Global Founders: Unleashing Turkish Tech Potential on the World Stage

Insights from the Young Owners Forum 2024: AI’s Butterfly Effects, Ecosystem Building, and the Path to Global Competitivenes

By: Didem Altop General Partner, Treeo VC

On August 30th, 2024, I had the joyful opportunity to represent Treeo VC and moderate the opening panel of this year’s “Young Owners Forum” hosted by Fast Company Türkiye in Bodrum. With the working title of “Global Founders”, I was delighted to tap into the deep insights of my panel speakers revolving around AI’s butterfly effects and the global competitiveness of Turkish tech startups. Here is a summary of my conversations and key takeaways with each speaker and the forum overall:

Baris Ozaydinli - Founder & CEO of Scooch, a company dedicated to enhancing the lives of pets and their owners through innovative products and services.

• AI’s Impact on Competitive Landscape: AI is like a gold rush. There is a small window of opportunity for startups worldwide to compete globally, but there is no turning back time. AI will impact all business departments in every sector, from product development to operations to marketing and customer service. Whether you are a startup or a corporate business leader, everyone needs to understand and internalize how AI will affect efficiency models and the pace of this transformation.
• The Importance of Building an Ecosystem & Embracing Diversity: Being the founder of a startup or an executive manager in a company can be quite lonely and overwhelming. It is critical to take a mindful approach to managing the stress of leadership. Baris used to adopt a “knight in shining armor” stoic approach to leadership. But now he has realized that embracing and addressing his vulnerabilities reflects a higher level of emotional maturity. His two resources include the benefits of peer exchange through a curated network of colleagues and the unique perspectives offered by the diversity of this network. His most valuable advice to emerging leaders is to build a diversified ecosystem to preserve their sanity and pursue professional and personal growth.

Treeo VC’s Perspective: The US marketplace is a true meritocracy. If we have a Turkish tech company with a legitimate value proposition, they can time and cost-effectively compete for market share following a very focused go-to-market strategy. A big part of Treeo VC’s reason for existence is to build relationships across the Turkish-American and American tech and startup ecosystems to support Turkish tech startups.

Kaan Erün - Founder of a Fintech SaaS Startup currently in stealth mode, working on cutting-edge financial technology solutions.

• Comparing Tech Readiness & Regulatory Frameworks across Markets: It is impressive to see how Türkiye is leapfrogging the adoption of the latest technologies across numerous sectors based on our country’s advanced GSM and internet infrastructure and the public’s open-mindedness to technological novelty. On the other hand, we see how a regulatory framework can incentivize entrepreneurial activity in any given sector. For example, although mobile banking in Türkiye is light years ahead of most countries, the UK’s intentional regulatory framework for open banking has created a center of gravity for fintech startups and investors. If Türkiye could be more proactive and deliberate on the regulatory front, coupled with its existing willingness to adopt new tech, we could also launch various centers of gravity to spur entrepreneurial activity, incentivize corporate innovation, and attract investment resources. 
• Leveraging Türkiye as a Pilot Market & World-Class Talent Pool: Although Kaan had a robust experience leading growth activity for Getir in the UK market in his previous role, he decided to focus on Türkiye as the hub of his new FinTech startup. His logic is sound. His access to potential clients and excellent engineering talent during the startup phase of his latest venture is easier in Türkiye. From a bootstrapping perspective, Kaan believes he can pursue customer discovery exercises, iterate on his minimum viable product, and build organizational capacity much quicker in Türkiye than abroad. But his vision for business growth is still global.
• Treeo VC ’s Perspective: We are keen to monitor and promote US-based regulatory opportunities for Turkish tech startups. We also believe leveraging Turkish customer traction and talent is a huge competitive advantage for global Turkish tech startups.

Eren Hukumdar - Corporate Innovation Leader at Maxitech and Co-Founder of Entrapeer , driving corporate innovation and fostering partnerships between startups and enterprises.

