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.

When you check the website Tasarti.com, you might think it as a t-shirt selling website. However their business model is far from selling t-shirts. Based on a similar business model which has been successful in the international market, they bring the designers together on a shared platform and there appear extraordinary t-shirt designs which you cannot find anywhere else. They do not send all designs to be printed, they choose only those which have received the highest scores from the visitors of the website. Another point where they differ from similar businesses is that the quality of the t-shirt print. The prints are done with mouldings at the plants where brand t-shirts are printed. Thus the colours do not fade after being washed.

We will welcome the founder of this Internet website Mr. Bülent Haksal at the next meeting which will be held at Maçkolik. We will try to find by asking questions why he initiated such a business.

Companies mostly develop their products/services by using only their own resources and knowledge. Sometimes they might ignore the feedback they receive from their customers. Especially as a common practise, of filling out paper forms in the old economy and analysis of these forms by company managers take very long time as well as being a costly process. One of the biggest benefits of Internet for businesses is that it gives the opportunity for them to communicate with their customers on real time and listen fast to their ideas. These businesses can develop innovative services while listening to the thoughts and ideas of new generation brand users. Companies which are one step ahead can include their customers into these processes.

The founders of ideshot.com create a platform which enables the brands to meet with their customers and listen to innovative suggestions. Ideshot users contribute to the open innovation by giving suggestions for the companies which are members of the system. We will listen to Ideshot.com which was created by two young entrepreneurs at the Etohum meeting on June 10th 2009. This Etohum meeting will be held at Bersay Communication Institute.

There has been a major increase in the use of Internet for social purposes. That the active Internet users create a profile in one or more social network is a one of the results reached in various researches. In Turkey social networks, notably Facebook are being used frequently. Hayhuy.com is a new enterprise which got out of the beta process within the past days and entered into the social network market.

Shortly, Hayhuy.com is a social networking website based on matching the profiles which are created based on the answers to questions of a questionnaire. Hayhuy.com which was created by Soda Medya which also owns website such as Sinema.com, Tedarik.com promises a fun social network environment for its users.

We will welcome the founding partners of Hayhuy.com at our meeting this week at Cevahir Mall Schiller.

The unemployment rate among young population in Turkey has reached to 28% in the last month according to the statistics of TUİK. Every year millions of university graduate join the workforce of the country. Targeting only this segment, Kariyergenc.com was opened last month. Nurettin Özdoğan has been working for a year to realise his project of “head hunter” which he came first with in the e-fikrim competition last year position. He changed his business model to operate in career sector and founded kariyergenc.com together with Hasan Toprakkaya and Sinan Kaplan. They found their investors very recently. We will invite the founding partners of kariyergenc.com to our meeting at Mackolik complex.