Jack Ma's Original Sales Pitch
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Must watch for all wantrepreneurs
$60,000 investment in 1999, $230B in 2014
3 important messages in one minute
1.
2.
3.
Not just a domestic website
8-to-5 is not enough
Our brains are just as good as their brains
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up9-C4_8dVo
Old vs. New
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Company
Founded in
No. of employees
Market cap
Assets
Function
Turkish Airlines
1933
23,160
$4.3B
Planes
Sends people
Whatsapp
2009
55
$19B
Servers
Sends messages
THY + Turkcell + Tupras = $14.6B Market cap
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To be an Entrepreneur
in Turkey
StartupIstanbul
30 September 2014
Erhan Erkut, MEF University
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Central location bw. East & West
 Large & growing economy
 Large & young population
 Stable political climate
 Large university system
 Liberal investment climate
 Developed infrastructure
 Low taxes, tax exemptions

…and for entrepreneurs
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
High penetration…
 Internet
 Smart
phones
 Credit cards
Well-developed delivery systems (door2door_in24)
 Expats returning from USA
 Government support for startups, angels, uni’s
 Techno-parks
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Given all of this..
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…Turkey should be an entrepreneurial hub
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Is it?
How does Turkey compare to Israel?
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Criterion
Turkey
Israel
Population
75M
8M
No. of NASDAQ
0
70
companies
Largest exit to
Gittigidiyor
NDS
date
($200M, Ebay) ($5B, Cisco)
Startup
$80M for 60 $2.3B for 600
financing (2013) companies
companies
GDP/capita
$10,500
$37,000
http://www.haaretz.com/business/.premium-1.575541
Mappedinisrael.com
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Why is E’ship weak in Turkey?
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Values (power distance, risk aversion, fatalism)
History (empire committed to conquest)
Economy (state controlled, centrally planned)
Education system (groom state employees)
Ecosystem (all players weak)
HBR article
6.
Government actions
Government and entrepreneurship
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
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The current gov’t. is business-friendly
A number of pro-e’ship initiatives
 Startup
financing for entrepreneurs ($50K)
 Tax break for angels (%25)
 Financing of university tech transfer offices ($2.5M)
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Initiatives harming e’ship
 Internet
restrictions
 Over-promotion of the construction sector
 Modifications in the education system
The 4 Pillars of Western Civilization
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1.
2.
3.
4.
Democracy (participative)
Capitalism (regulated)
Rule of Law (indept. dispute resolution)
Civil society (NGO’s, social networks, …)
The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die –
Niall Ferguson
Individual freedoms and a functioning legal system
are important for entrepreneurs.
Why should you try to become an
entrepreneur anyway?
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0.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Istanbul is destined…
It is in your DNA
Change the world
Autonomy matters
The Alternative is…
It is in you!
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All human beings are entrepreneurs. When we
were in the caves, we were all self-employed.
As civilization came we became “labor” and
forgot that we are entrepreneurs.
Muhammad Yunus
The will to create is encoded in human DNA and
creation is the essence of entrepreneurship.
Reid Hoffman & Ben Casnocha
Change the world!
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The best reason to start an organization is to make
meaning—to create a product or service that makes
the world a better place.
Guy Kawasaki
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Doing something no one has done before
Improving something that has been done before
 Citius,

Altius, Fortius
Adopting a good solution to a new environment
Autonomy matters!
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We are born to be players, not pawns.
We are meant to be autonomous individuals,
not individual automatons.
Daniel Pink
4 T’s of Autonomy
 Task
(what)
 Time (when)
 Technique (how)
 Team (with whom)
Now that you graduated from U
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Get a job…
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9-t-5 …or 6, 7, …
5 days a week …or 6
Fixed income, small raises
20 vacation days …maybe
Race for promotions
They decide, we implement
They manage our career
Our tombstone reads “He
was diligent and obedient”
Great option for robots, and
avatars
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Start a company…
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

7:00 am to 2:00 am
7 days a week
No income, maybe later
Vacat-what?
Co-create with team
We decide/implement
Control our fate
Tombstone: “She made
the world a better place”
This is what humans are
made for
It is your choice…
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But can I be an entrepreneur?
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
Entrepreneurship can be taught and learned

Few individuals are not cut out for e’ship
 Very
low risk tolerance
 Low perseverance
 Dislike team work
 Just want to be a cog
 Ethics-schmetics
 Get rich quick
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But then again, these individuals are…
Suggestions for university students
with entrepreneurial plans:
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Do not expect much from your university
At least one internship + summer job
Read at least 5 entrepreneurship books
Follow etohum activities
Get to know the players in the ecosystem
Spend a day in an incubator or accelerator
Select 5 startups and follow them closely
Offer free part-time help to a start-up
Work for a company for 5 years
Try intrapreneurship at the company
Suggestions for university students
with no entrepreneurial plans:
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Do not expect much from your university
At least one internship + summer job
Find the organization that suits you the best
Congratulations…you are a corporate slave now
When you had enough, go to the previous slide
Remember to say “Hoca tolds us so…”
Erhan Erkut Contact Info:
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Twitter: @ErhanErkut
 E-mail:

 erkute@mef.edu.tr
 erhanerkut2000@gmail.com
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Blog: www.erhanerkut.com