Golden Horn Ventures

Knowledge Economy Society and Emerging Markets

Economic Development Program For a Knowledge Economy Society

We are going through a paradigm shift from Industrial based economy to Knowledge-based economy. We can take advantage of this paradigm shift and create an impact and wealth in our region and the “emerging markets” by educating young, establishing a new “mindset”, creating global technology companies while creating new wealth creation mechanisms. These will be the pillars of Knowledge-based economy for many hundred years to come.

Emerging markets are “emerging” because they have missed the industrial revolution. Business ecosystems and society dynamics, what makes an industrial based economy function hasn’t been built in emerging markets. What has been built in emerging markets were replicas of Western businesses without the underlying ecosystems and without the necessary sociological aspects to support society and create value. There are other psychological aspects such as 400 years of business and “attitude” copying and not “creating” or “innovating” resulted in a lack-of self esteem in people.

The new renaissance is the ‘Knowledge Economy’ or as some call it, it is the ‘Information Revolution’. We are in the very beginnings of economic, social, financial and structural changes. In a Knowledge economy the structures of a company, a society and financial organizations and business models are still open questions to be answered.

There are many implications of a Knowledge economy. Some of them are mentioned below.

• Industrial economy is based on goods and exchanging these goods. Information economy is based on creating value through exchanging information or information based services, immaterial goods or digital goods.
• Knowledge economy is not industrial production without factories: it completely changes our perspective of machines and their efficiency. It is distributed and creative in its nature. People can connect anywhere in the world to create and deliver value. For the first time people anywhere can do anything.
• Industrial economy was based on information asymmetry. Thus the institutions in its ecosystem have been supporting information asymmetry. However, in Knowledge economy, there is no information asymmetry. This is very important because it allows any value company to be created anywhere in the world when/if “mindset” is there to nurture it.
• Centralized vs distributed is a big theme. Knowledge economy will shape central mechanisms; such as monetary systems. The change will be so disruptive that the organizational structures will change with it. The centralized linear structures will be replaced by distributed agile organizations.
• Software is core at this economy; as software is eating the world; ie. Software is changing all of the industries; with software, inefficiencies no longer exist. With software solutions scale. Software is already eating many markets from media to finance to fashion to retail … Every industry is becoming an information economy.
• Now one person can make more difference than any other time. The barriers to create a product have decreased.
• Knowledge based economy enables a world with like minded people to create value together, it almost creates a virtual world and virtual citizenship for people, all connected to each other with the same vision of the world, with the same values.
• Knowledge economy is more about a mindset, it is not about where people are born but what people do, how people think, what value –systems they believe in.
• The value system is based on globally connected, innovation, science, “long term” value creation, abundance mindsets.
• It creates a compassionate society….

We are establishing an Economic Development Program, whose mission is to use technology as a change agent and help to build the pillars of knowledge economy in developing new world societies and economies.

• The program is about ideas, creating companies, educating young and entrepreneurial minds, nurturing minds of the young and entrepreneurs and connecting like-minded people to create more ideas and more companies and thus creating new wealth generation mechanisms.
• The long term mission of the Economic Development Program, is to build societies which are basis for next generation civilization and art and culture.
• Just as England became the epicenter of Industrial revolution starting from the East India company until today, the Economic Program will target building the pillars of knowledge economy with new business models, creating new companies and educating young to create more companies and more wealth. This time the geographies will not matter, but the mindset and values will matter. In order to be a citizen of the knowledge based economy, one will create value and believe in abundance and live in an innovative mindset.
• This will include changing the wealth creation mechanisms and connecting and nurturing like-minded people.

Some Thoughts on the Next Decade

Next 10 years will bring many changes to our lives, not only from the perspective of the products we use but also in the business models we deploy and how wealth is created.

We already have much data on us and more to come with wearables and smarter devices surrounding us. Internet of things is right around the corner.

With advancements on artificial Intelligence and ability to have meaningful conversations with chat-bots, we will reach to information and consume information faster.

