Etohum started in August and its application period ended in December and in January we shortlisted 40 venture ideas from amongst 1,000 venture ideas by 2,200 entrepreneurs. We met with these entrepreneurs on Saturday, 8th of January for a one day training about 5 minute presentations and the expectations of the investors. On 15 – 16 January, the 40 ventures attended a 5 minute presentation and 5 minute question-answer session.

Etohum fund contributors and the team that would evaluate the 40 etohum projects consisted of 18 people. Gittigidiyor.com founders Burak Divanlıoğlu, Serkan Borançılı, Yemeksepeti.com founders Nevzat Aydın and Melih Ödemiş, Mynet.com founder Emre Kurttepeli, Nokta.com founders Tümay Asena and Burçin Didinedin, Mackolik.com founders Erdem Yurdanur and Tarkan Onar, Uzmantv founder Ersan Özer, Markafoni.com founder Sina Afra, Reklamz founder Orkun Tekin, Yonja.com founder Kerim Baran, Cimri.com founder Aydonat Atasever, Kerim Türe one of Youth Republic founders, Dr. Haluk Elçi one of Inventram advisors, Ari Keşişoğlu who continues his career in internet abroad and etohum.com founder Burak Büyükdemir. Eleven people attended to listen to the presentations. Those that cannot attend have the chance to watch the videos later. The evaluations were made on January 15 -16 Saturday – Sunday for two full days from 09:00 – 17:00.
Evaluations were made in the view of 3 main criteria. Entrepreneur, venture and investment.

Entrepreneur / team; Preparation, Entrepreneurship, Personality, Experience, Ability/Talent, Business Judgment, Team Harmony, Team Sufficiency were evaluated out of 100.

Venture; evaluation was made out of 100 for the variables of Market, Marketing Strategy, Competitive Advantage, Revenue Model, Scalability, Operation, Risk/Insufficiency Resolution.

Investment factor; was evaluated out of 100 for Investment Necessity/Need, Etohum Added Value, Investment Eligibility, Financials, Investment Offer, Investment Decision.

For all these points the effects of entrepreneur / team, venture and investment were evaluated as 40 %, 35 % and 25 % respectively and after the weighted averages were obtained the etohum 15 were selected following a 2-3 hour evaluation meeting.

As can be seen from the above function, key points are how the entrepreneur will carry out or has carried out this venture. At Etohum we are looking for new entrepreneurs and ventures. These may be e-commerce sites as well as software that are novel technologically. The common ground is entrepreneurship. I think that especially this point should be stressed out. In our country innovation, invention, creativity or distinctness is mixed with entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship may be very successful if it can combine all these properties however this is not necessary. The grocery store in your neighborhood is an entrepreneur; the programmer who codes a search engine may also be an entrepreneur. Thus, the properties that we look for are ventures and entrepreneurs that may be successful commercially. All investors look for this. Hence it should not surprise anyone that entrepreneurs with a clear business model who show that they either can do or have done this job successfully are selected. Some of these may be e-commerce sites as in previous years.

Yes, all of us want ventures similar to those from developed countries to emerge from our country. I think that no one has any doubts about this. We have to accomplish this step by step. I think that it is not possible to catch up with a system that was founded 50 years ago in just 4-5 years and I also think that we should not upset ourselves by making wrong comparison. We should continue working without making excuses, despairing, blaming others and becoming desperate and aggrieved. It is a must for us to establish not individual successful ventures but a successful investment culture. That is why we should leave our nests and support the entrepreneurship system. I believe that everyone has a part to play. We should keep our energies high and be positive. When we setup a proper ecosystem, a culture that will enlarge itself will automatically emerge. That is why we will start counting from 1.

The etohum applications that started in August ended in December. After we finalized the selection period in the beginning of January and carried out the one day meeting with the Etohum 40 entrepreneurs about presentation and communication with investors on January 8, Saturday; 5 minute presentations were made to the etohum fund on January 15 and 16. We will announce the 15 ventures that we selected after all these steps during the Entrepreneurship Summit that will take place on January 29, 2011 Saturday at Bahçeşehir University.

Different from the previous selection years, we decided to make investments to etohum entrepreneurs from the etohum fund and started meetings with some entrepreneurs from January 17. We hope to announce the investments that are finalized until January 29th on the same date. We aim to support these entrepreneurs with whom Etohum fund participants will be partners so that they will rapidly develop and grow. In addition to these will supply office space at Etohum Garage to those from amongst the etohum 40 who will need a work space under the partnership conditions that we will soon announce.

We will announce the entrepreneurs that we will support with the 60.000 Nokia – Etohum fund that we set up together with Nokia and those that Nokia will support on January 29th. We will also support these ventures that are developing projects for the mobile environment as etohum during the Entrepreneurship Summit with the participation of Nokia Turkey General Manager Conor Pierce.

