Ablorde Ashigbi is the CEO of 4Degrees, a Chicago-based technology company, applying machine intelligence to help teams in relationship-driven industries manage their most important source of opportunity – their professional networks. When he’s not doing that, you can usually find him lifting weights, reading books or eating BBQ.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
- Elon Musk
- David Cancel co-founder and CEO of Drift
When business started difficulties overcame:
“started what is an incredibly technical business and company and yet I myself am not an engineer or at least I’m not an engineer by training… I spent a lot of time not only trying to teach myself how to cold and at least be able to speak the proper language but also taking Coursera courses and Udacity courses and similar just to be able to get to the point where I felt like I could credibly run this company and stand in front of customers and stand behind product in the way that I needed to ”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage to the Antarctic Book by Alfred LansingFavourite Quote:
“seize the day”
Recommended Online Resources:
First Round Capital Blog – the first VC run publication providing actionable insights from the top people in technology
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“find your tribe of other entrepreneurs to spend time with and to commiserate with and listen to. Building a company or an organisation can be an incredibly lonely journey, you are going to go through a lot of peaks and a lot of valleys, you are going to have probably multiple new death moments where you don’t think that this is going to survive and you are going to feel an immense about pressure. And in those moments having other people who have gone through that journey or are going through it alongside you who you can commiserate with and learn from and ultimately feel like they understand this something I think every entrepreneur should pursue”…[Listen for More]
More About Ablorde Ashigbi:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“Magic is believing in yourself. If you can make that happen, you can make anything happen.” Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Other Quotes From the Chat with Ablorde Ashigbi:
- “we have an interview or at least a couple of interviews in our process that spend time asking questions related to our culture. So, first when someone usually submits an application to us or a cover letter to us think we ask is… Our values mean a lot to us tell us a bit about how these values resonate with you and how they’ve kind of reflected themselves in your life…”
- “Looking back on it I would take longer and be willing honestly to pay more to find the person who could truly accelerate the business. I think it is totally worth spending 50 percent more or 50 percent more time to find the person who is honestly going to 3 X better or 2 X better in your organisation or role. Usually with the amounts you need to pay versus the Delta you will get in performance those two things are disproportionate”
- “high levels of prioritisation… Something I try to spend a lot of time on”
- “it’s almost the art of understanding which fires could burn down the house versus which fires are worth letting to continue burn as you deal with the ones that are full on blazes… So that process of consistently looking at the set of things that are in front of you and trying to identify the action you can take that has the most leveraged towards moving the business forward and ultimately accomplishing your vision is something that I think is well worth the time and energy for any entrepreneur to pursue. I think related to that is very strong time management…”
- “I believe that every day you should try to live as if it is your last… I tried to attack every day as if it is my last”
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