This is not a small change. This change has many big implications on many industries from medical services to education, from travel industry to law. What has happened to the media industry will start happening to many industries one by one. Anything that can be automated will be automated, and decentralized and distributed. Any profit margin will keep on being squished which will push our businesses in need to find new ways which will push for some structural changes too, from business models to employment and to company structures.

My bet is that our civilization will move to a completely new paradigm with the pressures from the implications of advancements in technology and status of the economy. We will focus on “change” and value “creativity”. We will find new organizational structures and new employment models. We will work on new business models that will create wealth and create wealth for the masses. I believe this will have quite a positive impact on each one of us, forcing us to embrace our creativity and cherish what makes humanity so great.

Another big change which will happen will happen in the UI ( user interface) level whether it is messaging, commerce or social interactions. It will happen in 3D environments. When we combine artificial intelligence and chatbot-like experience with 3D UI, it will be a very immersive experience. I can’t wait for all these pieces to come together. Especially when we have invested in these opportunities since 2009.

These are some of the vertical opportunities that I see coming out in the next 10 years. From education to health care to government services and law, many industries will be disrupted. However, a very important opportunity that will open up a whole spectrum of changes is the need to make changes in the business model. This is a very deep conversation involving discussion of “money” and its role as a tool for societal change. There is no escape from it, I believe it is ripe for change too!

When new “business models” will emerge, we will have much more scientific advancements and big paradigm shifts in the “core” technologies that we use. From space exploration to engines we use in cars, from nanotech to green tech, from physics to genetics, in my belief, business model changes will enable many more paradigm shifts and advancements.

We have positioned since 2009 for the changes we believe in and building patiently for them to come to the reality. As hard it is to invest in ‘long term’ — longer than it is usual business practices in emerging markets — it is also very exciting that our initial bets are becoming realities of our lives.

The future is truly in the hands of bold and passionate, on the hands of the ones who have perseverance.

Venture Capital in Emerging Markets Conference, 9 - 10 June 2008, Istanbul, Turkey

Golden Horn ventures is organizing a conference in Istanbul, Venture Capital in Emerging Markets. The goal is to bring together fund investors, venture capitalists from all over the world and entrepreneurs and discuss investment strategies, the right and wrong practices of venture capital in emerging markets. Please check out http://emergetechvc.com for more information on the venue and the agenda.

The Dirty Dozen Mistakes of a Startup Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship is hard. Tackling technical and business problems and building a business from the initial idea up, one step at a time is very difficult.

Starting from the idea, technology entrepreneurs make certain mistakes that make their lives even more difficult. These mistakes can be caused by the entrepreneur fixating on what she is comfortable with - people tend to stay in their comfort zones -, or misconceptions of what is valuable in business or maybe simply being a first time entrepreneur. As investors in early stage technology companies, we keep on seeing similar problems in different companies, which tells us that these are common mistakes, especially in emerging regions.

Below is a list of these mistakes which we have seen and which might eventually cause a business to fail or or an opportunity to be missed. It isn't intended to be exhaustive but rather indicative. Some of the mistakes listed are common to the nature of the technology entrepreneur, but some are the results of the state of the sector in emerging countries.

Mistake No 1: "We are a framework company and can do it all"

The idea of a framework company sounds attractive. Especially, in this region entrepreneurs tend to collect their expertise into a "framework" with no product or application definition. Having a framework that works can be very advantageous. However, the downside is the entrepreneur's indecisiveness on selecting a focal application that will act as the showcase for the power of the framework. Sometimes, because the entrepreneur lacks sufficient knowledge on a specific area or the "productization" knowledge and expertise, she tends to sell the framework - and that puts her in a very difficult play.

An example of a successful framework is what the Skype entrepreneurs had. They had a great peer-to-peer distribution application that they developed in a company prior to Kazaa. Later they used this framework in Kazaa. Afterwards, in Skype and now in Joost. Each one of these applications are products that rely on solving the hard peer-to-peer distribution problem.

In a startup, a showcase application and the usability, traction, revenue model of this application is very important in the proof-of-concept stage which will eventually turn to a profitable business.

