The Founder Institute's four-month curriculum covers everthing you would expect from an early-stage startup program, including topics like "Startup Legal and IP” towards the beginning, to “Fundraising” near the end. What makes the curriculum special is the Mentors that teach it, whose passion, feedback and support helps our companies avoid rookie mistakes and set the foundation for a meaningful and enduring company.
The Founder Institute carefully recruits approximately 25 Mentors per Semester, who are normally the CEO or founder of a successful startup. Rather than specialists or consultants, we prefer Founders and CEOs to give our companies "the entrepreneur's perspective." The mentors share their experiences, best practices, and mistakes, while also providing specific guidance and feedback on the Founder companies.
In addition, the Founder Institute's unique Graduate Liquidity Pool allows our mentors to share in the equity of companies formed in each program - and, their share is based solely on the anonymous ratings they receive from the Founders both during, and after the program. In this way, the Founder Institute incentivizes mentors to take a special interest in our startups, and provide as much assistance as possible after the program.
We have a great lineup of Mentors confirmed for the Autumn 2012 Istanbul Founder Institute, including many from out of town. See the full list below.
Alper Tekin
CEO, Mekanist
Alper is CEO at Mekanist.net. Previously, he was CEO at AlfaPeople UK and EMEA Partner Program Infrastructure Manager at Microsoft Corporation. He holds a B.S. and MSc in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University. He is a music fan and used to play at Mor ve Otesi.
Arda Kutsal
Founder & CEO, Webrazzi
Founder and CEO of Webrazzi, the leading and most influential online publication in Turkey on new media and digital economy, both on local and regional levels. Having a background in IT and project management in prominent companies in Turkey, Kutsal joined the ranks of investment firm Argentum Ventures as Technology Investment Manager. Simultaneously he started the weblog Webrazzi covering his own opinions and reporting on major developments in Turkish and regional internet markets. Under his leadership, Webrazzi has become the leader positioning Kutsal as one of the rare names with abundant knowhow on regional and local investments, startups, management, strategies and marketing in internet and digital economy. As the most influential web source in its field, Webrazzi shares its expertise and networking platform also through holding regular conferences and an extremely well-attended summit every year with the participation of prominent figures as speakers from all around the world. Arda Kutsal has been profiled under Fortune magazine's '40 under 40' list, and featured together with Webrazzi on the cover of Forbes Turkey, October 2010 issue.
Baris Tekin
Founder & CEO, Misli
Baris is Founder and CEO of Misli.com since 2009, Turkey's leading independent online gambling portal. Previously he worked in media for 14 years as Head of Broadcast for Shopping TV, Manager at Televole and Pazar Keyfi at Show TV, Reporter and Producer of Televole and Sports News Reporter at Kanal D. He is an experienced marketer and he is interested in product design, UI, UX.
Burak Buyukdemir
Founder, E-Tohum
Burak Buyukdemir is founder of ETohum which brings entrepreneurs together with investors. Before, he did his MBA at Berlin in 2003 and previously worked at Interbank, Intertech, Vestelnet and Tepum companies. He graduated from Istanbul Technical University Management Engineering department in 1994 and the Bosphorus University MBA program in 1997. He has been a founding partner of various internet companies. He is currently working as a part-time lecturer at ITU and Bahcesehir Universities giving a lecture on e-commerce strategies.
Cem Sertoglu
Partner, Earlybird Venture Capital
Cem Sertoglu is an entrepreneur and venture capital investor, focused on technology ventures in Turkey and CEE since 2006. He is currently a Partner at Earlybird Venture Capital in Istanbul. His investment highlights include GittiGidiyor, the first major Turkish internet exit to eBay in 2011, for $218m; YemekSepeti, the leading online meal delivery marketplace; Grupanya, which is Turkey’s leading daily deal business; and Wikimart.ru, a leading Russian e-commerce platform. Previously, Cem was the Founder & CEO of SelectMinds in New York, the global leader in social recruiting and community management software. One of the social software pioneers, the company’s solutions enable the human capital management programs at some of the world’s largest companies. Prior to founding SelectMinds in 1999, Cem worked as a Strategy Consultant in New York for six years. Cem has a BA in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin.
