Visual representation of me writing this post.
Those who know me personally, professionally or have had a conversation with me that went past general chit chat will know that I have always wanted to be a lawyer. I set that as a goal at the age of 17 and from then on did everything that I could to achieve this. I even worked full time to pay for my part time Law Conversion degree. I was committed to this dream and it has played a massive part in who I am today.
Me at 17 and yes that is a barrister’s wig (don’t laugh)
3 months ago I decided that this dream was no longer pursuable (for reasons I may disclose at a later date), I quit my job and joined my friends Jide and Mustafa who had founded a promising ad-tech startup (Yoke Network) in July 2018.
Saturday 28 September marked 3 months of me being part of Yoke Network and it has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my 23 years of life. We’ve grown from strength to strength in this short period and I am thankful to be a part of this.
At Yoke Network we are trying to change the social media ecosystem by helping the creators at its core maximise their earnings, whilst also helping advertisers find the right creators they need to win on social media. Companies are too used to giving creators a fixed amount, crossing their fingers and praying for some results. At Yoke we do things differently, we believe that interactions between creators and companies don’t have to be zero-sum. They can be positive-sum, where both sides win.
Yoke was founded by two incredible humans that I’m grateful to call my friends; I’ve known Musty since I was 11 (way too long), whilst Jide and I built a connection during our Econ lectures at University. Sometimes I sit and observe what they have done in starting Yoke and I’m in awe. Creation is an amazing thing, they’ve literally made something out of thin air. There’s been times I’d get into work in the morning, log in to our team dashboard and think how the f**k did Musty build this. I analyse the processes we have in place and the customers we currently work with and wonder how Jide even knew where to start. I’m proud of what they’ve created and they are the perfect individuals to lead this.
Musty and Jide or Jide and Musty 🤔
Paul Graham, Founder of Y Combinator (I wrote about here), once stated that the perfect number of founders for a startup is two, one to sell and the other to build. Although a founder can be a seller and a builder, it is much easier when you have support. The two founders of Yoke Network embody this, I can’t think of a better salesman than the BFG that is Jide, anyone who’s ever met him will understand what I mean and if you haven’t you’re just going to have to trust me. And then we have Mustafa, who might be the coolest computer science nerd in the world. They complete each other, Jide plays the bad cop and Musty the good cop. They think differently which allows them to see what the other is missing whilst still striving to achieve the same goal.
Paul Graham also recommends Founders to have already built a relationship and worked on something before going into business. Something they have done many a times, one being when we started the Numoney podcast (if you know you know) with a few other friends post University. Another, during our first year of University, when we represented Lancaster in an entrepreneurial competition. In this competition we had to pitch a business idea from scratch (you could say It was written in the stars). There is a running joke in our circle of friends that their relationship has essentially become one of a married couple. It’s common knowledge that they regularly have 2am pillow talks (about Yoke of course). But that’s what it takes to have a cohesive relationship that allows your business to thrive.
We (excluding two other members) were interviewed about the entrepreneurial competition
Jide and Musty are not my only friends at Yoke, I like all of my colleagues. I look forward to coming into work because of them. We are young, we’re great with people, we understand social media and we want to work hard. The drip (definition) is also phenomenal, it’s sometimes hard to keep up. You could do a daily #OOTD with some of the clothes Ercan steps in the office with. We essentially just really like each other and that is something that is rare. I read Shoe Dog a few months ago and in it Phil Knight spoke about the team behind Nike being like a cult, from the outside looking in people thought they were crazy but they understood what they had. That is how it feels like working at Yoke, I can’t think of a better working environment and it will be difficult for me to ever go back to anything other than working with friends (if I ever leave Yoke). We’ve gone from strength to strength in my short period here and this is really only just the start. I believe that as long as we keep working hard, we are destined for greatness whether we like it or not. The industry we’re in is a difficult and highly competitive one but nothing worth having is ever easy.
Ercan on a normal day. As you can see the drip is subtle but effective!
Giving up on a dream that I thought would become a major part of my life has taught me a lesson about decision making and doing things that’s right for you. It’s difficult to call it a day on something that you’ve put so much into, but sometimes it is the right thing to do. I worried that I couldn’t do it after coming this far but now I regret not pulling the plug earlier. One of the first things you’ll learn in Economics is opportunity cost. This is the benefit that is given up on when you choose one alternative over another. The opportunity cost of not giving up sometimes means losing out on something with a higher upside. Bear that a thought next time you find it difficult to give up on due to how much you’ve already put in.
Don’t give in to the sunk cost fallacy.
Thank you to Jide, Mustafa, Ercan, Zak, Daisy and Dharin for making my time so far at Yoke a pleasurable one, I’m excited for what’s to come!
Btw we’re currently hiring, if you believe you’re destined for greatness and would like join us on this journey then click this link: bit.ly/JoinYokeTeam
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