In addition, honestly, it takes enormous money and effort to be a framework company. It doesn't happen overnight.

Mistake No 2: "Everyone will love this cool technology"

Fall in love with its technology and produce a product that nobody wants

Many entrepreneurs forget that few people buy a product or consumes a service because it is just a cool technology. Unless the end product or service is any use to many, the business can hardly scale to a size that makes you a significant company.

It is the product that matters not the technology in order to become a company that is significant. The technology is an enabler, a differentiator in the product. With technology you can deliver things that you weren't able to before. With technology, you can make it cheaper, faster, better,... But nobody buys the technology by itself, the buyers/ consumers don't even understand the underlying technology. They see the end results.

Mistake No 3: "I want to raise a lot of money so I can feel secure"

Raise too much money and Burn too much cash

Raising too much money is a killer. It actually makes a company die faster. I would say, raise small amounts, test if the bet is the right bet, if not learn and modify and revive. (It becomes harder to be profitable if not anything else)

Smart entrepreneurs debug and test what they think is true and verify with their market that their bet is actually true. They don't assume too much and try to build a huge business depending on their assumptions.

Mistake No 4: "We have the same features as X and more (X being the leader or worse a giant)"

Run after the Competition

Entrepreneurs, believing they have a technology that is much better than that of the big players, the usual suspects, try to adapt the features set of the competitors. That doesn't necessarily make any difference in the product, nor in the experience that the end user receives.

Try to be revolutionary instead of evolutionary and try to disrupt the very rules of the big players. After all, in disruption you have a big advantage being a startup.

Mistake No 5: "While we do our advertisement product, we will also run a content site that uses the product"

Startup with No Focus, No defined Bet

A startup has limited time and limited money to spend. Therefore, the startup shouldn't try to do too much. The startup needs to concentrate on what the entrepreneur and the team knows and can do best. They need to create a value there. They don't need to waste their precious and scarce money and time on things that they don't want to bet on.

The real value that the startup can gain is in the creation or expertise that the entrepreneur and the team will gain in testing its bet, focusing on the core business. Doing that, the company gains huge value learning the market, rather than guessing.

Therefore, the startup needs to focus on a defined bet and learn. When they hit the target and really create something wanted then they can build the business around it. But their core needs to be valuable and most of the work and value creation (operational and strategical) needs to support the core of the company.

Mistake No 6: "We can't define the Product, We don't have a CTO, we don't have ...."

Lack of Talent in the right places: The Human Resources Problem

The gap between technology and a useful and wanted product is hard to cross over. It is the entrepreneur's job to find the right people and build the team. However, especially in the emerging world, experienced talent who believes in a startup can be hard to find.

The entrepreneur's job is to find and partner with the right people for the right reasons.

The lack of management talent and the lack of productization experience becomes a killer for the company very early on.
That is why you see many hard core technologies with no specific products.

Another important talent for the startup is the CTO (chief technical officer). CTO is a very important person that a startup needs, who is key in finding the right ways and using the right technical tools and strategies for adoption, stickiness, openness, scalability, etc.

Mistake No 7: " I need to make money fast"

Chose early revenue and divert from the grand vision

An entrepreneur needs to focus on the milestones.

If you are in technology business in an emerging country, it is harder to keep believing in and keeping your head straight out of the local ups and downs, how other people are making money, etc.

Local dynamics become a threat for the entrepreneur, because the technology market is still in its infancy. However, big corporations need consulting budget and have just asked for the entrepreneur's help. Todays' money looks sweeter than risk and tomorrow's gains. And the entrepreneur usually chooses to dedicate some or all of her and the company's time doing consulting and making money, without working on the grand idea or the product.

Lack of success stories yet, lack of respect for innovation and the lack of an existing ecosystem to support the idea owner/ entrepreneur in the region causes the entrepreneur to divert from her idea. By working with a company that doesn't have a place in the grand vision, causes her to give it all up. It is the story of the boiling frog. When she realizes that she hasn't done anything for her product, the window of opportunity is long gone. She probably will realize what she has done when she sees some other entrepreneur doing exactly what she wanted to do.

