survivalpath Entrepreneur Stories — Week #1

survivalpath aims to shed light on the business-related problems caused by the Covid-19 crisis and how to tackle them. Each week day we hold broadcasts on our Youtube channel in order to bring the best names in the ecosystem and entrepreneurs to share their experiences and help guide you through these challenging times.

survivalpath startup broadcast guests for week #1

Saturday: The first guest of our entrepreneur series was Doğan Turan, co-founder of Glocalzone.

The highlights of the conversation were:

1. It took time to convince people and to get to where we are now.
2. First we tried the idea with our friends without earning anything then got small investments from our university professors and began doing it for profit.
3. Now we completed our latest investment round before the Covid-19 outbreak and received 150k Euros.
4. We are one of the most affected startups of this period because our company falls in the travel and tourism industry.
5. We began feeling the impact in March. Even then it was clear to us that the travel restrictions weren’t going to be limited to China.
6. After some tests and analysis, we decided to stop spending on marketing as of second week of March.
7. Our team is strong and persevering.

Sunday: Our second guest was Ahmet Tosun, co-founder of Poltio.

The highlights of the conversation were:

1. As Poltio, our biggest goal is to acquire quality data.
2. Poltio began as a social questionnaire platform in 2014. Now it’s more a B2B oriented solution. Companies who want to interact with their users/customers and create interactive engagements for them utilize Poltio. The main focus is to obtain data.
3. Currently, we are developing a new income model for a platform that introduces brands that need data with those answering to data.
4. Startup need to think meticulously about every detail before making a decision.
5. We will publish a research about working habits in the business world.
6. It is important to share your objectives with investors in this period.
7. Startups can use their running speed advantage while also keeping in mind the importance of cash flow.

Monday: Survivalpath’s third guest was Can Dörtkardeşler, co-founder of Udentify.

Here are the highlights:

1. Through my experiences I learned that you shouldn’t start a business without conducting a needs analysis.
2. We had to eliminate a lot of industries, businesses, and ideas to find the right one.
3. Improving our product each month is a must for us.
4. My first and still current take on the situation is that there are great opportunities. Focus on the new spaces created by the crisis, on what you can do and on how you might answer new needs.
5. We use this time to prepare for the future and what it might bring as much as we can.

Tuesday: Our fourth guest this week was Onur Candan, one of the founders of Visionteractive and Pulpoar.

Here are the highlights of our conversation:

1. Visionteractive has a place in my life both with its successes and failures. I can even say that 90% of Visionteractive were failures that ended up to be great learning experiences for me.
2. PulpoAr utilizes its technology in the cosmetics and optics markets.
3. With PulpoAr you can digitally try on products ad with the facial recognition system find the product that best fits your features.
4. Through these two important startups I learned how to manage a team, how to allocate resources, and how to form sustainable relationships. Most importantly I learned the importance of the team.
5. Creating value is more important to me than making money.
6. If you want to sell your product abroad you have to go there. Selling products from afar is extremely difficult.
7. Surprisingly sales in the cosmetics industry did not decline during the Covid-19 period.
8. During this process, we developed the “pay after the crisis” model that allows people to do business with insufficient funds at the moment.

Wednesday: Our fifth guest this week was Ali Servet Eyüboğlu from English Ninjas.

Here are the highlights of our conversation:

1. Turkey’s significant big corporations chooses to use English Ninjas.
2. Main problem that we wanted to tackle in the beginning was that may white collar workers cannot use English professionally even though they had English classes
3. English Ninjas is a service both for adults and children. It helps adults improve their speaking skills and allows children to learn English from native speakers.
4. English Ninjas saw a 40% increase in its use in this period since people are staying home and have spare time.
5. Startups naturally are structures focused on survival. Regardless of the Coronavirus situation, startups need to act fast.
6. There are a lot of investors looking for opportunities and promising investments right now.
7. I personally think there are opportunities in remote treatment, distant working dynamics for teams, and mental health areas.

Thursday: On our sixth day this week our guests were Kadir Demircioğlu and Haluk Nişli, founders of Thread in Motion (TIM).

Here are the highlights of our conversation:

1. Thread in Motion (TIM) has been in our lives since 2016 and we are working on expanding it.
2. TIM is a startup that works towards accelerating the work employees are doing at various points from manufacturing to logistics.
3. TIM was founded on the basis of making fabric more functional.
4. We believe humans and robots can work together.
5. Our client portfolio is comprised mostly of automotive, sub-industry, and logistics industries.
6. We are exporting to 8 different countries.
7. During the Covid-19 period, our first thought as a team was if we could come up with a new product within the industry. In two weeks we will be launching our new product.
8. Four important areas going through this period: communication with the team, communication with the customer, communication with the investor and budget control.

Friday: Our seventh guest this week was Fatih Mustafa Çelebi, co-founder of Meditopia.

Here are the highlights of our conversation:

1. In the past we collected very valuable entrepreneurship experiences from our failed startups.
2. One of our failure stories paved the way for Meditopia.
3. Localization or creating content that is relevant to the conditions of the country/ individual and marketing it is the key.
4. We updated our content after Coronavirus.
5. Meditation market is growing rapidly.
6. We are continuing our work in a much more disciplined manner.

If you would like to contribute to survivalpath email us at hazal@survivalpath.co

Hazal Ozkan