypse happens and you're the lowly two people left. You don't want to be bored with that person. Yeah. So it's true. Wow.

New standard. The standard has been created. The zombie apocalypse standard. Do you guys want to know a wisdom that my mother told me about growing up? Yeah. If you enjoyed our Tiger Sisters podcast episode on parenting and motherhood with our hilarious guests, Natasha

Lagerro and Sabrina Jalise, make sure to check out their podcast Good Enough. New episodes drop every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts. Together, they explore the messy and funny middle ground between old school and modern parenting. Okay, now back to the show. Okay, so Kofi, we've talked a lot about startups. You founded your startups. You advised startups. You also seem to kind of run your own life like a startup in certain ways. So tell us about the system you created, where you track like good days, bad days, and how do we, implemented. Yeah. So I came up with this in late 2019 and actually started doing it in 2020. So 2019, when the year ended, I was just like, was this year a successful year? Like oftentimes I think

we, everyone does like a New Year's resolution, right? And it's this year I want to accomplish X, Y, and Z. And if you don't accomplish X, Y, and Z, at the end of the year, you just assume maybe the year was a failure. And I felt like, I didn't feel like a failure, but I felt like I failed. And I wanted a better way of tracking if I failed or not. And oftentimes our resolutions are tied to like professional achievements, right? But that's just one part I feel like of your life. And this was a very fortuitous time because I started it before the pandemic. I said every single day, I'm going to measure my days to figure out if I won, I won the day. And I measure them on three things. Physical, did I work out? Did I eat well? Right. So physical health and then mental health

is, am I stressed? Did I go to bed happy? And then the last thing I measured was like my daily task. And every day I had three things I wanted to complete, right? At the end of each day, I would measure it. And then at the end of each week, I actually was doing, I was publicly tracking it on the platform formerly known as Twitter. And I would put, oh, week one, I won six days out of seven. And I was also putting it on a spreadsheet. And I would have like little notes next to it. And just to remind me of like if there was like a bad, if I had a really bad week,

kind of summarizing why I had a bad week. And what I realized was I was really winning each year. And I think for most people, if they take that approach, you're drilling down on a daily ask, on a data by day basis. Yeah. So if you are measuring each day, do you realize, man, I'm losing each day, you're going to take action to figure out, okay, what can I change?

Right? And I think, I used to be a management consultant. So what doesn't get tracked? Doesn't get measured, doesn't get tracked, right? So if it's like, you're going through the week and you, at the end of the week, you're like, man, I had a bad week. And I'm like, what made it a bad week? Right.

And you can't really pinpoint it? That's a problem because how can you then change it for the future? And so for the last five years now, just been tracking that. And it's been super, super helpful. And I also do like the year over year. Yeah. And because I want to make sure I'm progressing, I'm up into the right, you know, I'm a VC. I need, we need growth, right?

I aggressively like looking at the numbers on the spreadsheet. I'm like, okay, I need to be better. Like what I, I'm not eating well. I need to eat better. I need to make sure that I actually put better days. task that I can complete, right? Because part of it too was just like, if you think about trying to accomplish things for the day, I think we're always more ambitious than our abilities are, right? So you make this big-ass to-do list and you realize, oh, I can't really complete any of

this stuff. So what I actually do is just like, what are the three things, and this is typically work-related, what are the three things that matter for me for work today? And making I get that done. I typically get more than three things done, but at least after I crossed the three off, I know I've had a good day. I'm so curious. I have so many questions. Oh, my God. I mean, like, the PM in me is going crazy right now. But I'm like, okay, were there any, like, seasonal trends that you noticed? So part of the trend that I noticed was just like, obviously with like COVID. Yeah. The thing I was happening with like BLM. It was, there was, It's like my mental state was just like mush, right?

I would, like the physical, it's also for me, it's a bit of like a, it's a bit of a cheat code because I naturally have been working out every day for a very, very long time. So it's just, it's habit formant. It's, it's part of my day, my routine. I actually plan things around working out just because that is my self-care. But it's everything that was happening. happening from a macro, sometimes it was just like really tough for me to, for me to deal with, right? And obviously I have a partner and how she deals with it also impacts my mental, my mental aspect. And so that impacts, that would impact it. And then that's when I started

asking myself things like, what can I do? Right. So instead of me being stressed out, what can I do about it? So I do remember during the BLM protests, I reached out to TechCrunt. and I wrote an article. And the article that I did for TechCrunch was I actually looked at, and this is just me being a nerd again, right? I looked at a bunch of like prominent startup podcast and looked at the guests that people have on those podcasts. And I realized like black like people were underrepresented as guests, right?

