Golden Horn Ventures

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

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