We are going to Antalya during 16 – 20 February with girisimcilerucuyor.com. We will make a 5 day Etohum Rixos Camp. The 40 Etohum companies that we selected this year will be able to attend as guests. In addition speakers, investors and the founders of Turkey’s leading internet companies will also attend. We are planning to supply the attendants with various practical information and ensure that experiences are shared. (The Rixos camp program of last year and a short video of what we did and the comments of participants).

This year etohum applications start in February. We will start meeting with new internet entrepreneurs by January 1. We will ensure that they make presentations to the etohum web of investors every 2 months. Etohum Investors Club will regularly get together to listen to the presentations of these ventures. We will also allow entrepreneurs who are seeded to these presentations. We will continue announcing etohum 40 and etohum 15 in January as we do every year. Etohum Fund will continue to evaluate 40 entrepreneurs for investment every year but from now on the entrepreneurs will not have to wait for the 1 year process to end. You may start filling the etohum form to start your application process.

The ‘Presentation Day’ program during which the entrepreneurs that applied etohum in 2010 but who were not among the selected etohum 40 will have a chance to present their projects to everyone will be broadcast live via etohumtv and we will enable each entrepreneur the chance to explain their project in 5 minutes. The entrepreneurs who want to present their projects at sunumgunu.com that will take place on 26th of March Saturday should apply etohum.com.
During February we aim to start the Entrepreneurship Documentary program in which the entrepreneurs will share their daily lives with us. We will select 10 internet entrepreneurs and expect them to share their daily schedule with us at etohumtv.
Girisimcilerucuyor.com program continues with Antalya camp. The next program will take place in Ankara on the 27th of March and in Izmir on the 2nd of April. If we complete the organization in Izmir we are planning to spend Sunday in Izmir as well.

I would like to summarize the developments that took place during 2010. (In August I had written about what took place during the first 7 months, developments during 2008 – 2009). The entrepreneurship ecosystem in Turkey is developing rapidly. We are facing a growing economy. Last year we made 41 Etohum meetings, camp and etohumtv shoots. There are a total of 387 episodes at Etohumtv (televidyon, vimeo); I believe that these will be regarded as a documentary in the following years. We invited over 140 speakers to all the meetings. They shared developments and their experiences with us. The meetings that we held during 2010 are as follows;
You may reach photos of all meetings via flickr, videos via vimeo, presentations via slideshare. To follow Etohum at twitter, friendfeed and the facebook fan page

Etohum announces the new internet entrepreneurs to be invested into in 2010. The 15 entrepreneurs selected among 1500 applicants will participate into a 4-day etohum Entrepreneurship Camp to be held in February, in Rixos Premium Belek, Antalya.

Bringing the entrepreneurs who have knowledge and business idea on the new economy together with companies and professionals who may make investments in this area, etohum announced 15 Internet entrepreneurs to be invested into in 2010. Announced at a meeting held in the Bahçeşehir University, on January 30, with the participation of Ziya Boyacıgiller, founding partner of Airties; Mevlüt Dinç, founder of Sobe, and Ali Abhary and Dave Dorner, founders of Biletix as speakers, 15 entrepreneurs are entitled to participate into the 4-day etohum Entrepreneurship Camp to be held in February, in Rixos Premium Belek, Antalya.

Established with the aim of increasing the number of the internet companies in Turkey, supporting the entrepreneurs, and providing a marketplace for the entrepreneurs and the investors to create and develop the internet ecosystem, etohum followed a meticulous process to select 15 internet entrepreneurs to be invested into. Having received applications from 1500 internet entrepreneurs in 2009, etohum selected 200 candidates in the first phase and subjected them to face-to-face interviews to shortlist 40 candidates.

15 entrepreneurs were selected following the presentations made before an advisory board composed of 16 members, including Nevzat Aydın and Melih Ödemiş, founders of Yemeksepeti.com; Burak Divanlıoğlu and Serkan Borançılı, partners of GittiGidiyor.com; Aydonat Atasever, founder of Cimri.com; Tümay Asena, the CEO and partner of Nokta A.Ş.; Emre Kurttepeli, founder of Mynet; Hasan Yalçınkaya, founder of Pilli.com; Cumhur Kuşçuoğlu from Esas Holding, and Erdem Yurdanur, founding partner of Mackolik.com.

15 entrepreneurs to be invested into in 2010 are as follows:

• Roodbox.com: Developed by Ulaş Akpınar and Osman Özmen, two undergraduates of the Bilgi University, Department of Advertising, this project is a unique seconds game, which shares a certain percentage of the advertising revenue with the viewers of the advertisement.

