First Block: Interview with Adeyemi Ajao, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Base10 Partners

Adeyemi Ajao’s career arc—from building social networks in Spain to investing in “automation of the real economy”—hinges on a single through-line: founders must unlearn the culture they grew up in, then build repeatable frameworks for trust, hiring, and community that survive near-death moments.

Growing up across Nigeria and Spain, Ajao described a childhood shaped by entrepreneurship and hands-on tinkering, including installing modems in high school and following early internet figures like Marc Andreessen. When he later studied in Madrid, he saw social life as city-based and friend-driven rather than campus-based. That observation fed the early prototypes that became Tuenti. The decisive push came after an exchange stint in the U.S., during the first year of Facebook’s launch at Emory in Atlanta—seeing a real company behind the idea convinced him it could be more than a side project.

Ajao also framed founder success as partly cultural adaptation. In Spain and Nigeria during the 1980s and 1990s, he said social norms rewarded deference—“know your place,” respect elders, don’t speak too loud. In Silicon Valley, he encountered the opposite: people openly pitch ambitions, ask for what they want, and treat failure as a starting point rather than an endpoint. He described having to “de-program” himself to speak up and to stop silencing his “inside voice.” That mindset shift later showed up in how he thinks about fundraising, leadership, and even how he coaches founders.

On co-founder dynamics, Ajao argued that friendship alone isn’t enough when stakes rise. He described a pattern across multiple startups: co-founders may start as friends, but they must become founders first for the company’s good. To make that work, he relies on frameworks forged by “near death experiences”—moments that clarify what matters: how far the team is from the goal, what resources exist, and how to win together regardless of personal preferences. He said the same mistakes repeat across startups—optimism, ups and downs—so scaling requires repeatedly editing oneself while keeping conviction.

Hiring is another area where he moved from instinct to structure. Early on, he tried to do everything—coding, design, selling—before learning that founders can’t be strong in every role. The better approach: define what the company needs 12, 24, and 36 months out, then hire for that future job, not just the current one. He also emphasized “IC energy” in the first three to six months: even experienced leaders often need to roll up their sleeves and execute directly before building teams. When scaling, he looks at whether a hire is meant to run a known playbook (expanding a market) or tackle true zero-to-one work.

Community building, in his view, is product strategy. Tuenti was invite-only and designed to feel like “your group of friends,” not a feed of strangers. A key metric was engagement, not page views or growth. He credited specific product choices—like integrating with Microsoft for mass photo uploads and adding pictures to invites—for unlocking early momentum.

Finally, Ajao explained why Base10 Partners invests in automation of the real economy and why he shifted from founder to investor. He said acquisitions (Tuenti and Identified) made sense when the goal was 10x scale beyond what Spain or a single vertical could support. Post-acquisition, he learned to translate mission and identity across cultures, even when the role changes from CEO to something closer to product management. As an investor, he gets to “grab coffee” with founders weekly, while also building the fund like a startup—fundraising, processes, brand, and differentiation—without chasing hyperscale. Diversity and immigrant experience feed his “world brain” philosophy: humanity’s collective lenses are a competitive advantage for solving big problems.