During his speech, Emre Kurttepeli shared his future predictions for the next two years:
“Based on my recent meetings I had with major VC fund managers in the US in November and in my opinion, 2024 and 2025 will be challenging years for entrepreneurs.
Warren Buffett has a saying, ‘Only when the tide goes out do you learn who has been swimming naked.’ We are entering a tough period for new entrepreneurs, but also an acid test for existing successful ventures. In other words, we’ll see who has their ‘swimsuit on.’ I believe this is a good thing in the long run because the ones that survive will come out much stronger. Thus the whole tech ecosystem will evolve into a healthier structure.
Next two years will be crucial years for the existing startups in Turkey. Current trending investment categories evolve around AI, Robotics, Biomed and MedTech. These trends require expensive and deep R&D. Unfortunately Turkey is not strong in these areas. We need to transition to being producers of these technologies from consumers of them. Finding out how to accomplish this is vital. Turkey’s population and economy were big enough to sustain local startups but now its time to go global full scale.
Over the next 10 years, all business sectors will need to embrace and utilize artificial intelligence. This will create a huge opportunity for entrepereneurs and Turkish entrepreneurs need to find out how to be part of this transformation.
John Kay’s ‘Obliquity’ book conveys a very important message; the way to achieve our goals is to go there indirectly. So, if you want to be happy, your goal should not be to be happy, or if you want to create shareholder value, your prime goal should not be creating shareholder value.”