So I wrote a blog post called Black Minds Matter. And the goal of that blog post was to say, because I think around that time, everyone was trying to figure out, okay, what can we do to make sure that America is a more equitable place, right? So for me, my recommendation was, I think there are black people that can probably talk about product. There are black people that can talk about engineering and that can talk about investing, right? Let's figure out how to get them as guests on some of these prominent and podcast because I think it also changes the perception of like a whole race. Right.

So that was like around that time, that was my, instead of me being stressed out about it, what can my solve be? I think that is so cool because that is literally the exact example of you using your bully pulpit and you finding like a very specific thing that you could do that was in your control that was specific to your area of expertise. to make a difference and then also influence other people. And then also I think it's really cool because it's a way where you took all the learnings, all the metrics, et cetera, and then you're like, okay, how do I come up with like some sort

of conclusion or like learning from everything that I've been tracking? Because, you know, I can't control the outside world, but the outside world is affecting me. So then what can I do to like flip it around, to like make a change in this situation? and then you actually did something about it. That's so cool. That's like the ideal use of data. Yeah. I'm a nerd too.

I think it's also important to mention. I'm under no like delusion that you're going to have 100% like happy days, right? That would be kind of weird, right? Then you wouldn't know what happiness is if you've never existed. experience, like a low point. And so I think it's also important to make space. One of the things that I'm trying to be better at, and this is trying to make space for, I just heard this phrase recently, make space for your failures, right? So it's just like, okay, like, it's okay to, like, wallow. And like, you missed, you had a goal, you missed a goal. It's okay to be sad about it,

right, for some time. I'm not saying just never be sad about anything, right? And having sort of of having that practice of, okay, this thing didn't go the way I wanted to go. I'm bummed out about it. I'm going to be bummed about it for like a day, right? One of the things that I'm trying to be better at is time block being bummed out about something that didn't go well. Right. So it's just like, okay, I'm going to be upset about it for like a day. And then after that next, after that day, trying to figure out like how do we move forward, right? Because you could, it's so easy to spiral. And I think it's so easy to spiral and make an excuse. Like, excuses are the cheapest things to buy, right?

Like, it's so easy to make an excuse. So it's like, how can I figure out, like, okay, I'm bummed out. This thing didn't work out. Give myself, like, the day to just sit on the couch, watch Netflix, like, eat, like, unhealthy food, right? Like, and just bum out about it. But then the next day, let me move forward. Because I think oftentimes, unless it's, like, extreme.

circumstances, you probably are just in the same spot you are in before that thing didn't work out. Right. Some circumstances, like if you lose a job, you're setback. Right. And then if you didn't, if it's not like a job lost, you're probably not set back. You're just probably in the same spot. So it's like, okay, how do I just pick up from where I'm at to reconfigure and move forward? I definitely want to adopt this framework or this model and try it out for myself.

But something I feel like I need to be careful with. My mindset, I'm really, I don't like failure. No one likes failure. But then I feel like just this is me being honest. I was just like, I want to be completely honest when I'm measuring my days. And so that I'm not like, was I happy? And, you know, kind of like stretch it a little bit. so that I can meet the metric.

Do you know what I mean? It's like you have to be super honest with yourself when you're doing this or else it can feel like you're failing over and over. I want to challenge that a little bit, the failure piece. So I think failure is actually like healthy. Yeah. So if you are approaching a situation with the intention of you're not going to fail, right, is you're probably going to move a lot slower, right?

That is why literally large companies don't do anything worthwhile, right? Like really, really large, like, incumbent companies. It's because it's like, nah, what if we try this thing and it fails? Right? And if you ever watch, like, kids like learning how to play basketball or doing anything, it's oftentimes a person teaching them is just like, you've got to go faster. If you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough, right? If you're very, very careful because we, I think as adults, we get into this mindset,

of we have to be perfect before we do anything. Yeah. Right. And then if perfection is always the aim, you're more than likely not going to try new things. Because as soon as you try a new thing, you're going to be like, I'm failing at this. And I'm going through that right now. I'm learning French and reading a book by Adam Grant. And one of the things he mentioned was the people who are really good at learning a language

are people who the first day to learn a language, they start using it. Yeah. Right? So it's like, Ah, we? We. We. So it's like you start using it right away. And part of like using a language is you're going to embarrass yourself.