Elbruz Yilmaz
CEO, BTS
Elbruz is the CEO of BTS & Partners a leading consultancy firm focusing on ICT, IP and Investment sectors. Previously, Elbruz was the Vice President of Operations and Business Development of P.I.Works, Inc., a startup company providing mobile network optimization and performance management solutions and services for mobile operators and Director of Investments and Business Development of Inovent, a technology commercialization and investment company in Istanbul, Turkey, where he focused on identifying new investment opportunities, managing Inovent’s seed fund and firm’s portfolio of startup companies. Elbruz is also a founding member of Galata Business Angels, a newly formed angel investors network in Istanbul, where he invests his time, network and capital into Turkey’s technology startups. Most recently Elbruz became the co-director of Founder Institute Istanbul Chapter, a global network of startups and mentors that help entrepreneurs launch enduring technology companies. Elbruz is a member of LESI’s Turkey Chapter and he co-chairs IT Committee for LESI Turkey and teaches Entrepreneurship and Technology Commercialization courses at Sabanci University in Istanbul.
Eren Bali
CEO, udemy
Eren Bali is the CEO & Co-founder of Udemy, a startup that aims to democratize education by allowing anybody to teach and learn online. Udemy has raised $4.5 million from angel and institutional investors. Prior to Udemy, Eren worked at SpeedDate as a founding engineer and Director of Engineering while the company grew form 0 to 10 million users in 2 years. He also worked as a developer at BitGravity in very early stages. Eren graduated from METU (Turkey) with a degree in Computer Science and a double major degree in Mathematics. He won several awards in Mathematics, Physics and CS including a 2nd position in International Mathematical Olympiad. Eren is a graduate of Founder Institute's inaugural Silicon Valley branch. He started his first company during the last year of college, where they created interactive 3D simulations of real estates while they are still being constructed. Later on with Oktay Caglar, they started working on a government supported project where Turkish entrepreneurs were educated by European mentors in a live classroom setting. That project seeded the ideas and products behind Udemy.
Ersan Ozer
Founder, Youlike
Ersan is one of the leading first generation Turkish internet entrepreneurs and a serial entrepreneur for content, social and matchmaking sites. He is the Founder of a variety of companies, including YouLike.com, UZMANTV.com, itiraf.com, and city based dating networks, istanbul.net, ankara.net, and izmir.net. In addition to his work as an entrepreneur, Ersan has invested in Yenimoda, Markapon, itiraf, and Cimri, a portfolio company acquired by Ilab.
Fatih Isbecer
CEO, Pozitron
At the age of 24, Fatih founded Pozitron, which provides mobile solutions for over 30 Fortune 500 companies from Turkey, the Middle East, and Europe. his success was recognized by Endeavor when he was selected as “Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2007. Later in 2010, he was honored with an invitation to “Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship” held by President Obama. Isbecer is also a member of Endeavor Advisory board, and TUSIAD administrative board and has given speeches in well-established schools like MIT Sloan School and Stanford GSB.
Firat Isbecer
Managing Partner, Pozitron
Graduated from Robert College in Istanbul, Firat Isbecer received his BA degree in Communications and Journalism from Galatasaray University. Isbecer began his professional career in 2001 by preparing and hosting several radio programs on technology for Radio Kozmos in Istanbul. He also wrote articles on technology and mobility for daily Hurriyet newspaper. In 2004, he moved to Paris to receive his Master’s Degree in Geopolitical Studies from a joint programme by Universite I Sorbonne and Ecole Normale Superieure. After completing his studies in Paris, he began working as a research assistant at Ipemmed, a French think-tank. In 2006 he moved back to Turkey and became a Managing Partner at Pozitron. Since his period at Pozitron, the company grew 20x, won a business plan contest organised by Harvard Business School and awarded as a Fast500 Technology company by Deloitte. He also co-founded Pozitron’s constituent mobile marketing company Integmo and serves as a board member at lifestyle fashion brand Shakespeare In Love. Besides his work, Isbecer also has a TV and a Radio Show on football at a nationwide broadcast network.
Kutlu Kazanci
Cofounder, WeDecide
Kutlu co-founded WeDecide in 2010, a crowdsourcing and innovation software and service company based in Istanbul and Copenhagen. Kutlu is also founder and CEO of Endogen, an organizational, innovation and entrepreneurial development consultancy. He also helped set-up Galata Business Angels and Endeavor Turkey. Previously, Kutlu worked as a banker at JPMorgan, BCP Securities and World Bank in New York and Jakarta. Kutlu is a graduate of Stanford University and holds a degree in Industrial Engineering.
Mehmet Metin Okur
CEO, Sefamerve
Metin is founder and CEO of Sefamerve, private shopping network for conservative apperal and cofounder of PaybyMe, a mobile payment solution. Previously, Metin worked in media and entertainment industry for 10 years, Dogan Grou,p and ShowTV. He is an expert in marketing and social media.