But thanks to the Internet and the global World, that is changing rapidly. Success stories from the emerging world enlighten the path more and more.

Mistake No 8: " I can't tell anybody about my project. They will copy it right away!"

Secrecy: The tendency to create a closed environment and keep the ideas and projects secret

A smart entrepreneur knows that execution is the key for an idea to be successful. A smart entrepreneur also knows that she needs to learn through the process of talking and sharing. If she keeps the idea to herself and not share and have the opportunity to discuss it with other people, then she will end up learning what others think after she has spent a lot of time and money.

Ideas need to be collaboratively worked on to make it practical for many to use. A smart entrepreneur gets all the information she can about what potential partners can think or what the customers say, even if it is just a preliminary stage. Ideas are very valuable and different ideas concerning

This also has a really negative effect in the environment as the ecosystem of innovation needs and open environment where everybody shares ideas, and opinions and ideas become mature through a collective sharing process. Open environments readies and allows innovation.

It is healthy to get in discussions and create conflicts. No conflict no interest!

Mistake No 9: " We don't have the Stock Option Plan"

Don't share the upside with team members

Stock option plans still don't exist in the emerging countries. It is crucial for a startup to have the stock option plan, because it is the only way to attract talent. Stock option plans allows the wealth to be created to be distributed among the team members. It sends the signal to the team members that the success is through the work of the team and the rewards will belong to the team.

Mistake No 10: "My first motive is to get rich"

Try to get rich instead of changing the world

Creating some local copy of a winning business is an easy win. However, in a fast globalizing world, this strategy will soon be futile. In addition, without understanding the business deep enough, a person can't really make a successful copy. A successful copy needs a lot of understanding of the
business as well. When the entrepreneur's target is to only get rich, we don't believe technology is an area that is easy to play in.

Instead, innovate, innovate, innovate...

Mistake No 11: "Who Needs Mavens, Connectors and Salesman?"

In an era where information is abundant and reachable by anyone, for a product to stick the entrepreneur needs mavens, connectors and salesman. In an emerging World this is another challenge, which we will keep the issue to another post for now.

Mistake No 12: "Show me the Money!"

Venture Capital isn't just a game of finance, it is more a game of operational management capabilities, expertise, network, simply "the business itself". Finance is just the means to be cash flow positive and stay alive without facing bankruptcy during 'the idea' to "to-market'. Venture capitalists need to add significant value to the company. In our mind, that is much more important than the finance that a venture capital firm provides.

Without the value big threats await the startups. The finance speed up the process in a company's growth, in other words capital buys the time to market, make the process faster. In parallel, the entrepreneur and the team needs to be equally ready to deal with the problems that come up faster than they will be ready to face. They need to be emotionally ready to understand the market, interpret what the market tells them, what the next steps need to be or many times deal with the company and team problems, which require more emotional objectivity.

That is why choosing the right Venture Capital firm very important in a startup's life. Seasoned executives know the roller coster ride, foresee the problems before happening and support the entrepreneur and the team and help them keep their business and help them grow.

Mae Ozkan

Leveling the Field for Innovation

One of the problems with the entrepreneurial environment of the emerging countries is not the lack of ideas, but the lack of tools that help the entrepreneurs to make something out of their ideas and the examples of successful companies.

The scarce resources are finances such as venture capital for early and seed stages, business experience and an open environment, where innovative ideas are fed by each other and talented people are supported by experience and networks.
In emerging countries, all of these important ingredients are lacking. The environment doesn't have finance tools. The environment doesn't support openness. There is no conversation among companies where they encourage each other for more innovation and build on top of each other's ideas. An open environment could easily be supported by rewarding the talented and innovators and encouraging dialogs among them.

The scarce resources are barriers to produce meaningful products and companies from innovative ideas and technologies. The end results are what makes the difference in the world. The consumers don't buy the ideas, but the products. However, the scarcity of tools and opportunities to make the end results and successes from meaningful ideas stay on the way of an entrepreneur.