Yeah. You're going to fail. Yeah. Right. But it's like we. And I know I'm going, I'm literally going through this right now where it's just like, I'm always like trying to pick the perfect spot to try it. And if you keep picking a perfect spot, you're never going to get the perfect spot.

Yeah. Right. So it's like I do think it's like. part of the process of achieving, like, success is like you just got to move fast. Just don't break things. Sounds like you need to plan some trips to these francophone countries. It's on a list. We have like a fun high, like a high energy segment.

So we're going to try. Which we haven't tried before. Yeah. So I'm really a guinea pick today. Thank you. We're just, we're not afraid to fail. Yeah. Is really...

She's throwing it back at you. Do you like that? Yeah. Full circle. I'm fast with it. The next segment is called true or false. And basically what we're going to do is we're going to read you some hot takes from the startup world. And then you tell us, in your opinion, if it's true or false and why.

And they're going to be like fun, silly, like spicy, you know. So feel free to be fun, silly and spicy. Was I not already Fricely and spicy? Even more. So the first one, Kofi, true or false? If you are not working 90 hours a week, then you don't want it bad enough as a founder. False.

You're going to work hard. And part of, I think, working hard doesn't necessarily mean you need to work long hours, right? There are going to be times where you're working maybe 90 hour weeks. But I don't think it needs to constantly be 90 hour weeks. There are ways. I actually also think it's. it's important to take breaks here and there, right? We just got back from like a founders retreat and one that thinks that we tell our founders

on a founder retreat is building a company is a marathon, right? And that doesn't mean it's a marathon so you go slow. The people who win marathons are still running at a pretty fast pace, right? So there are going to be some miles where you're running at a five-minute pace. They're going to be some miles where you just happen to be running at a seven. minute pace, right? Because you're not always going to, there are going to be some weeks you don't always have it, right? But I don't think like there's a consistency of working like 90 hour weeks. You're going to need to work hard. And that's something that you just need to get your mind ready for.

Love that. Okay, Kofi. There are two co-founders that are either dating or married. Is that a huge red flag? Man. So it's not, it's a red flag. I won't. say huge, right? Bege flag? Yeah, there's a, there's a risk, right? I think as an investor, when you're investing, you invest in risk, right? And you just need to know what the risk is, right?

I don't think any investor invest in anything thinking it's a risk-free thing, right? Like, you're invest in something trying to figure out what the risk is. And I think when it comes to married co-founders, it's, okay, something can happen personally and then they break up and then what happens to the company right so it's all it means is you're just going to have to ask them a lot of awkward questions before making an investment so it is it is a flag and we need to like drill down on that flag okay i like that you're like what can i do about how do i de-risk this how do i de-risk your relationship um okay cofi true or false why combinator is overrated and low-key a scam

I would say false. I say this because I feel like Y Combinator truly has, like, product market fit, right? I say this joke where it's if Wycombinator decided probably today that, hey, we'll take 5% of your company and we won't give you any money. People still apply, right? Because I think one of the things that you can never discredit them for is the network that they've built, right? At the end of the day, if you are building a SaaS product.

and you join Y Combinator. There's a potential that all the successful Y Combinator companies can be your customer. So even if it's just to build traction with customers, right, to just get people to use your product to give you feedback, I think there's value in it. Yeah. That's a real nerdy joke, by the way.

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Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. Pun intended. If you enjoyed our recent episode on communication and speaking with Matt Abraham's you're going to love Think Fast, Talk Smart, his own podcast that comes out twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. Kofi, true or false, Ivy League degrees are useless in startups. True. And I think the reason is, and this is the reason we have TXO, we think anybody can build a company.

It's not, I don't think you should, you don't have a right to build a company or a right, a right to raise money just because you have a degree from a specific college, right? what that college does is it probably signals that you may be a high intelligent person, which is great, right? But not everyone who is smart went to an Ivy League school. Not everyone who's capable or has talent went to an Ivy League school. So I don't think it's a prerequisite for being a founder. Kofi, true or false? If you don't know how to code, don't start a tech company. False. I think, especially now, there are all these AI tools that you can use. I would say if you don't know how to code, what's the thing that you know how to do that makes you valuable to whatever thing that you're trying to build, right?

