Startup Interview with Efe Ojadua, Co-Founder and CEO of Middletrust

HackerNoon Reporter: Please tell us briefly about your background.

In 2014 I graduated with a BSc in Accounting. Since graduating, I’ve been working as a Front-end developer/designer (Yeah, I always knew life as an accountant wasn’t for me). It was my experience as a designer that made the idea of starting Middletrust an appealing one.

What's your startup called? And in a sentence or two, what does it do?

Our startup is called Middletrust, and we provide escrow payment services to individuals and businesses.

What is the origin story?

One common thing for the founders was that we have at some point in time lost money to clients who find a way to wriggle out of paying for the services we rendered. It became a necessity to find a solution to solve this problem. When we didn’t find a pre-existing solution, we decided to build one.

What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

We are young-spirited creatives who have experienced transaction irregularities first-hand, we understand the problem like few would. Since we can build a product capable of fixing the problem, we felt it would be a great disservice to others like us if we do not at least try to solve it.

If you weren’t building your startup, what would you be doing?

I’d be designing products (I never really stopped designing actually), I’m a pretty good UI designer/Illustrator.

At the moment, how do you measure success?

What are your core metrics? We measure success by “Value of Transactions Processed” and the “number of users we have managed to keep protected in the business transactions.”

What technologies are you currently most excited about and most worried about? And why?

I’m excited about Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain, given their potentials, but I’m a bit skeptical about Driverless Vehicle Technology.

What drew you to get published on HackerNoon? What do you like most about our platform?

I received an email about a nomination, and I felt obliged to give it a go.

What advice would you give to the 21-year-old version of yourself?

A funny but honest answer would be, “buy as much bitcoin as you can afford”

What is something surprising you've learned this year that your contemporaries would benefit from knowing?

I’ve learned that it’s okay not to have all the answers. What matters is that keep an open mind and continue learning.