About
I'm a serial founder and operator who's spent the last decade building at the intersection of product, growth, and startups. I co-founded Botanalytics, a conversational analytics company backed by 500Startups and ACT Venture Partners, and before that co-founded Referbase, a skill-referencing platform that grew from 0 to 100k users before being acquired by Kariyer.net, Turkey's leading recruitment platform. I wrote Founder's FAQ, a book distilling lessons from interviews with 50+ founders and investors behind companies like Airbnb, Stripe, and Slack, and I contributed to Forbes for two years on startup topics. I've also worked on the other side of the table as an Entrepreneur in Residence at ScaleX Ventures, where I built Founders Hub to help B2B founders scale, and as a Growth Consultant at Bain & Company supporting Series A/B portfolio startups. Today I'm Co-Founder & CEO of Finch. I'm a desirous learner and do'er at heart, always building.
How I Can Help
Startup Growth & Scaling
Having taken Referbase from 0 to 100k users and advised Bain's Series A/B portfolio companies, I can help teams navigate the growth stage with concrete playbooks.
Founder Coaching & Mentorship
Through ScaleX Ventures' Founders Hub, I've coached B2B founders on product, marketing, fundraising, and growth.
Product & Engineering Leadership
As a hands-on CEO with a computer engineering background, I bring both technical depth and product management experience to building software companies.
Founder Knowledge Sharing
Through Founder's FAQ and my Forbes column, I've synthesized lessons from 50+ founders and investors into practical, honest guidance for the startup journey.
Experience
Co-Founder & CEO · Finch Network
January 2024 - PresentEntrepreneur in Residence · ScaleX Ventures
January 2022 - December 2023- Built and led Founders Hub, a cohort for B2B founders to scale their businesses by learning from top-tier operators and other founders.
- Supported the company's portfolio companies on product, marketing, fundraising, and growth efforts.
Growth Consultant · Bain & Company
June 2021 - May 2022- Supported Bain & Company's portfolio startups in their growth, primarily focusing on those in Series A and Series B stages.
Author · Founder's FAQ
September 2020 - August 2021- Wrote an authentic guide for founders revealing what works and what doesn't in the predictable journey of a startup.
- Interviewed more than 50 people including founders who scaled and exited, investors of Airbnb, Coinbase, Deliveroo, Gusto, HubSpot, Instacart, Kayak, Lyft, Opendoor, Robinhood, Slack, Snapchat, Snowflake, Square, Stripe, Twilio, Udemy, and leaders of high-growth startups.
Co-Founder & CEO · Botanalytics
September 2015 - February 2020- Built a conversational analytics company for bots and human agents, backed by 500Startups & ACT Venture Partners.
- Improved human-to-bot communication by identifying bottlenecks, segmenting conversations, and giving smart recommendations.
Forbes Contributor · Forbes
January 2018 - January 2020- Contributed articles at forbes.com/sites/ilkerkoksal.
Consultant · Google
April 2015 - September 2015- Worked with regional Google Analytics teams and UX consultants to design mobile monetization strategies for Google's e-commerce clients in Turkey.
- Created mobile audit analysis reports using Google 25 Principles, Mobile Friendly Tests, Page Speed Insights, and search keyword optimization techniques.
- Presented mobile audit analysis reports for clients including Hepsiburada.com, Atlas Global, Morhipo, CepteTeb, Enuygun.com, Nissan, Tatil.com, Teknosa, İkinciYeni, Kia, and Tatilsepeti.com.
Co-founder · Referbase - Acquired by Kariyer.net
May 2012 - August 2015- Founded a reference-based skill search platform where users built portfolios via references, coding challenges, and video uploads.
- Managed the platform's product & growth, moving from 0 to 100k users.
- Developed the front-end infrastructure.
- Acquired by Kariyer.net, the leading recruitment platform in Turkey, in 2013.