Like, you don't want to be that person that has an idea. And then you either are using, you get a co-founder or an early engineer, and that engineer is the only valuable thing in your company, right? So I think if you don't know how to code, like what else are you doing to make your company like super valuable, do you know how to sell? Right? Do you know how to market? Do you know how to, do you just know how to hire people? Are you a people person and you can be able to hire like the best talent to come onto your team?

But I don't think it's the only thing you need to know how to do to be able to start a company. Okay, Kofi, true or false? Raising money is easier if you're a white guy in a hoodie. I would say true. And that's just based on the data, right? But I think even white guys in hoodies probably have a hard time raising money. I think raising money is hard for anyone because you're like asking people for money is not easy. So I think it's true, but it's probably hard for them too.

Or at least if you ask them, they think it's hard. Wow. Radical empathy. I've never been a white guy in a hoodie, so I can't speak from firsthand experience. Kofi, true or false? Building in public is just performative BS. I'd say false. There's an advantage to building in public. You can get customer discovery.

You can get real time feedback. And then you can also just signal to people around how fast you can move. Right. I think oftentimes investors may be interested in investing in someone that can move really fast. Right. So if each time you post about something you're doing, I'm like, man, this person was just at B. Now, they're already at F, right? soon they're going to be at Z.

So this is a, it's a moving train and I want to get on to that moving train. Few. Thank God you said that answer, because that's what we're doing. We build them public. Unless you're making a Masha company. Go behind closed doors. No, I'm just kidding. Oh, so he did get spicy.

He got a little spicy. Okay. I think this is the last one. Kofi, true or false? Most pitch stacks are just really well-designed lies. False? And the reason I'm saying false is if you're starting off a relationship, which an investor-founder connection is a relationship, the first thing you're telling me, which is sending me a pitch deck,

and if it's a lie, that's not a good start to a relationship. So I do think founders put a lot of care into, or I would hope founders put a lot of care into what they're putting into their decks, right? And then if it's a lie, most of the times we're going to figure out during the diligence process that that logo you have on there is not actually a customer. I just want to say, Kofi, thank you for bringing your whole self today and for being so honest, sharing with us your life philosophy, your life framework, your life systems. It's just it means so much to me, to us. And also, I know you said a lot of things today that will be deeply meaningful. to our listeners. So thank you. No, thanks for having me. This is fun. This is amazing. I think it was

really powerful too. I think reflecting on a lot of your personal answers and how it relates to your personal life and also to the career aspect. I really will take a lot away from the frameworks that you've talked about and the fact that like you've been in the trenches yourself, building your own startup and now with TXO, you're helping people navigate through the trenches is really, really powerful. Yeah. Thank you. And so speaking of which, where can people follow you

and where can people learn more about what you're doing and TXO? Yep. You can follow me on X at V. Kofi Ampedu on X. And then you can follow TXO on X and Instagram at A16Z TXO. Great. And we'll have all of those linked in the descriptions of this video. Thanks so much, Kofi. No, thanks for having me.

Yeah. And to our listeners, if anything that Kofi said made you pause or reflect or think deeply or yell at your phone, and please like, comment, and subscribe, rate us five stars on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts. And share with a friend. All right. Thanks. Bye. Okay, guys, that was our interview with Kofi. Damn. So, Sheree, what is your first thought? I wrote it down and I'm going to try much. my best to try to articulate it, but I have so many thoughts and you know I have to like speak it

while thinking. Okay, okay, okay. Let it out. I love when Kofi talked about the rules of the game being rigged. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Period. You know, there are institutions, there are industries. The rules of the game are not, may not be set up for you. And I think I've felt that recently when Gene and I started our endeavor in the media world. Um, if, um, if you, um, if you, You look at the top. What an endeavor. What an endeavor. What an endeavor it's been.

Our journey. But if you look at the top business podcasts or even just like the business vertical, the industry in it of itself, there's not people, there's not many people at the top who look like us, who are women, who are women of color. And so I would just, watching this back, I was just like, okay, I love what Kofi stands for because, you know, many times you can feel like, woe is me. How am I going to, it's an uphill battle. Yes, it is.