• Anneysen.com: Established by Pınar Şimşek and Aylin Çakır, graduates of the Boğaziçi University, Department of Business Administration, Anneysen.com is a social networking site for mothers and mothers-to-be.

• Tvdegordum.com: Co-founded by Erkin Günay and Canan Özkal, Tvdegordum.com is a platform enabling the televiewers to obtain information on the brand, model, and points of sale of the products they saw on TV shows or series and to buy them.

• Karniyarik.com: Established by Siyamed Sınır, Kaan Meralan, and Doğuş Ertemur, Karniyarik.com is a vertical search engine enabling its users to find any priced thing they look for on Internet.

• Balerin.com: Established by Lütfi Gündüz, Balerin.com is a unique e-business enterprise focused on a particular market segment, with the aim of being the largest shopping website in the Turkish cosmetics industry. It sells only cosmetic products and offers mainly the most affordable prices on Internet.

• YollaYolla.com: Developed by Göktuğ Okan Oğuz and Haldun Uraz Boralılar, this project is a membership platform where users have the opportunity to try and use the products they have a yearning for.

• DersVerilir.net: Founded by Burak Tuyan, DersVerilir.net aims to bring the tutors and the students or the parents together.

• Filoline.net: Established by two experienced partners, Bertan Özdemir and Burçak Sayınsoy, this project is a platform arranging the communication, information flow and trade between the vehicle owners and service and products providers.

• Grupanya.com: Established by Can Mustafa Köne, Baran Dilberve, and Onur Yıldırım, Grupanya.com was originated from the idea of enabling people to purchase the activities, which they have wanted to do but found it expensive, at such prices that they cannot find anywhere else, when a certain number of participants have been attained.

• Ofansif.com: Developed by Çağatay Kıyıcı, Ogan Güner, and Reha Erbatura, this project is a “social network” and “social media” site where soccer fans come together and meet all their information and sharing needs related to soccer on a single platform.

• Bogazharbi.com: Developed by Ali Murat Sürmen, Berkan Uslu, Burak Çavundurluoğlu, Hasan Alpay Yasin, İlhan Yılmaz, and Ömer Emre Özen, it is a 3D video game project on Dardanelles War. Designed in the First Person Shooter (FPS) category, the game represents the battlefields with the most real-like scene designs, models, and animations.

• Dressar.com: Carried out by two senior students of the Boğaziçi University, Faculty of Computer Engineering, Halil Akın and Mehmet Arıkan, this project enables the customers to try on clothes easily on computer, through video camera (Augmented Reality). Due to this enterprise, customers can try on the catalogues of dozens of stores without going out and order the products they want to buy via Internet.

• Sopido.com: Established by Murat Kaya and Onur Yüksel, Sopido.com is a social shopping website, which profiles products rather than persons, contrary to the social media, and thus gathers the brands and products together in a single medium to which the users can access from anywhere they want.

• Nefius.com: Established by Fatih Bugan, Nefius.com is a “Concept-Centered Data Organization” system. It is an innovative infrastructure, which can be used in many areas where information is processed. It rearranges the Internet content in various ways by subjects and the expectations of the users; shortens the access time to information, and reinforces the content with new information.

• Lorientalis.org: Carried out by Deniz Şen, Ersin Ateş, and Yusuf Avcı, this project is an Internet platform, which aims to encourage individuals to be a part of the environmental issues and create socially responsible and eco-sensitive communities.

Burak Büyükdemir, founder of etohum, talked on the matter as follows: “Founded with the aim of bringing the internet entrepreneurs together with investors and supported by leading actors of the industry, such as GittiGidiyor.com, Yemeksepeti.com, Nokta.com, Mynet, Reklamz, and Mackolik.com, etohum enabled 10,000 people to come together through more than 100 meetings held within 2009. Moreover, more than 50,000 people were reached and introduced with all the activities of etohum, with the 24/7 broadcasting of etohum.tv on Internet. etohum also guided new entrants with various camps we organized. Last year, 2 companies, which had gone through etohum process, found its angel investors. Pabbuc.com and Ortakantin.com were incorporated with their new investors and started looking forward into the future more expectantly.”

Burak Büyükdemir continued his comments as such: “Most probably, many expect from the candidates such projects as production of the oxygen which will go to Mars, a nanotechnology innovation or a search engine excelling Google. However, there are not any such projects among the 2010 candidates of etohum because, at etohum, we focus on investors rather than ideas. That is the underlying idea of the ‘entrepreneur – investor rendezvous’ theme. In other words, people come together through etohum. At etohum, we believe that people are more valuable than the ideas. This certainly does not mean that there will not be any new and creative ideas. We will also see many new and innovative projects over time. There is not any reason why we cannot see the business models we read about in developed countries. We just have to work harder. We will all get better each year.”

15 entrepreneurs to be invested into will participate into the etohum Entrepreneurship Camp in February!

