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Before understanding venture capital (VC) secondaries, one has to grasp the private equity (PE) type. What PE secondaries put in place more than a decade ago shape how VC is going about it today.

All African startup ecosystems face “brain drain”, the exile of its most promising talent. Some leave after high school, continuing their studies abroad. Some leave during their professional life, seeking better work opportunities. Some leave in search of a superior quality of living. Often, it’s a mix of the three.

Paul Graham, Y-Combinator’s founder, excels at simplicity. His essays are crisp, his sentences are short and his ideas are clear. A visit to YC’s FAQ page shows that his ethos irrigated the institution he created. Answers are crisp, sentences are short and ideas are clear. Despite the diversity of startups it deals with, YC seems obsessed with simplifying how it accompanies them.

Mathias Léopoldie is the co-founder of Julaya, an Ivory Coast-based startup that offers digital payment and lending accounts for African companies of all sizes. Julaya serves over 1,500 companies, processes $400M of transactions and has raised $10M in funding.