Period. It is an uphill battle. But you need to have the grit, the tenacity, and also like the finesse to get to where you want to go. And while you're doing that, along the way, make allies so that you can change the system if it is not set up for you or people who are from your background. And so it's just like, I think a lot of people get into a way. woes me mindset and that and I think that's fine you can feel that but then what do you do with that energy and how do you make something of yourself and then also carve a path for other people as well she's fired up guys I'm fired up ready to go I'm ready to go what's that from it's like

president Obama's 2008 campaign damn that really stuck with me fired up ready to go fired up ready to go but okay wait on that topic I think I love what you're saying. I think there's also the opposite, the flip side of it, which is that I think there are a lot of people who kind of refuse to even acknowledge the fact that the rules of the game are not the same for everyone. Yes. Right? Like some people are just like, oh, it's not the case. Like I'm just going to operate as if like I'm in the same position as everyone else who I see, which is also not helpful, which is also, you know, denying reality. Yes. So I think that that's like, I am very happy that I'm very grateful. that we had Kofi on our podcast and that he, like, said that for the record. You know what I mean? Sometimes it has to be said. Yes. A lot of people are afraid to say that, to be like, the rules of the game are not the same

for everyone. I think I was scared to say that. Or, like, I think I recognized it. But I, like, before Kofi, I was like, oh, I don't think I can say this out loud. But I was so happy he said it out loud. It also gives me permission also. Yeah. I feel this way.

I actually feel this way. And it's not only just making your circumstance better. Kofi really talked about the bully pulpit. And I think that just shows, I mean, what matters to him and also a lot of what matters to us is that, like, yes, obviously we want to be a top business podcast, but we also want to be up there carving a path so that we can create more opportunity for women podcasters or, you know, people of color in the business category of our podcast. So I think I love that part of the conversation. It was very powerful. It was very humble. And it just held a lot of gravitas for me.

Yeah. Okay. I love that you brought up the bully pulpit because you know who else talked about the bully pulpit recently, one of our guests, Rahm Emanuel. And these are, so like listening to the Kofi episode again for me, I was like, oh, yeah. Kofi talked about the bully pulpit and how he felt like now that he has, you know, built himself up to be who he is and he's had like a very illustrious career and he has the bully pulpit he has been doing a lot with it like he's very much espousing his message and living it and bringing it to

a lot of different people and helping um people like him break into tech where it honestly is not it's not an even playing field like and and i think i think that's something that um i would like like to do even more of. Like the fact, like recognize the fact that we do have a bully pulpit and to do something with it, much like Rahm, Emmanuel and Kofi Umpadu. Yes. I really love the quote where Kofi said, you can't change the system your rookie year. Oh, yeah.

Like that made a ton of sense. Yeah. Like, yeah, maybe the game is rigged. You're in the game now. but you can't just go up to the commissioner, year one, and be like, make ABCD changes. It's like you have to, it's kind of like on you to build up the credibility, which I think is really hard. And I think also stating that, like recognizing that if you are one of a few people who look like you sound like you come from your background. Like that's really freaking hard.

And I really, I admire that pursuit. But then once you're there, going and making those changes, I think is the next step. Yeah. I do also like that he acknowledged that basically, I guess he was saying that it's like a fine line because he says that a lot of times startup founders who are minorities will say to him like, I am scared to fail because I feel like if I fail, then I am closing down this path for the next female podcasters in business, right? Like I am emblematic of like, if I fail, then, you know, big podcast or whatever is going to be like, look, these female business podcasters failed. So like, why are we going to invest in the next one? And like his point is like, that's not the case. Right.

Like you are still your own entity. So like you need to just do the best that you can. Yeah. For yourself. Like do not necessarily feel the weight of an entire category. Category on you. Like the best you can do is just do what you set out to do and what you said you would do. Yes.

Right? Yes. Exactly. That's what Kofi said in the episode. And also like I think the remedy is it sucks that they're, you know, what is it, what is it, 2% of women founders receive VC money or of VC money. Only 2% goes to women founders. And that definitely sucks.

But that just means that more companies should be funding women. so that there's not as much pressure for women to be the standout token that has to reach the moon, stars, and more. I felt a little bit bad in that way when, like, Elizabeth Holmes ruined it for women. But I'm like, I was like, can you not? But also, like, there should be more women founders. So she is not the, you know. Yeah. The token person that people look to for women founders.