Entrepreneurs supported by etohum will participate into a 4-day Entrepreneurship Camp to be held in Rixos Premium Belek, Antalya, in February, with the sponsorship of Rixos Hotels. Training the entrepreneurs on various areas from drawing up a business plan to making presentation to the investors, the camp will also entertain the well-known and successful names of the e-business industry as guests. Ali Sabancı, founder of the Pegasus Airlines; Burak Divanlıoğlu, Serkan Borançılı, and Tolga Kabataş, founders of GittiGidiyor; Nevzat Aydın and Melih Ödemiş, founders of yemeksepeti.com; Emre Kurttepeli, founder of Mynet; Sina Afra, Turkey representative of eBay; Tümay Asena, founder of the Nokta Internet Technologies; Erdem Yurdanur, founder of Mackolik.com, and Sedat Kapanoğlu, founder of eksisozluk.com, will meet the new Internet entrepreneurs and share their experience with them.

Restoranrehberiniz.com, established by Erhan Kaya, offers you detailed information on a great number of restaurants in Istanbul. The information includes menus, recommendations from the chiefs, comments from users, maps, polls, food types, opening hours, etc.

Roodbox.com is the project of two undergraduates of the Bilgi University, Faculty of Advertising, Ulaş Akpınar and Osman Özmen. It is a unique seconds game, which shares a certain percentage of the advertising revenue with the viewers of the advertisement.

Mia-posta.com was established by Etel Özsarfati with the “’Life guide for the urban women” motto. The users of the website find each morning an e-mail message in their inbox, which includes daily recommendations on the city and life, written by a sharp-tongued character, Mia.

Zumbara.com is a social change project developed by Ayşegül Güzel. It is defined as a time bank, which enables individuals to use their capacities for helping each other and which employs time instead of money.

Anneysen.com was established by two female entrepreneurs, Pınar Şimşek and Aylin Çakır, who graduated from the Boğaziçi University, Faculty of Business Administration, in 1997. It is a social networking site for mothers and mothers-to-be.

Tvdegordum.com is a platform, which enables the televiewers to obtain information on the brand, model, and points of sale of the products they saw on TV shows or series and to buy them. It was co-founded by Erkin Günay and Canan Özkal.

Wishorb.com was established by Gökhan Çeliker and Emre Ertan, aiming to enable its users to realize their wishes through social media.

Neredenaldin.com was established by Eren Yalçındağ, as a website where the consumers who have made online shopping can write whether they have been satisfied with the e-business site and guide the future shoppers.

Duellog.com was established by Osman F. Küçükerdem, Akın Günel, Harun Şencal, and Afşin Çelik, as a niche social network, which enables young people to socialize through sport competitions.

Karniyarik.com is a vertical search engine enabling its users to find any priced thing they want on Internet. It was established by Siyamed Sınır, Kaan Meralan, and Doğuş Ertemur.

Etkinlink.com is system based on the online promotion and ticket sales for small and medium-sized events organized by individuals or corporations. It was established by Sarp Erdağ and Kemal Taşkın.

Orgalink.net was established by Mert Dağlaroğlu and Irmak Arkman Sosyal, as a content sharing network. It aims to share contents entered by members and editors in many areas, such as Motion Pictures, Music, Books, Video Games, TV Series, Cartoons, and Animations/Manga.

Gezegence.com is a user-shared travel project established by Özhan Yiğer. It aims to provide the travelers with information on countries and locations, as well as history and culture, health and security, climate and special days.

Unisbul.com, “a career website for the undergraduates and fresh graduates,” was established by two university students, Uğur Akkuş and Cemil Erol. It provides companies with the opportunities to put free advertisements, to access quickly to the undergraduate recruits with required qualities, and to make one-to-one contact with the registered undergraduates.

Bideneyim.com was established by Uygur and Batuhan Gümüşlü, as an online social network for the procurement of short-term young employees to various areas such as promotion, event management, fair organization, advertising, etc.

Bebelog.net, established by Kamil Kılıç, is an interactive community site where all information on babies is shared with families and relatives, as from the pregnancy until the fifth year. The firsts, the special days and health status of babies may be shared through photos and audio and video records.

Asker.com was established by Cem and Cenk Duran to provide the ranks and files and their relatives with all necessary information on military service and enable them to send each other free letters and photos.

Belgele.net targets the university students and fresh graduates, and proposes them an affordable and fast remedy for the problem of “certification of information,” which is faced in the recruitment and career progress. Established by Altuğ and Evren Gürkaynak, the system enables the users to take online paid certificate exams and free subject tests, and to print and ship the certificates on demand.

