Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

The Startup İstanbul Conference hosted by TOBB and Etohum will be held between the 6^th and 10^th of October, 2016 and will be attended by entrepreneurs, investors and opinion leaders of the business community. A thousand entrepreneurs from 63 countries will seek investment support at TOBB Startup İstanbul.

Applications were made from 135 countries to attend the conference. After the approval process, approximately 1,000 entrepreneurs from 63 countries were invited to İstanbul.

- Program schedule

Guest entrepreneurs will find opportunity to share their business models with prominent global entrepreneurs at the İstanbul Technical University Süleyman Demirel Cultural Center on the 6^th and 7^th of October. Afterwards, 50 short listed entrepreneurs will pitch their ideas to the world’s most important investors.

- Attendees

Prominent global investing firms such as Abraaj Capital, 500Startups, Andreessen Horowitz, YCombinator, Lumia Capital, Wamda Capital, Rubicon Capital will be in İstanbul to meet with select entrepreneurs.

Prominent players in the Turkish business community will also be attending TOBB Startup İstanbul to present their suggestions for the development of the entrepreneurship environment of Turkey.

TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu will be presenting the opening keynote of the last day of TOBB Startup İstanbul on October 10^th at the İstanbul Volkswagen Arena. Doğan Online Founder and Board Chair Hanzade Doğan Boyner and Pegasus Board Chair Ali Sabancı will also be presenting keynotes during the event. Other prominent actors of the entrepreneurship ecosystem are Sam Mallikarjunan of Hubspot, Author Elmira Bayrasli, Ozan Sonmez of Tjump, Couchsurfing.com CEO Casey Fenton, R. Michael Anderson of Executive Joy, Andrew Romans of Rubicon VC, IBM Cloud Vice President Maged Wassim, ‘The Lean Brand Author’ Jeremiah Gardner, Bill Kenney of Test My Pitch, Adora Cheung of Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz Partner Matt Spence, 500 Startups entrepreneur partner Arjun Arora, ‘Startup Rising' Author Christopher Schroeder, Google Partner Lead - VCs and Startups Sharif El-Badawi.

- First step in making İstanbul center of entrepreneurship

Speaking about the event, TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu said:

“Many companies direct their operations in hundreds of countries from İstanbul. İstanbul can act as a center for not just large companies but also a center for startups in Asia, Europe and Africa. TOBB Startup İstanbul is the first step in making İstanbul into global entrepreneurship center. Considering that over half of all billion dollar enterprises in the USA are founded by immigrants, it is easy to understand the importance of attracting qualified entrepreneurs of the region to İstanbul. TOBB Startup İstanbul is the first step in making İstanbul into global entrepreneurship center. Thousands of applications from over a hundred countries is the most concrete proof that İstanbul can shine as a global center of entrepreneurship.”

- Startup İstanbul will pick up momentum with TOBB

Startup İstanbul held by Etohum annually, will be held for the 4^th time this year by TOBB. TOBB Startup İstanbul, a global organization, will benefit from TOBB’s global business network.