Like that's not me. That's not who I'm trying to be. Like don't lump me in there. There should just be more of us so that we are not lumped in with that category. So one thing that I really liked about our conversation with Kofi and that I very much admire about him is that he is a person with very high agency. Which is so clear throughout like his entire life journey and like all the things that he's done. but what I really love is that it is paired with this mindset that he has where he says, if I know this is something I cannot change, I don't stress about it.

So I think that a lot of times you would think that that is like antithetical to someone who is high agency because the whole point of being high agency is that you think you can change things. You can control the situation. You can control the situation, blah, blah, blah. But I think like he's so good because he has both elements. Yeah. Like he's not just like high agency, you know, spray and pray, like thinking he can change every single thing and like wasting his high agency time. You know?

He's like very targeted with like he is going to be high agency. Yeah. About things that he knows he can change and improve versus things where he's like, this is the way things are. I am not going to be able to change this. So I'm not going to stress about it. Yeah. That's something I feel like I could do a better job. of. Yeah, he's able to hold both of those very complex thoughts at the same time and really

take his focus or like take his energy and it's like a spotlight and he's able to like focus it on something that matters to him that he's able to influence because if your spotlight goes on things that you are not able to change, then that's like a wasted spotlight. So yeah, I think that's That's a really interesting call out. I also wrote down that he's super high agency. What can I do to change something is one of the notes that I clocked when I was rewatching the interview. I love being around people who have that mindset because those people like kind of grab life by the horns. I actually mean that.

They run towards the fire. They grab life by the horns. And they make something. They make things happen. Yeah. That's the most exciting part. It's fun to be around those type of people because you're like, oh, if they can do it, I can do it. That's why I think for me it's so inspiring to speak with so many of these people because you're like, okay, this is where you started.

This is where you are now. And then like against all odds, this is how you did it. And it's like, if you can do it, then I can do it too. I don't know. I'm very inspired by our guests. The next takeaway that stood out to me was when Kofi talked about his family and specifically about his father and how his father is in his 70s and is a business owner and how his dad is living his best life, still working. And I know it was like a very small part of the entire interview and conversation, but it stood out to me because I want to be working. I think so. I mean, I'm only 30 now, but like, let's see when I'm 65 how I feel.

But, like, the goal is to find something that you love, that you feel passionately about, that can make you money, and that you're good at. Like, finding that Venn diagram of that thing so that, at least that's my life philosophy, that, like, I want to be doing this until I can't. Because, like, I want to be, I see myself being an old person, being still very curious. with amazing skin. With amazing skin. And like a glowing smile and beautiful white teeth and just still like engaged in the world around me. And I know I'm like, that's not exactly how Kofi described the situation with this family. But like that's what it inspired in me is that like I want to still be working well into my 70s.

And I think my experience is that a lot of the like older folks that I'm around are retired and bored. and so I see that now and I'm like I don't want to do that like I want to be an advisor I want to be an investor I want to be a professor I want to be a business owner maybe I'll still be podcasting when I'm 70 years old yeah like working with your definition of work yes exactly brings you joy exactly exactly and it's finding a lot of that I mean Kofi talked about it too if I'm going to bring up another point is that he has the founder itch or he had the founder it's a two times founder and now turned investor But he hated his job. I think he was a consultant previously. When he worked in corporate. Right. When he worked in corporate. And like he had the founder itch.

And so my push to you, if you're listening or watching this right now and like you have the founder itch. Like do you have a bunch of side hustles? Like in high school he said he was burning CDs and selling CDs and all this stuff. Like do you have that within you? Because Kofi's advice is there's no better time than now to try it because the longer you put it off. It's not now, not now, not now. It becomes not ever. And so, yeah, find what you love to do, and it could be entrepreneurial or something else. But then isn't it all about finding longevity in

that? So are you encouraging people to like just do it, to like try it out? I'm encouraging people that if there's something that you want to do, do it. And that could be. And that could. be building a business, that could be starting a hobby, that could be traveling. I think we oftentimes find ourselves in a place where we think there is a better time in the future, but life only gets more complicated as we get older, we get more senior in our job, we get more responsibilities, we grow family, we have dependents. Like there is probably no better time than five years ago. But the second best time is probably right now. Yeah. So just try it. It does remind me of another interview that we did, which was with Susie Welch, and she talks about the

concept of living a B plus life. And a lot of people are living a B plus life and you don't realize it. And I think the sooner you can realize it, the sooner you can understand it, the sooner you can admit that to yourself, the sooner you might actually take action and do something different. Yes. Yeah. And a B plus life can be different for everyone. But it, I, I think universally it's just that feeling of like, ugh. Like I'm not doing the thing that makes me happy, that thing that gives me joy and gives me purpose.