However, luckily, the world is changing. Some of the ingredients that are needed to turn ideas into products are becoming more available for people all around the world. The result will be leveling the field for innovation and thus, the ideas will worth more and more as the needed ingredients are becoming abundant and commodities.

For example, the Internet has leveled the reach of information for most parts of the world. The open source movement has been a great force in the industry. It has disrupted many companies, while giving opportunities to many entrepreneurs with ideas.

Now, the rise of services such as Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) and Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) that are cheap alternatives to storage and heavy lifting of Internet applications, will level the playing field. Solving heavy lifting problems will result more time being dedicated to differentiated ideas. The result will be more innovation and smaller market cycles, therefore more opportunities for the ones that have the right alignment, and more threats for the ones that are big, hard to move and lack an understanding of the industry dynamics.

The technology industry is going through a faster chage more than ever. It will change other industries related with it, including the venture capital industry. When the ideas matter, the power of whoever holds bigger chunks of money will be replaced by whoever holds the bigger and better ideas and whoever has the value to add. This exciting change will disrupt many things along with it. These changes will give a chance to the world's best kept secret projects to be secret no more!

Mae Ozkan

How to Create the Right Environment for Startups and How to Link to Silicon Valley?

On my last post on Social Entrepreneurship and Startups, I have mentioned Paul Graham's essay on how to be a Silicon Valley. In the post before that, Brain Drain or Brain Circulation, I have mentioned news.com's interview with Anna Lee Saxenian. I agree with her when she points out knowledge circulates with people. When people who have worked in Silicon Valley come back to their home towns and establish similar businesses, they carry the knowledge and business experience of Silicon Valley with them.

In this post I would like to combine my thoughts on these two topics and discuss how to create the right environment for startups and how to link to the heart of technology, Silicon Valley. This post will also shed a light on why we, Golden Horn Ventures, would like to build a bridge between Silicon Valley and Turkey.

For a knowledge / technology economy or innovation, the first and most important ingredient is people. People and their visions are crucial. People and their ability to dream and the passion to execute their dreams make all the difference. With dreams humanity have built and collapsed nations, have invented and built machines, sytems, medicine, etc. Dreams have brought us from homo sapiens to mankind of today.

As Paul Graham puts it in his essay:

"What it takes is the right people. If you could get the right ten thousand people to move from Silicon Valley to Buffalo, Buffalo would become Silicon Valley."

We can't move people from Silicon Valley to Turkey, however many people who got educated and worked in Silicon Valley end up back in their home towns in Turkey. They want to work and produce as they have done before. They are used to the ways of Silicon Valley; the openness (open organizations, open discussions, open software, open ideas, etc.), the competitiveness, the venture capital, the values (to 'dare' is valuable), the business rules and the business rituals. They are used to the ways of how to innovate as in Silicon Valley, get your product out there, release early, build business partnerships early, etc.

He adds:

"I think you only need two kinds of people to create a technology hub: rich people and nerds. They're the limiting reagents in the reaction that produces startups, because they're the only ones present when startups get started. Everyone else will move."

Rich people and nerds. However, they both need to be more passionate in Turkey than they are in the US. In the US there are reference success stories. There are numbers that show that when you innovate, you succeed! In our case, the rich needs to believe in building a startup / technology economy and building a better future for all. The rich and the nerds both need to understand the global dynamics and the opportunities that lie under.

In developing countries, or in any place where there is not a startup / technology economy - where startups haven't become successful businesses and haven't generated wealth for the many- nerds end up with some work to sustain living such as fixing PCs. Eventually their ideas and their dreams die with every PC that they fix. That is why in places where there is no startup economy, the rich needs to have a clear vision of what future holds for those can innovate and those that can not and the opportunities that are waiting for those who can.

But how about the accumulated know-how, capital and talent? Just because we have 5 teams and 5 startups set up, Turkey wouldn't become the centre of technology and innovation. We need links and partnerships to the accumulated know-how, capital and talent. We need connections to the world of technology, Silicon Valley.