Whispurr.com is a service for micro-messaging and personal social networking via Internet and mobile media. The Internet enterprise was established by Hakan Guzelgoz, Stefano Rocco, Giuseppe Insalaco, Conor Devine, and Kevin Noonan, in Ireland.

HangiUniversite.com was established by Hasan Yaşar and Burak Kılanç. It is an Internet enterprise aiming to introduce and compare universities and their faculties and departments in Turkey, as well as sharing the comments of the students and graduates.

Balerin.com was established by Lütfi Gündüz, as an e-business enterprise focused on a particular market segment, with the aim of being the largest shopping website in the Turkish cosmetics industry. It sells only cosmetic products and offers mainly the most affordable prices on Internet.

YollaYolla.com is an online club with membership system, where users have the opportunity to use, try and experience the products they have a yearning for. It was established by Göktuğ Okan Oğuz and Haldun Uraz Boralılar.

AlisverisRobotu.com is a shopping guide, which helps the users in searching product and price information in online and physical stores, and deciding in the most effective way what and where to purchase. It was established by Ertuğrul Yılmaz and Çağdaş Tatlıcı.

DersVerilir.net aims to bring the tutors and the students or the parents together. It was founded by Burak Tuyan.

Filoline.net is an online platform, which arranges the communication, information flow and trade between the vehicle owners and service and products providers. It was established by two experienced partners, Bertan Özdemir and Burçak Sayınsoy

Grupanya.com was originated from the idea of enabling people to purchase the activities, which they have wanted to do but found it expensive, at such prices that they cannot find anywhere else, when a certain number of participants has been attained. It was established by Can Mustafa Köne, Baran Dilberve, and Onur Yıldırım.

Nurturia.com is a social platform created for families having or expecting a baby. Established by Damla Doğan Altınören and Gökhan Altınören, it makes it possible to record the child-focused memories and to share news about babies or children with relatives and friends.

Doopole.com is an Internet project which enables the users to produce content for the future and to share their plans and activities. Doopole provides its users with the possibility to organize events, propose them to other users and thus generate an income. It was established by Anıl Türetken, Barış Kara, Berat Dağlar, and Muhammed Yıldırım.

Ofansif.com is a “social network” and “social media” site where soccer fans come together and meet all their information and sharing needs related to soccer on a single platform. It was established by Çağatay Kıyıcı, Ogan Güner, and Reha Erbatur.

Bogazharbi.com is a 3D video game project on Dardanelles War. Designed in the First Person Shooter (FPS) category, the game represents the battlefields with the most real-like scene designs, models, and animations. It was created by Ali Murat Sürmen, Berkan Uslu, Burak Çavundurluoğlu, Hasan Alpay Yasin, İlhan Yılmaz, Kadir Duygulu and Ömer Emre Özen.

Dressar.com: Dressar is a project, which enables the customers to try on clothes easily on computer, through video camera. Due to this enterprise, customers can try on the catalogues of dozens of stores without going out and order the products they want to buy via Internet. It was established by two senior students of the Boğaziçi University, Faculty of Computer Engineering, Halil Akın and Mehmet Arıkan.

Sobeee.com is a location-based mobile social sharing and communication platform established by Serhat Sarı and Oğuz Gürler.

Sopido.com is a social shopping website, which profiles products rather than persons, contrary to the social media, and thus gathers the brands and products together in a single medium to which the users can access from anywhere they want. It was established by Murat Kaya, Onur Yüksel, and Ersan Bilik.

Lalaloo.com is a matching project initiated by Aslı Kubilay for professionals over 30 years old and from SEG AB+. The project accepts members only upon recommendation.

Morbant.com is a web 2.0-focused social network for the students of ODTÜ, Boğaziçi University, İTÜ, and Bilkent University. It was established by Ozan Önen.

Nefius.com was established by Fatih Bugan as a “Concept-Centered Data Organization” system. It is an innovative infrastructure, which can be used in many areas where information is processed. It rearranges the Internet content in various ways by subjects and the expectations of the users. It shortens the access time to information. It reinforces the content with new information.

Lorientalis.org is an Internet platform, which aims to encourage individuals to be a part of the environmental issues and create socially responsible and eco-sensitive communities. It was created by Deniz Şen, Ersin Ateş, and Yusuf Avcı.

Doktorium.com enables the pharmaceutical representatives and companies that have enrolled in the system to get appointment from the physicians to whom they want to make presentation about their pharmaceuticals and to be in continuous interactivity with the physicians. The project was created by Atilla Oğuzhan Durgun.

Since 2 projects were not submitted to the etohum advisory board on time, they could not be included in the pivot list and be presented.

Preparing to announce the new Internet entrepreneurs they will support in 2010 at its meeting on January 30, etohum organizes a 4-day Entrepreneurship Camp for the candidates in February. Many well-known and successful Internet entrepreneurs such as Ali Sabancı, Emre Kurttepeli, and Sina Afra also participate as guests in the camp to share their first-hand experience.

