How Turkey Could Get Hotter
I absolutely loved Sina Afra's post about why Turkey is a hot investment market today. It was his 2009 presentation highlighting Turkey as an investment market that was a catalyst in my decision to move to Istanbul. However, I think there is one key ingredient that Turkey is missing that could take its Internet sector into hyperdrive: a stable of high quality skilled entrepreneurs. This is our biggest bottleneck.
Turkey is by nature an incredibly entrepreneurial country; a trait easily recognizable by any tourist navigating the thousands of shops in the Grand Bazaar. The vast majority of my network outside of the Internet industry works at family owned businesses with an average of 10 employees. This entrepreneurial enthusiasm exists within the internet sector as well, but it hasn't converted itself into the high quality entrepreneurship that investors worldwide get excited about. Burak Büyükdemir's work with eTohum has helped grow our ecosystem immeasurably. With access to the best entrepreneurs and start-ups in our country, he receives applications from our top start-ups in the country every year. Yet, scan the list of E-Tohum 40 startups chosen in January 2011. It has been 7 months since they were selected and 25% still haven't gotten past the launch page stage. Almost 10% no longer exist. If this is the best we have to offer, then we haven't yet effectively focused the potential of our budding entrepreneurs and guided them into a position of success.
In speaking with a number of parties, I feel that potential entrepreneurs don't know how to make the jump from "I have an idea" to "I have traction". This is our biggest gap.
I'm pretty sure that in five years time, this lack of entrepreneurs will be a non-issue. However, imagine what would happen if local investors and ecosystem participants worked together to create programs that would create a sustainable supply of high quality entrepreneurs in 2 year time frame. It might require working more closely with universities, launching a Y-combinator like accelerator, or yanking the great Turkish minds back from overseas and out of corporate culture, but growing the pool of quality entrepreneurs would help grow our sector exponentially in the next two years. If as Sina Afra states "2010 and 2011 have been the golden times for investment in Turkey", the focus on creating quality entrepreneurs will help 2012 and 2013 become the platinum ones.