By connections and links, I mean people and partnerships. They will help how things get done, how technology is applied, how technology turns into a product and a business.

By the web, we all reach to information, blogs, codes, examples, theories, messages, discussions at the same time. But connections are needed to be a player, to get more of the accumulated information in the Silicon Valley case by case. With each project the teams will get smarter, understand it better, get the culture of the Silicon Valley in their DNA. Later this will accumulate in the form of know-how and talent. By every sucess story capital will add to the equation. As a snow ball, it will get bigger in every turn. Please note that for know-how and talent to accumulate 'openness' needs to be deep in the culture - open discussions and open organizations.

By the rich people and the links, the nerds will get an access to experience, capital, advise and connections.

It is the people and people only that will make the difference.

Another point that I want to quote in Paul Graham's essay is:

"A corollary is that you have to keep out the biggest developer of all: the government. A government that asks "How can we build a silicon valley?" has probably ensured failure by the way they framed the question. You don't build a silicon valley; you let one grow."

Nerds want to think free and act free! People with dreams could only be fed by other entrepreuners financially and business-wise! People who have dreams to change the world by production and innovation should be set free to do so and supported in an entrepreunerial way. In this way a healthy ecosystem will evolve for technology and innovation and startups.

Mae Ozkan

Social Entrepreneurship and Startups

Most people don't understand what a social force startups and innovation can be. There are a lot of changes that can only happen through startups. Startups are changing old business ways and shaking monopolies.

There are many social entreprenueurship projects coming out all over the world, whose goals are enabling the other half of the world with ideas and innovation. For example, microfinancing and Grameen Bank. Their story is very inspiring. Here is an excerpt:

"When we started giving out tiny loans under a system which later became known as the Grameen Bank, we never imagined that one day we would be reaching hundreds of thousands, let alone five million, borrowers."

This project created disturbance in loaning and credit systems. Banks that think most aren't worthy of a credit saw a business that is profitable and changing the world one credit at a time.

It all starts with an idea. I believe as many do, entrepreneurs' need to change the world. When you want to change the world and make a difference, you definitely succeed!

This is what Golden Horn Ventures' targets: To be a social force by supporting startups and helping them become companies that change the markets. One company at a time, innovation and information of how this innovation becomes successful businesses will accumulate in Turkey and success stories will change the society. The environment that supports it will change. More VC's will be present, more people will support more ideas. This all circles!

Technology is one of the disturbing forces in the society because it gives the ability to people to reach to information cheaper, produce faster and cheaper, etc. etc. (This is a big topic and I don't want to be sidetracked.) To create an ecosystem for technology startups requires some ingredients. I would suggest reading Paul Graham's essays on How to be Silicon Valley and Why Startups Condense in America to understand the ecosystem better. They are excellent essays!
Mae Ozkan

Brain Drain or Brain Circulation?

I read this article on news.com a few days ago. It is an interview with Anna Lee Saxenian, the dean of the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley.

In this interview, AnnaLee says migration overseas doesn't need to be one-way brain drain, but would result brain circulation. She supports our belief that innovation can come from any geography of the world, just because of migration and how brain (knowledge, experienece and know-how) circulates.

Here is a part of the interview that underlines our work in Golden Horn Ventures:

Stefanie Olsen(news.com): What makes for a thriving technology community like Silicon Valley? Is it government incentives, cash resources or access to engineers and universities?
Saxenian: It is certainly not government incentives. Silicon Valley has evolved over the past 40 years to be a rich community of skill and social networks that allow people to come together, come up with new ideas, and implement them very quickly.
Because you have a deep base of technical skill, marketing capital, managerial skill that's been around, you also have an ecosystem of suppliers--everything from legal, design, banking, venture capitalists--so if you come up with an idea, like a new mobile media, you can pull together a team faster than any other place in the world. That's a product of learning in a community, and it's very hard to replicate.