Bringing the entrepreneurs who have knowledge and business idea on the new economy together with companies and professionals who may make investments in this area, etohum will announce 15 Internet entrepreneurs into which they will make investments in 2010 at its meeting on January 30. The candidates who will be supported by etohum will participate in a 4-day etohum Entrepreneurship Camp to be held in Rixos Premium Belek, in Antalya, from February 18 to 21, with the sponsorship of Rixos Hotels.

Giving trainings to the candidates on various areas from drawing up a business plan to making presentation to the investors, the camp will also entertain the well-known and successful names of the e-business industry as guests. Ali Sabancı, founder of the Pegasus Airlines; Burak Divanlıoğlu, Serkan Borançılı, and Tolga Kabataş, founders of GittiGidiyor; Nevzat Aydın and Melih Ödemiş, founders of yemeksepeti.com; Emre Kurttepeli, founder of Mynet; Sina Afra, Turkey representative of eBay; Tümay Asena, founder of the Nokta Internet Technologies; Erdem Yurdanur, founder of Mackolik.com, and Sedat Kapanoğlu, founder of eksisozluk.com, will meet the new Internet entrepreneurs and share their experience with them.

Burak Büyükdemir, founder of etohum, talked thus on the event: “2010 will be the year of the new Internet companies. The companies that are founded on recession periods are able to organize their business processes more efficiently than their competitors. At etohum, we believe that these companies will grow very rapidly, after the crisis has been overcome. Most of the Internet entrepreneurs founded during the 2001 crisis have become large-scale companies. And now they lead the new Internet entrepreneurs. Companies founded in those times, such as yemeksepeti and GittiGidiyor, support the new entrants and share their experience with them through etohum. In addition, a huge increase has been achieved in the user number, due to the proliferation of the high-access Internet service in Turkey. As a result, Internet has become part of the daily life. Many foreign Internet websites have been flooded by Turkish users. Many companies plan to shift its advertising expenses towards Internet. Therefore, Internet companies founded in Turkey are expected to be the favorite of investors in 2010.”

You can get more detailed information on etohum Entrepreneurship Camp at the web site of etohum at www.etohum.com.

Contact person:
Umut Ersoy
Marjinal Porter Novelli
0212 219 29 71

umute@marjinal.com.tr
www.etohum.com

We will announce the names of fifteen new internet startups that we shall support during the year 2010 on a weekend meeting to be held by Etohum in Bahcesehir University on 30 January 2010, Saturday.

The candidates who made their applications during 2009 will submit their presentations to a group of investors and experienced internet entrepreneurs in January and try to get into the top fifteen finalists after a tough selection process. In 2009, more than 1,000 entrepreneurs appealed to etohum. After having one-on-one meetings with the selected 150 candidates, the list was shortened to 40 applicants. Following the presentation of these 40 candidates to experienced internet entrepreneurs in January, there will be fifteen projects left for etohum to support.

Etohum meeting, where new 15 companies will be announced, will host Airties and Maxim Founding Partner Ziya Boyacigiller, Sobee founder Mevlut Dinc and biletix.com Founders Ali Abhary and Dave Dorner as speakers on 30 January 2010, Saturday. Etohum weekend meeting schedule is as follows;

30 January 2010 Saturday Schedule
10:00 – 10:30 Registration (coffee & tea)
10:30 – 10:45 Etohum 2010 Welcoming Speech – Burak Buyukdemir
10:45 – 11:00 Speech on Bahcesehir University & Co-op Program
11:00 – 12:00 Ziya Boyacigiller – Airties and Maxim Founding Partner
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch Break
13:00 – 14:00 Mevlut Dinc– Sobee Founder
14:00 – 14:10 Coffee Break
14:10 – 14:15 Award Ceremony for Designer Contest – Hasan Yalcin
14:15 – 15:15 Ali Abhary / Dave Dorner biletix.com Founders
15:15 – 15:30 Coffee Break
15:30 – 16:00 Etohum 2009 Candidates Progress
16:00 – 17:00 Etohum 2010 Presentation
17:00 Closure

Date: 30 January 2010, Saturday
Time: 10:00 – 17:00
Place: Bahcesehir University / Fazıl Say Hall – Beşiktaş / Istanbul

Please kindly fill the following form if you will be attending the meeting.

Etohum (eseed) which is the new meeting address of Internet entrepreneurs announced with a weekend meeting held on January 31st the first 21 internet entrepreneurs who have investable ideas! Since August 1.200 people in total applied for Etohum with 500 different projects, the selection criteria of Etohum are strategies related with the realization and development of ideas.

