By Oyku Yilmaz | Business Development Coordinator
This report covers the activities of the Turkish Entrepreneurship Foundation from June 2016 to December 2016, the Fellow Program announcements, global steps taken and the impact we created.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SECOND HALF OF THE YEAR
The election process for the Fellow2016 Program started in April and ended in June. This year 61,000 students applied to the program. The great interest coming from applicants is important to us for choosing the right young people to the program.
39% of the applicants were female and 61% were male, while 79% of them were studying at state universities and 21% were from private universities. Among the applicants, 50 people were selected to the program. Students from 5 new cities which are Adana, Diyarbakr, Elazg, Sakarya and Usak, and 9 new universities joined the program for the first time this year. Currently, we have 100 Fellows, 50 women and 50 men from 31 universities. The number of FellowAlumni who graduated from the program is 36. You can find the Fellow2016 Program infographic from here.
Fellow Up Events
Fellow Up Events: Every two months, at FellowUp events, our Fellows continue to listen to inspiring entrepreneurial stories. These activities, which are mandatory to attend, are organized exclusively for the Fellows. Below are the details of the Fellow Up events during June - December 2016 period:
June 2016 On the first day of Fellow Up, Networking training with Ertugrul Belen took place. Effective networking techniques were practiced. Then a graduation ceremony was held. This year, together with 28 graduates, the Fellow Alumni team summed up to 36 people. On the second day of Fellow Up, Haldun Tashman, the founder of Turkish Philantrophy Funds and serial entrepreneur, told his entrepreneurship story. The term ended after lunch with the Board of Trustees.
June-October 2016 With the end of the application for Fellow2016 program, we started the 4-month election process immediately.
October 2016 The first day of the event started with new Fellows receiving their "welcome" boxes which were prepared specially for them. The day continued with the foundation session moderated by our General Manager, Mehru Aygül. Our goal was to present the aims of the foundation while saying a warm and memorable welcome to newcomers of our family. After lunch, all of Fellow100 team had a Speed Networking session with Ertugrul Belen and got a chance to get to know each other. The second day of Fellow Up began with a lunch with the Board of Trustees. Then the founder of Lidyana.com Hakan Bas shared his inspirational entrepreneurship story.
December 2016 On the first day of Fellow Up, our newly elected 50 Fellow listened to the inspiring entrepreneurship story of Entrepreneurship Foundation Board Chairman, Sina Afra. After lunch with the Board of Trustees, JLL Country President Avi Alkas shared his impressive story of life until the very finest detail. The first day ended with a happy hour in which the Alumni team also joined. Our board members also participated in the event, which was a great opportunity for alumni and new fellows to meet with each other. On the second day of Fellow Up, the "Storytelling Workshop" was organized by Serdar Paktin and Inanç Msrl for Fellow100 team. Fellows were taught to tell their stories with different techniques.
Youngpreneurs Events
The Entrepreneurship Foundation continues to organize its public events under the Youngpreneurs brand. Under this brand, our Fellows organized 28 events in their universities and cities. More than 120,000 people attended the Global Entrepreneurship Week events and the number of people they reached through social media was nearly 500,000 people. They spread the culture they learned as entrepreneurship ambassadors. Bogaziçi University LightUP Case Study Day, Istanbul University's social media strategies event for entrepreneurs, and Istanbul Technical University Entrepreneurship Summit were some of the events that were organized.
Global Events
Some of the Fellows and Board members of Turkish Entrepreneurship Foundation participated in the DLD Tel Aviv Conference in September and NOAH London in November. Two of our Fellows and our General Manager joined the San Francisco ecosystem trip as a part of TEB LetsUP project that we are partnering.
Projects and Events with our partners
We carried Innovation Projects with our main sponsor / partner Garanti Bank, our co-sponsor / partner Allianz, and our supporter GE. The results of the projects where Fellows worked in groups on the problems of companies were satisfying. We organized Unlu&Co Academy of Women Entrepreneurs with our Co-Sponsor / Partner Unlu&Co and Endeavor. The program supported 20 women entrepreneurs to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Unlu&Co. The entrepreneurs who participated to the program were trained for 2 days on topics such as finance, marketing, coaching, networking and business model. Six young women among our Fellows and our alumni also participated in the program.
Other Events
Fellows participated in many entrepreneurship events in Turkey. They got inspired in many entrepreneurship event including Create Up Summit, Nestle Entrepreneurship Inspirational Meeting, GEW events, Ashoka Young Social Entrepreneurs Open Office, GBA Happy Hour, Webrazzi Conferences, Marketing Meetup and Hello Tomorrow Future of Energy. They shared the inspiration they got and their impressions from the events on our blog, ww.futureleadnow.com.
On the other hand, Entrepreneurship Foundation team participated in many events such as TTGV Refresh, Garanti Turkey Women Entrepreneur Competition Award Ceremony, Tech Camp for Refugees, KUSIF Forum Meeting, Mentorship 360, LetsUP Krklareli-Edirne and Çorum and Ministry of Development Career Project. With all these events they got the chance to inspire more than 2,500 individuals.
News from Fellows
Some of the Fellows and Board members of Turkish Entrepreneurship Foundation participated in the DLD Tel Aviv Conference in September and NOAH London in November. Two of our Fellows and our General Manager joined the San Francisco ecosystem trip as a part of TEB LetsUP project that we are partnering. Umutcan Duman, Fellow alumni and founder of the Evreka, got his first investment from undisclosed investors and Eray Erdogan, also a Fellow alumni and the founder of Lala Egitim, got his first investment from BIC. From our Fellows, Otsimo's founder Hasan Zafer Elcik got his first investment from GBA and got accepted to Mass Challenge Tel Aviv program. He also won the prize of 75.000 TL in TÜSIAD's Bu Genclikte Is Var Competition and nominated to Crystal Tree Awards in Young Entrepreneur of the Year category. Gokce Gulculer, Fellow alumni and founder of Ustamdan.com, was nominated for the Garanti Turkey Women Entrepreneur Competition Award. Dilan Tulan’s startup Bananama, became the most supported startup in BIC101 event. Egemen Filiz's startup Reflect was one of the seven startups who got accepted to ImpactHub's Unreasonable Labs program.
Currently, there are 29 startups that are founded by our Fellows and Alumni.
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