What is a Successful Tech Company?
This article is written by Nardine B. M’barek, a Contributor Author at Startup Istanbul.
Our panelists exchanged thoughts concerning the probability of building another tech firm outside Silicon Valley, that would be as successful as that one. If building another one is not easy, is it possible to catch up with Silicon Valley in Turkey?
By building a successful Tech company, it is not meant one that is similar to Google or Facebook, since these ones are the kind of companies that come once in a while, and which, of course, emerge from Silicon Valley. The one that we want to build however in Turkey could be going to a vertical market, it could also be a $50 Million company, but is still considered as a successful one. It is not all about the worth of the company, but rather about how valuable and successful the work that is done within it would be.
At the beginning of the Panel, our moderator, Mrs. Ferhan Cook, asked the other panelists about what makes a company a successful tech company. From an investor point of view, Mr. Numan, who is the first Venture Capital in Turkey, stated that a successful tech company would be one that starts with a small team who know their business, and who would continue to grow gradually while attracting more and more customers at the same time, within a short period of time.
Chad Kaul, who is part of Block Box, believes that what makes a successful tech company is also what makes any company successful, that is the six things that entrepreneurs need to get right, which are the team, the vision, the product, the market, the business, and the culture. When it comes to the vision, it concerns the importance of selling the product, and how to convince people that it is really worth their money.
You also have to know where you are, where you are going, and why are you heading there, it means that the strategy that you adopt has to be very clear for you to carry on and follow it. It is also important for any team to be very creative, and to be able to do things that no one else can do, or has done before, which helps you deliver the product.
On the other hand, Mr. Ussal Sahbaz thinks that a successful tech company would be a company that is aware of the reality that is happening in that sphere.
Mrs. Ferhan Cook mentioned an example of what she thinks is a successful tech company. The company is a Turkish one names “AirTies”. They do network optimization and have a box that optimizes multiplatform things, so they go IPTV markets.
The owner of the company, Bülent Çeleb, has been in business for 13 years so far, and the company has up to 95% of their sales outside Turkey, which is really amazing, although they did not have many investors to start with. For Mr. Çeleb, a successful tech company would be the one that solves the pain that a customer has.