Y Combinator Investor Jason Freedman on Turkey's Startup Scene

Teşekkürler!

I've invested in 100+ Y Combinator companies and travelled all over the world meeting investors. The people of Türkiye just blew me away. And I want to return the favor. Read on.

Thank you to everyone in Türkiye that hosted Jen and I these past two weeks. We loved it. We will back! And we hope to see many of you in San Francisco soon as well!

I wanted to share a few impressions as a Y Combinator founder and investor (I'm a General Partner of Orange Collective, the YC Alumni fund) on what it was like meeting so many founders and investors in Türkiye.

1. Founders in Türkiye have A LOT of ambition.

They want to do more than be successful in their hometown. They want to build big companies that compete with the best companies from anywhere in the world. They also feel like they are the underdog. Nearly every one had a chip on his or her shoulder. My friend Sahin Boydas (@sahin) keeps introducing me to every Turkish founder he supports and each time, he tells me they will build a $1B+ business.

2. Investors in Türkiye are very supportive.

Everyone knows each other. Believes in each other. And wants to help each other. It reminds me of early days of Silicon Valley, when we were small but mighty. I had coffee with Sina Afra (@sinaAfra) and he knew everyone and it turns out everyone knows him. He and I bonded over many things but mostly just this: the belief that founders can change the world and it is a joy to support them.

3. Founder and investors in Türkiye have a deep pride for Türkiye.

People don’t want to just succeed. They want to succeed and do right by their home country. Those that travel to Silicon Valley for Y Combinator or elsewhere in the world want to come back and bring their success home. Our friend Berkay Adlim (@adlim_berkay) assembled the most amazing group of YC founders, aspiring YC founders and investors that all want Türkiye to be a major player in technology.

4. The tech community of Türkiye wants a close relationship with Silicon Valley and Y CombinatorTürkiye already has an amazing group of founders in Y Combinator building incredible companies. This list will be 10x longer over the next few years.

Turkish Founders in Y Combinator

Pelin Kenez — Zeplin (S15)

Merih Akar — Zeplin (S15)

Kan Yilmaz — Haystack (W21)

Selinay Parlak — Bluedot (W23)

Gokhan Egri — Brainbase Labs (W24)

Baran Özkan — Flagright (W22)

Tolga Akçura — eBrandvalue (W15)

Yusuf Hilmi — Polymet (S24)

Ege Ozgirin — Oda (W20)

Berke Argin — Compresr (W26)

Bilgehan Avser — Applied Electrodynamics (S26)

Raphael Goldsztejn — weweb.io (W21)

Muvaffak Onuş — Limrun (P26)

Umur Cubukcu — Ubicloud (W24), also Citus Data (S11)

Faisal Ilaiwi — Intuned (S22)

Chuck Koroglu — DeepSim (S24)

Melih Sener — Kunduz (S18)

Baris Bilgic — Kunduz (S18)

Basar Basaran — Kunduz (S18)

Eren Erkalkan — refine (S23)

Civan Ozseyhan — refine (S23)

Anil Sevim — Journey (W21)

Selcuk Atli — Bunch / Z1 (W14)

Sinan Sari (S19)

Mustafa Sakalsiz — Peaka (W18)

Berk Ozer — SenpAI.GG (S21)

Olcay Yilmazcoban — SenpAI.GG (S21)

Kursad Araz — Correlia Biosystems (W18)

Yusuf Umac — Assortion (W18)

I'd like to pay your hospitality forward

You hosted me. We ate Lahmacun, Köfte, Börek. Drank Turkish Coffee (no sugar!) with Künefe. And drank way too much Rakı.

I would like to return the favor and build a better bridge between Istanbul and San Francisco.

Several of us have started a few initiatives to help founders and investors in Türkiye. Please forward this on.

**For Founders:

**Berkay and I have started a WhatsApp group of Y Combinator Alumni from Türkiye that are ready to help you with your YC application, give you YC-style advice, and be your tough but supportive sounding board. It’s free advice and our pleasure to pay forward.

Sina and I are working on a Zoom session together called: Building Türkiye's first $100B Company and How to get into Y Combinator. (hint: they aren't different answers)

\\\To get invited, just respond 'FOUNDER' in the comments\\\

**For Angel Investor and Venture Capitalists:

**We want to help you invest into Y Combinator companies, both led by Turkish founders and the general YC Batch. YC is not an insider-only club. But there are conventions that are important and I've found that most Turkish investors don't know the conventions and thus don't have the best success.

We want to change that. This group also has a WhatsApp group for investors to share notes on YC companies and investing tips in general. We're also doing a free Zoom webinar called: Secrets of YC Investing - How to invest in the next $100B startup and give the best support to founders (hint: they aren't different answers)\\\To get invited, just respond 'VC' in the comments\\\

**For Family Offices and Limited Partners:

**I'd like to give you a look at our YC-focused fund. My fund, Orange Collective, invests in the top YC companies and we are oversubscribed, approaching our final close. I'd love to include my friends in Türkiye in either this fund or the next. You'll be joining our other LPs, which include Y Combinator itself, Garry Tan, Josh Kushner, A16Z, Blue Opal, 150 YC alumni and 10 other prominent Turkish founders and families.

\\\To get the investor presentation, just respond 'LIMITED PARTNER' in the comments\\\

Make Your Country Our Next Stop!

And finally! If you read all this and want me and Orange Collective to come to your country next, please know we would LOVE the invitation. We've now done this (visits, YC Alumni Whatsapp groups, community building) in countries all over the world. And we want to be invited to your city next!

\\\To get us to come to your city, just respond 'YOUR COUNTRY NAME' in the comments\\\

Görüşürüz!

Jason