Angel Investing Networks

This article is written by Nardine B. M’barek, a Contributor Author at Startup Istanbul.

Aslı Kurul Türkmen is the Director of Entrepreneur Search and Services at Endeavor Turkey, an international non-profit that supports high impact entrepreneurs. On the other hand, Ömer Faruk Akarca is one of the founding members of Entrepreneur’s Organisation Turkey Chapter and currently holds Integration Chair, he also joined Galata Business Angels in 2010 to help the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Turkey to grow and to be part of exciting and new ventures as an angel investor. Together, they were present during Startup Istanbul 2017 and delivered an Angel investment Workshop for the audience.

Aslı Kurul Türkmen is part of Endeavor Turkey, she delivered a speech during Startup Istanbul 2017 as a representative from the company. This time, she teamed up with Ömer Faruk Akarca who is mainly an Angel Investor in order to organize an Angel Investment Workshop for our audience at Startup Istanbul 2017.

Mr. Akarca became an Angel investor in 2010, he joined the Galata Business Angels in 2011 and has done around 12 to 13 investments since then. He has been in almost 5% or the total amount of investment in Turkey since 2010. During this workshop, he shared with the audience the importance of joining an Angel investing network, and the way to do that.

Mr. Akarca stated that joining an Angel Investing Network is a really good idea, as it will benefit you as an Angel. He started his speech by mentioning the example of how this kind of networks will increase your range of investment since it gives you the opportunity to invest in something you do not know anything about, especially in Turkey.

A diversified portfolio will allow you to get more deals instead of focusing on one industry and losing the opportunity to invest more. You can rely on the expertise of the Angels you are working with within the investing network, and get pieces of advice from them that could help you a lot later on.

Mr. Akarca also shared with us some of his ‘horror stories’ related to investment. He mentioned that it is mainly the result of him trusting some people too much. That is why you need to invest in people you trust in, and whom you think are going to take care of your money.

You also need to be careful about what kind of people and entrepreneurs you invest in since as Mr. Akarca said, you might even end up in prison for jail, that is why trust and awareness need to always be there before you invest your money in something, you might even consider lending your money instead of investing it.

The issue of moralities and values in the domain of investment and entrepreneurship was also coined by Mr. Akarca and Mrs. Türkmen. They both agree that values did not matter years ago, but now it does. He talked about the case of Turkey and how an entrepreneur or investor needs to be honest around here, since it is a small community and any minor lie or do something dishonest could badly influence your reputation.

Since it is a small community, people gossip a lot, and news will be spread fastly, so you need to be aware and think seriously about values and moralities when it comes to this field. Your reputation matters, and you could be excluded easily from the community if you do something bad. Make sure to always say the same things to everyone and be honest, people talk to each other, and if you lie to one person, the others will directly know.

https://vimeo.com/240617275