Stefanie Olsen(news.com): In your mind, what comes close to Silicon Valley?
Saxenian: These new regions, Taiwan, Bangalore, Shanghai, they are extensions of Silicon Valley. This happens from people with deep roots in Silicon Valley, and then they take with them elements of the Silicon Valley business model--the start-up culture, the venture capital, the idea of minimizing hierarchy and creating more open organizations, which is often alien in places like India and China. Those economies have been dominated by family run firms or state-supported enterprises. And they're not creating head-on competitors to Silicon Valley; they're creating linked partners.
Those places look like hybrids, a cross between Silicon Valley and domestic institutions. They're similar, but they don't have the accumulated know-how and talent there.

Mae Ozkan

Golden Horn Ventures

The fund that we are raising for Turkey is called "“Golden Horn Ventures Fund” (GHV). GHV is looking to raise a new $50-million Turkey fund, to invest it, $1 million to $6 million per deal, in early to pre-expansion-stage startups.

Our focus is on software companies that are

innovative in technology,

betting on new business models,

betting on new distribution models.

What we believe is that to “innovative”, to “dare” and to “experiment” needs to be highly appreciated and valued, especially in markets that change fast such as information technology (IT). We also believe that companies, which "innovate" and "dare" will yield high returns, if nothing else will be valued highly for the experience and the know-how for the market that is ever changing.

We believe in working with entrepreneurs from idea inception to funding to company building and internationalizing. We want to be involved in; - as an advisor, not as a driver of the company -

Business development activities
Partnerships, business modeling, funding, etc.
Sales and Marketing

Intellectual property
Patent, copyright, etc.

Product Management

GHV - Markets to Invest In

The markets GHV invests in are mostly what is new and promising, what is risky and potentially rewarding (80%). We would like to invest a small percentage on what is widely invested, hot and popular now! That will make up around 20% of our investments.
Here is a list of areas of our interests:

Business applications (SaaS),

Micropayment,

Location-based services,

Telephony software,

Wireless access,

RFID,

Media applications,

Short- and long- term video,

Interactive entertainment,

IP-based electrical devices,

Open-source applications,

Web 2.0 applications.

We want to applaud the thrill of innovation and to encourage financing it. Our goal is to be ahead of the curve instead of riding it!
The criteria for selecting companies for the portfolio companies are:

High growth markets

Scalable

Disruptive technologies

We also believe that:

New is better than old

Potential is important as proof

Revolutionary is better than evolutionary

I will try to talk about some of the companies in Turkey that are examples to portfolio companies that we would like to invest in in the next posts.

Mae Ozkan

Innovation, Technology and Emerging Markets

Globalization first meant less developed countries opening up borders for the multinationals of the more developed countries. The emerging countries have not been more than open markets for the developed countries. However, as the reach of technology and knowledge became affordable by the poor, innovation has been happening more and more in those countries that have been only once markets-to-sell. Now, there is an opportunity for those of us that are from the less developed parts of the world - or should I say 'emerging'- to create, produce and sell to the more developed parts of the world.

This evolution of the markets was inevitable and I am very happy to see that it is happening in many parts of the world and creating an opportunity for the ones that have a passion to create, innovate and/or produce.

After living and working in the US for many years and asking myself how to create an environment in my home that is is rewarding to innovate and to produce, I have come back to my home town in Istanbul with an enthusiastic project that is based on this very opportunity.

I am starting a new fund in Turkey. I have callled it "Golden Horn Ventures (GHV)". GHV focuses on internationalizing innovative technology companies, mainly software and hardware. We are in the process of raising funds and partnering with VC's from the US and Europe. We will provide not only capital, but also talent, experience and network to the companies here, in Turkey. In other words, we will try to build a bridge between Turkey and the Silicon Valley.
I will keep posting about the developments on the project and where we are and what we do. I am sure what I am trying to do is happening in many parts of the world.

Many things have been changing and will continue to change in the emerging markets. My passion is to create an ecosystem that values innovation and production. That is my ultimate goal in business.
Mae Ozkan