• AI’s Catalytic Effect on Innovation: While Baris underscored all the areas that AI would affect, Eren offered a digital transformation resource for startups and business managers called Entrapeer. This AI-based platform's purpose is to help business leaders across all levels explore the best tech tools and define roadmaps for their digital transformation journeys.
• Corporate-Startup Alliances as a Competitive Strategy: Eren highlighted the importance of corporate and startup alliances as a survival strategy for both stakeholders. The pace of technological change is growing even faster than before. It is nearly impossible for large corporations to keep up with the trends without relying on the nimbler startups in these spaces. Startups also need to work more closely with corporations to build better solutions faster. This symbiotic relationship needs to become the new norm.

Treeo VC ’s Perspective: US companies are open to becoming paid pilot customers for startups worldwide while exploring co-creation activities. This is a very precious form of venture funding without giving up equity. The main caveats include having a company incorporated in the US (which is relatively easy to set up), demonstrating a commitment to expanding operations in the US by employing a founder or C-level executive locally and establishing local sales and post-sales customer support capabilities. As Treeo VC, we are prepared to help on all these fronts.

Sahin Boydas - Founder of Remote Team, a platform facilitating remote work, and Claros Farm , a venture focusing on sustainable farming practices.

• Investing Your Time & Energy Wisely: Sahin noted that his record-breaking turbo-speed experience from startup to successful exit of Remote Team was only possible in an entrepreneurship ecosystem as advanced as the one in the United States. Beyond designing an authentic solution, Sahin credits the sheer size of the potential US marketplace for his rapid customer acquisition rate and the accessibility of numerous venture funding tools. Sahin then continued to awe the audience by explaining how he built his next venture, Claros Farm . He said he literally entered a well-drafted prompt into an AI search engine, asking it where he should invest his startup experience and resources next. Based on Sahin’s expertise, interests, and global trends, he landed on hydroponics, aka soilless farming! It was an interesting wake-up call for the audience, composed mainly of second or third-generation family business owners exploring their career trajectories.
• Startup Investing as a Survival Strategy: Sahin continued by building upon comments from previous speakers but noted that startup investing used to be an alternative investment tool. The pace of technological innovation has shifted startup investing into a mainstream survival strategy. Sahin believes that all business leaders should be involved with the startup ecosystem and referred to Treeo VC (an investor in Claros Farm) as an excellent opportunity for potential investors to engage in the US startup marketplace while supporting Turkish tech exports.

Treeo VC ’s Perspective: We love serial entrepreneurs and are very excited about our investment in Claros Farm. More importantly, we are committed to supporting Turkish tech companies to succeed in the US market. The Turkish startup ecosystem is excellent for recruiting engineering talent, engaging angel investors, securing pre-seed venture capital, and achieving proof of concept in the marketplace. However, any startup with a vision for global expansion and access to growth capital from the US should not delay its US strategy development. Furthermore, potential investors – whether experienced or new to the startup arena – are welcome to join the Treeo VC journey in supporting Turkish tech startups in the United States. We are happy to share our US market knowledge and networks with Turkish tech startups and investors.

The forum included numerous inspirational speakers. Key highlights of the two-day event included a fireside chat between Acun Ilicali and Murat Ülker and a closing presentation from the Turkish Minister of Treasury & Finance, Mehmet Simsek . Each of these keynote speakers left everyone in attendance feeling quite hopeful about Türkiye’s significant role in the global economy and our country’s ability to achieve its great potential by: investing in our world-class talent pool of professionals and experts; upskilling our earnest labor market; uplifting women in business; pursuing digital transformation of industry and agriculture; leading climate tech solutions; championing sustainability, and; expanding Turkish products and services across global markets.

About Treeo VC

Treeo VC catalyzes the potential of world-class international tech talent to address global challenges, merging our tech startup support expertise with expansive US market opportunities.

Combining our deep industry knowledge with our extensive network of mentors, investors, and strategic partners ensures that our portfolio companies receive the support they need to thrive. Our hands-on approach and proven track record set us apart as a leading pre-seed / seed fund for international tech startups operating in the US market.

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