Founder & CEO who has built, scaled, and sold startups — currently building Finch
I'm a technology entrepreneur who's spent over a decade building companies from zero to real outcomes — currently Co-Founder & CEO at Finch Network. I previously co-founded Botanalytics, a conversational analytics company backed by 500Startups and ACT Venture Partners that helped businesses improve human-to-bot communication, and Referbase, a referenced-based skill search platform I grew from 0 to 100k users before it was acquired by Kariyer.net, Turkey's leading recruitment platform. Along the way I've worked as a Growth Consultant at Bain & Company supporting Series A/B portfolio startups, as an Entrepreneur in Residence at ScaleX Ventures where I built and led Founders Hub for B2B founders, and as a Consultant at Google on mobile monetization strategy for major e-commerce clients in Turkey. I wrote Founder's FAQ, a book distilling interviews with 50+ founders and investors behind companies like Airbnb, Coinbase, Stripe, and Slack, and I host the Founder's FAQ podcast where I talk with operators and VCs like David Haber of a16z. I was also a Forbes Contributor and named to Forbes 30Under30. I hold a Computer Engineering degree from Bilkent University, an MBA from Koç Üniversitesi, and executive coursework from Yale School of Management and IE Business School.
Having founded, scaled, and exited companies (Referbase acquired by Kariyer.net, Botanalytics backed by 500Startups), I bring firsthand knowledge of the founder journey to any team.
I've taken products from 0 to 100k users, built front-end infrastructure myself, and led growth efforts across Bain and ScaleX Ventures portfolio companies.
Through writing Founder's FAQ and interviewing 50+ founders and top VCs, I've distilled patterns on fundraising, team-building, and scaling that I can apply directly to new ventures.
Years of hosting the Founder's FAQ podcast and running Founders Hub have connected me with investors and operators behind companies like Airbnb, Stripe, and Andreessen Horowitz.
Co-founded and currently serve as CEO, building the company's next chapter.
Jan 2024 - PresentCo-founded a conversational analytics company for bots and human agents, backed by 500Startups & ACT Venture Partners, improving human-to-bot communication via bottleneck identification, conversation segmentation, and smart recommendations.
Sep 2015 - Feb 2020, 4.5 yearsCo-founded a referenced-based skill search platform where users built portfolios through references, coding challenges, and video uploads. Managed product & growth and built the front-end infrastructure.
Grew 0 to 100k users; acquired by Kariyer.net in 2013Wrote a guidebook answering the toughest questions founders face, based on interviews with 50+ founders and investors behind companies like Airbnb, Coinbase, Stripe, and Slack. Now hosts the Founder's FAQ podcast featuring guests like David Haber (a16z).
Book published 2021; podcast ongoing