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Yusuf Ozdalga is a Partner at QED Investors and a Board member at Fidel API, Wayflyer, GetGround, Capitalise, Weavr, and Rest Less.  He’s also a Jiu Jitsu bronze medalist!

During our interview we delved into mental health and addiction issues and the Operation Lighthouse initiative:

• After 1 of their Partners, Greg Mazanec, died from opiate addiction, QED researched the mental health challenges faced by startup investors and founders. They discovered that – due to the huge pressure founders and startup investors are exposed to, they are many times more likely than most to suffer from depression, suicidal thoughts, ADHD or bipolar disorder.
• So QED and Greg’s family together launched Operation Lighthouse to destigmatise mental health and addiction and provide resources to enable people to overcome these challenges tps://theoperationlighthouse.org/

We also explored Yusuf’s learnings from Jiu jitsu – and how these might help us in our professional lives – including how to handle unexpected developments and how to remain resilient in the face of powerful opposing forces.

And we discussed how people need to be more open-minded about paths so success – in life, in investment, and in business – there are always diverse approaches and perspectives you can leverage and deploy.

Yusuf explained how QED are leading by example on diversity issues and pushing their portfolio companies to measure and improve their progress with D&I

We also reviewed some of QED’s major success stories like Wagestream – which is a superbly performing scale-up and a strong legacy that Greg Mazanec has left behind.

For more insights into QED check out https://qedinvestors.com/ and for support on mental health and addiction challenges head over to https://theoperationlighthouse.org/