And I think figure- Hey y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what-if. Just style you love and quality you can trust.

Visit wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. Bring out what does do that for you is part of, the entire process. So the last thing that I wanted to talk about for this episode is that I love how Kofi is actually very introspective. And he's very introspective in a way that is measurement and database. So he talks about his system.

Talk to me, baby, with measurement and data. He talks about his system of how every day he would track, like, on these different vectors, how he's doing, and then add up all the numbers over time to be like, okay, how am I trending, how did this year go, how did this month go, how did this week, go. And I think it's just a way of being aware of yourself, right? Like, I think there's, yeah. And there's so many studies nowadays of how being, of how self-awareness is an extremely important aspect. It's like the basis of self-growth. Right. If you have no self-awareness at the beginning, like, you're not going to know where your baseline is, right? You can't be like,

this is where I am and this is where I want to get to. How can you go to like, where, you want to get to if you don't even know where you are. Did I eat with that? Sort of. Maybe. But yeah, I just thought that it was really valuable that Kofi shared with us his very personal method. And I think it's not that everyone has to use his method.

It's very time intensive. And like you have to be extremely dedicated to his method. But I think it's more so the idea of like he created this model for himself. of like what he was going to do in order to have this high level of self-awareness. And it's more so, I think, like, reflecting to yourself and be like, how am I going to do that? Right. Like how am I going to improve my level of self-awareness? If I do want to invest in myself and there is like a certain path or like I have certain goals for myself this year, like, what am I going to do to measure that? Like how am I going to assess?

where I am today to get to where I want to be tomorrow. Yeah. And I think it's great that Kofi, I think he does it daily or he did do it daily at one point, especially during the pandemic when you're like your world is turned upside down. But it can be like a weekly exercise, a monthly exercise, a quarterly exercise. Or an annual exercise. Like we've, we have this whole episode about how we set up our goals for the year. And we talked about like, you should actually go check out that episode.

I'm very proud of it because we are very honest and transparent about all of the the things that we do. It's basically we show our own system. Kofi shares his system in this interview, but in our episode, Gene and I share our own system. Yeah. And so like there's just a lot of different methods that you can use. And I just love that this episode reminds us to kind of inspect that. Yes. Hey guys. So it's come to my attention that many of you don't know, Gene and I have a Macha brand called Sisters Macha that we created and founded ourselves. What? No way. A Mata brand? Yeah. We started it in October 24. Gene and I have worked and lived on this Macha farm in Japan. It's sourced from Wazuka, Japan,

which is an hour and a half outside of Kyoto, and the brand means the world to us. It is a small family-owned farm, and we actually travel back to the farm and handpick the matcha ourselves. So you can find out more about Sisters Macha to try it, check it. Check it out, buy it. Buy it. Buy it. Definitely buy it. At sisters matcha.com.

That's sisters matcha. com. And already, back to the show. The final thing I will say is that Kofi wrote down his plan. You can have it in your head. You can, you know, you can talk about it with your friends. But when you write it down, it makes it so much more real. And you know what?

The thing that you write down in 10 years, it might not be exactly the same. Like things change. things are unexpected things come up sure but write down your plan and something that jean and i say borrowed from my stanford professor joel peterson write it down in pencil write your plan down in pencil things change but write it down because you have something to look back on and it kind of manifests it in the world when you say it out loud and write it down yeah he wrote it down and then he emailed it to his best friend maybe do that too maybe two steps write it down and email it to your friend Because then they'll have- Or email it to yourself.

Or email it to us. Yeah. Because it's social accountability and also, it just makes it way more real. It like forces you to do it because you're like, okay, fine. I'll think about my life plan, blah, blah, blah, and then you never do it. But like when you email it to someone else. Yeah, or write it in a comment on this episode. Yeah, what's your 10-year plan?

Leave us know in the comments. Thank you guys so much for tuning in to this director's cut episode with Kofi Opadu. And if you guys got all the way here, please, please, please take two seconds to subscribe to our newsletter. We have a substack. It's linked in the description or you could go to tiger sisterspodcast.com and subscribe from there. And also, don't forget to rate us five stars on whatever platform you're listening to us on. Thanks guys. We'll see you next time. Bye.