Ilker Koksal
Founder & CEO who has built, scaled, and exited startups — turning hard-won lessons into playbooks for others
San Francisco, California, United States
I'm a technology entrepreneur based in San Francisco, currently Co-Founder & CEO of Finch Network. I've founded two startups: Botanalytics, a conversational analytics company for bots and human agents backed by 500Startups & ACT Venture Partners, and Referbase, a reference-based skill search platform that grew from 0 to 100k users before being acquired by Kariyer.net, Turkey's leading recruitment platform, in 2013. I spent time as an Entrepreneur in Residence at ScaleX Ventures building Founders Hub for B2B founders, and as a Growth Consultant at Bain & Company supporting Series A/B portfolio startups. I authored Founder's FAQ, a guidebook for startup founders based on interviews with 50+ founders and investors from firms behind Airbnb, Coinbase, Stripe, and more, and I host the accompanying Founder's FAQ podcast featuring guests like a16z's David Haber. I was also a Forbes Contributor and named to Forbes 30 Under 30. I hold a Computer Engineering degree from Bilkent University and an MBA from Koç Üniversitesi, along with executive programs at Yale SOM and IE Business School.
Founding & Scaling Startups
I've founded Botanalytics (backed by 500Startups) and Referbase (acquired by Kariyer.net), and now lead Finch Network — I can help with company-building from 0 to exit.
Growth & Product Strategy
As a Bain & Company Growth Consultant and ScaleX Ventures EIR, I've advised Series A/B startups on product, marketing, fundraising, and growth.
Founder Education & Community
Through Founder's FAQ (book + podcast) and Founders Hub, I've interviewed 50+ top founders and investors and distilled real playbooks for navigating the startup journey.
Founder's FAQ (Book)
An authentic guidebook answering the toughest questions founders face, built on interviews with 50+ founders who scaled and exited, plus investors behind Airbnb, Coinbase, Stripe, Snapchat, Slack, and more.
Published on Amazon
Founder's FAQ (Podcast)
Host of a podcast interviewing top founders and VCs — guests include David Haber (a16z), Brandon Potts (Framework Ventures), and Kash Dhanda (COO at Jupiter).
Ongoing
Botanalytics
Co-founded a conversational analytics company for bots and human agents, improving human-to-bot communication by identifying bottlenecks and giving smart recommendations. Backed by 500Startups & ACT Venture Partners.
Sep 2015 - Feb 2020
Referbase
Co-founded a reference-based skill search platform where users built portfolios through references, code challenges, and skill videos. Led product & growth from 0 to 100k users.
Acquired by Kariyer.net in 2013
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- Founder's FAQ covers the answers to all the possible questions of a founder in a startup journey, revealing what works and what doesn't in the predictable journey of the startup.
- Interviewed more than 50 people for the book; founders who scaled their startups and exited, investors of Airbnb, Coinbase, Deliveroo, Gusto, HubSpot, Instacart, Kayak, Lyft, Opendoor, Robinhood, Slack, Snapchat, Snowflake, Square, Stripe, Twilio, Udemy, and sales, marketing, product 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 2020Consultant · Google
April 2015 - September 2015- Worked with regional Google Analytics teams and UX consultants to design strategies to improve mobile monetization for Google's e-commerce clients in Turkey.
- Created mobile audit analysis reports using industry research, Google 25 Principles studies, Mobile Friendly Tests, and Page Speed Insights.
- 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 as a reference-based skill search platform where thousands of people managed and enhanced their skills via references, coding challenges, and portfolio videos.
- Managed the platform's product & growth, moving from 0 to 100k users.
- Developed the front-end infrastructure.
- In 2013, acquired by Kariyer.net, the leading recruitment platform in Turkey.