Etohum which brings entrepreneurs with knowledge and business ideas about the new economy and the companies and professionals who can invest together announced the 21 enterprise projects it will support with a weekend meeting held in Istanbul Technical University (ITU) Maçka Faculty of Business Administration with the contributions of Management Engineering Club.

Among 1200 entrepreneurs and 500 projects applying since August, Etohum selected the Internet enterprises which can be invested on by evaluating the strategies related with the realization and development of ideas.

Burak Büyükdemir, founder of Etohum said, “as Etohum, since the first day our company was founded, we say to Internet entrepreneurs not to wait for the stork to bring you the baby. If you have the idea of having a baby no time will be enough to contemplate about it. You have to hit the road to realize your idea”. The activites we have organized in this regard never have a competitive nature. For us as Etohum the important thing is that the enterprises which can be invested are realized or are about to be realized. In this period we analysed closely 50 projects and we had face to face meetings with about 100 people in these projects. We listened to the projects which were only on paper and on idea level one by one. But on every occasion we say that the entrepreneurs should first invest on themselves. 21 projects we selected at the end of this period have all the qualities we look for.

The stories of realization of “investable” Internet enterprises and projects selected by Etohum are as follows:

• Cvyolla.com
This Project belonging to Onur Çakır and Meriç Kul who had the same major from Middle East Technical University and then completed their master degrees abroad is a career site and starts with the model inwhich candidate who is looking for job sends his/her CV to companies. Çakır and Kul who left their jobs to realize their own ideas developed this business model when “cvyolla.com” becomes a career site with ISKUR certificate. “Cvyolla.com” now continues working to provide different services from other recruitment sites and to find its place in the Internet market.

• Gercekten.com
Erdal Bozkuş who organizes many important concerts, national and international organisations with his company established in 2007 under the name Atlantis Music Production has developed a Project with his close friends. “gercekten.com” which has a model that will bring famous people and their fans together via Internet delivers today the signatures and images of famous people in television, cinema, music or sports world addressed specifically to each individual to the doors of their fans.

• Ideshot.com
Metin Kahraman and Harun Peşken who had worked in several companies in the Internet sector established first a company named Angelabs A.Ş. In summer 2008 the two partners thought that companies’ needs for developing new ideas are not adequately met via the internet. As a result a business model that collects innovative ideas and suggestions related with the products and services bought by them and sent to the relevant companies and thus aims to strengthen mutual communication has been realized. Today “ideshot.com” provides an interactive environment between brand consultants who offer new and quality ideas with brands found in the platform.

• Kartguru.com
Özgür Alaz who graduated from Istanbul Technical University Department of Management Engineering started his career as a Marketing Trends Expert by providing consultancy service on new Technologies and trends to firms. In addition to this, Alaz informs individuals working in the marketing area about the novelties with the blog Marketallica he updates regularly. “Kartguru.com” on the other hand has been developed as a comparison and suggestion service aiming to facilitate financial and shopping related choices of individuals. “kartguru.com” which is a free of charge service aims to assist consumers to make savings with credit cards, to diminish banks’ new customer acquisition costs and to create a new card sales channel.

• Kimgelsin.com
Mohaç Yücel, Ceren Yücel, Selçuk Uzun and Volkan Çınar who are specialized in their own fields and at the same time who deal with music professionally have established ‘kimgelsin.com’ after analysing the demands on the Internet closely. “kimgelsin.com” providing news mainly related with music activities and creating demand for the said activities has the quality of being a business model which includes detailed information about the musicians and which can address to a large scale of age.

• Kolokyum.com
3 successful and young architects called Ceyhun Baskın, İnanç Eray and Evren Başbuğ have founded together the DistArchitects Architecture Office after graduation. The architects who won several awards in many competitions combine the Internet and the architecture and analyse very closely the needs of their colleagues in the new economy. “kolokyum.com” founded for this purpose aims to be the sharing platform of architects. “kolokyum.com” where professional ideas can be shared related with the architecture plans to serve in a vertical market with its video infrastructure where conferences, seminars and interviews can be found.

• Ogrence.net
“ogrence.net” realized by Bilkent University Computer Engineering 2008 graduate Doğan Kaya Berktaş
and METU Electric and Electronic Engineering student Yekmer Şimşek is a web based solution which provides interaction between private teaching institutions, parents and students. Established with the idea that many private teaching institutions do not have their own software and those who have do not work efficiently, “ogrence.net” is a business model developed to provide private teaching institutions operate over the Internet.

• Pabbuc.com
Pabbuc.com founded by Serdar Yaman and Göker Ezberci who graduated from Izmir High Technology Institute Department of Physics sells shoes, bags and accessories over the Internet. “pabbuc.com” which was founded by Serdar Yaman who knows the shoe market due to his father operating in the sector and who worked previously in various software companies and by Göker Ezberci who after working in technology companies founded his own hosting firm has been operating since 2006.

