Lina Ouedraogo.
Three exits over fourteen years. A method built on saying no — and the long interview to prove it.
journey
Born in Ouagadougou, raised between Lyon and Oakland. The first company started as a Friday-night side project at Stanford and quietly compounded for eight years before anyone outside her circle could name it.
struggles
Two near-collapses, both fixable in hindsight. The first: a co-founder breakup that ate eleven months of leadership energy. The second: a 2022 cash crunch where the choice between layoffs and an unfair round was made cleanly — and brutally.
success
Three exits over fourteen years. $1.4B aggregate transaction value. But ask her and the line is this: the only metric I trust is the number of weekends I still own.
lessons
Compounding requires refusal. Most opportunities are taxes on your focus dressed as bets. Build the discipline of the polite no, and the right yeses get easier to spot — and bigger when they arrive.
Track record
Operating principles
Refusal is a strategy.
Say no twelve times for every yes.
Hire the slowest interview you can stand.
Three months. Six conversations.
The exit is not the milestone.
The milestone is the team that stays when the cash clears.