Melih Odemis
CIO, Yemeksepeti.com
Melih Odemis is Co-founder and CIO of Yemeksepeti.com, the online food delivery giant in Turkey, active in +40 cities, processing +45000 orders every day. Melih has been selected Endeavor Entrepreneur in 2007. Since then he has been an active Angel Investor in Internet and technology companies. He is one of the co-founders of Galata Business Angels, one of the first business angel networks in Turkey. Melih studied Computer Engineering and MBA at Bosphorus University.
Nevzat Aydin
CEO, Yemeksepeti.com
Nevzat is CEO and cofounder of Yemeksepeti.com, the leading online food delivery company in Turkey and the region with 40,000+ orders daily. Nevzat was selected as an “Endeavor Entrepreneur” in 2007 and as the “The Most Successful Young Entrepreneur in Turkey” by CNBC-e Business magazine. Nevzat is a member of Galata Business Angels and Dragons Den and is an active angel investor in Turkey's e-commerce space. Nevzat studied his MBA, E-commerce at University of San Francisco and is a graduate of Bosphorus University, as well as a devout fan and supporter of Trabzonspor.
Omer Akarca
Angel Investor, Galata Business Angel Network
After graduating from Başkent University with BA in Electrical Engineering Omer moved to Chicago to start his MBA in University of Illinois at Chicago. After starting and exiting his company in the USA, he returned to Turkey. He worked couple of years in a foreign based boutique consulting firm as a business development consultant. Currently he manages the family business to make it to a more sophisticated national brand and is an active angel investor at Galata Business Angels.
Onur Aydin
Country Manager, Groupon Turkey
Onur is the Country Manager for Groupon Turkey, as well as the Co-Founder and President of Bir Silgi Bir Kalem. He previously worked as a consultant at The Boston Consulting Group and as a professional at Toyota Motor Corporation in both Australia and Turkey. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Bosphorus University.
Rodrigo Sepúlveda Schulz
Founder & CEO
Rodrigo is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and currently President at Sepulveda Capital as well as RISC Partners, a private equity boutique, specializing in strategic advice to entrepreneurs and business angels launching new ventures or seeking turnaround opportunities Formerly, he was Founder & CEO vpod.tv, Founder at MD RISC Partners, CEO of glowria, Principal at Gemini Consulting, and Manager KPMG Consulting. He earned a Master's degree in computer science from EPITA as well as an MBA from INSEAD.
Scott Rafer
CEO, Lumatic
Scott Rafer is the CEO of Lumatic, as well as the Co-founder and director at Mashery and Delivr. Lumatic was preceded by Lookery, one of the first ad networks on Facebook, portions of which were sold to Adknowledge in 2008; and MyBlogLog, a social network of bloggers, which Yahoo! acquired in 2007. In addition to his experience at Lumatic, Rafer has been helping Internet publishers and users develop the 'next big thing' since 1995. Before 1995, Rafer headed-up the Internet products group at Kodak Hollywood, worked in investment banking at Needham & Company, and graduated from the management of technology program at the University of Pennsylvania.
Sidar Sahin
CEO, Peak Games
Sidar is one of the leading examples of serial entrepreneurs in Turkey. He founded Peak Games, the fastest-growing emerging markets gaming company, in November of 2010. His previous ventures include Funpac, a mobile gaming studio which he set up in 2003; social video sharing Izlesene.com, the highest value Internet business exit in Turkey in its time; and GameGarden, a gaming company that was acquired by the Dogan Group, the leading media group in Turkey.
Ugur Seker
CEO, DBI Istanbul
Seker is one of the founders of the first digital media agency in Turkey and he made his first digital agency sale in 2007. He has expertise in interactive media and marketing areas. He has managed over 4.500 campaigns, has took part in juries of many competitions, has taught classes in various universities, has played a part in many pioneering projects in the sector, in addition to these, he is the mastermind behind Mynet Webschool and Webstar Turkey. He currently is the General Manager of Dijital Buro Istanbul, his second enterprise. He is a board member at IAB Turkey, GBA, and IPTV institution. He has produced 4 feature movies and 2 documentaries for his family firm Sugarworkz. Uğur Şeker who is married to Mrs. Pınar Şeker and has a handsome son named Can; also provides professional consultation services to a variety of foundations and institutions as well as supporting many digital projects as an Angel Investor.