• Sunumax.com
“sunumax.com” founded by two brothers Sadık Kocabaşa born in 1986 and Cem Kocabaşa born in 1990 is a business model where an animated character similar to a tv reporter explains the related site to target audience. Kocabaşa brothers who provide service to many corporate firms with this technology continue their works for the speak-up of online characters with semi artificial intelligence or the interaction with sites with certain commands.

• Userspots.com
Mustafa Dalcı born in Ankara in 1983 who graduated in 2006 from METU Department of Statistics and who now continues his post graduate studies in METU Informatics Institute Department of Communication Systems is now working as a Web Developer since 2006 in METU Informatics Administration Presidency. Userspots developed by Dalcı whose fields of interest in communication sector are semantic web, human-computer interaction and usability, tests the site and software with users, tracks the eye movements of users with eye tracking device and determines the results found on the site and interprets them and in the end provide solutions with an analysis report.

• Cepkod.com
Oğuzhan Alpay a graduate of METU Electrics and Electronics Computer Engineering Department who then completed Koç University MBA program and who also studied one term in London Business School and Mustafa Alpay a graduate of Bosphorus University Mechanical Engineering Department founded Imovasyon in August 2008 with the support of Bosphorus University Technology Development centre to realize their technological and innovative business ideas. Two partners who then developed “cepkod.com” currently work on a mobile software which will provide Internet connection with real time events.

Other candidates which will be invited to Etohum camp;
• Founders of Maksidurak.com
• Partners of Evimizinherseyi.com
• 8 different games developer teams from METU Teknokent Animation Technologies and Game Developing Centre

Project owners will participate in the entrepreneurial camp with Etohum!
Burak Büyükdemir who told they would hold an entrepreneurial camp for the owners of the projects elected since February, added as follows: “This year we will invite 30 entrepreneurs to this camp. Here we will have 5 days full of activities aiming practicing on business plans, presentation techniques, business law, finance and similar subjects. Also the entrepreneurs will have the chance to meet with Internet entrepreneurs who have been successful in Turkey and to obtain coaching and consultancy from them during the camp. Abovementioned activities will continue after the camp. In our follow-up meetings, the entrepreneurs will have more chance to explain themselves to the Internet community. By mid May we will bring companies, persons and professionals who, we think, could be the right investors and entrepreneurs together in a closed meeting. Next year we will start the same process again and work to maintain and increase gradually the interest in Internet entrepreneurship.”

Those entrepreneurs who wish to get information about Etohum activities or join the meeting will only need to go to the address www.etohum.com

We are organising a weekend Etohum meeting on Saturday, 25th of July. Internet entrepreneurs will meet at Mynet-ITU ARI 2 Teknokent Building A Conference room between 9:00 – 12:00 am.
At the weekend Etohum meeting, the designers who are ranked at the top places in the t-shirt competition with a main theme of “entrepreneurship” organised in cooperation with tasarti.com will be given their trophies. Additionally, we will give all competitors the t-shirts they have designed as presents.

We will be listening to the story of the website tatilsepeti.com which was founded by three young entrepreneurs who have achieved success under the age of 30 , Mr. Nedim Paltura, Mr. Suat Gücel and Mr. Kaan Karayal and this successful trend they have maintained in 5 years.

The t-shirt competition with a main theme “entrepreneurship” which we started on June 7th ended. We’d like to thank to all creative designers who have shown their interest in the competition. We received 40 t-shirt designs. Based on your votes, we decided to print 2 design on a limited number of t-shirts with tasarti.com. The designs of Can Oktay Heper and Mohaç Yücel were sent to be printed from tasarti.com. These t-shirts will be available soon.

Next week, we will auction these t-shirts signed by their own designers on the website Gittigidiyor.com at a value of TL 1 each. After the designers, we will offer the t-shirts signed by Internet pioneers who have been working hard to develop Internet in Turkey for sale. We will donate the money collected via the sales to Turkish Education Foundation (Türk Eğitim Vakfı). The two designs will be printed on a total of 150 t-shirts and the only distribution channel will be Internet sale.
We will organise Etohum weekend meeting at Mynet –İTÜ Teknokent on Saturday July 25th, at this meeting we will print the designs of the all designers competing in the competition on t-shirts at tish-o and give these t-shirts to them a presents. Additionally we will give the t-shirts of the designers who are ranked in the top three. We will announce detailed information about this weekend meeting soon, but would like to remind you in advance, do not be engaged in another activity on Saturday July 25th between 9:00 – 12:00 AM.

We aim to repeat this t-shirt competiton next year in spring and as a result achieve limited number of designs with an Etohum entrepreneurship theme every year. We thought we’d better inform this to the collectors now.