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STARTUP WEEKEND ON THE TURKISH BORDER UNITES TWO COUNTRIES' ENTREPRENEURS
Tech Crunch
Nov 28 2014
Posted 20 hours ago by Elmira Bayrasli
It's not unusual to encounter a Startup Weekend somewhere in the
world. The trademarked event that brings together individuals eager
to build and present it before a panel of entrepreneurship experts
and investors is well known and widely replicated.
Yet, when a Startup Weekend involves Armenia and Turkey - known
adversaries - things change.
Earlier this month, the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey
(TEPAV), the Public Journalism Club (PJC) based in Yerevan, and
Global Entrepreneurship Week in Armenia collaborated to host Startup
Weekend Armenia-Turkey. It was the first Startup Weekend to involve
entrepreneurs from two countries with no diplomatic relations. It
was also a rare Startup Weekend to take place in two different cities.
Kicking off in Armenia's capital Yerevan, more than two-dozen men
and women crowded into Elite Plaza, a sleek business center. The
facilitators, Ece Idil Kasap and Emin Okutan, partners of the Turkish
accelerator Viveka, eased the crowd donned in black Startup Weekend
t-shirts into the weekend's activities. It was a slow start, with
more feet shuffling and hands in pockets.
Soon enough, however, the room started to buzz. Armenians and Turks
broke into six mixed teams and began to work on developing their
startup ideas. By the time pitches came around on Sunday afternoon
in Gyumri - a city 75 miles northwest of Yerevan - new ventures,
along with friendships, had been formed.
Mihran Babayan and Vahagn Hovhannisyan, both based in Yerevan,
had come to the event with their plan for Home Planning, an online
interior design business. "I thought I could develop a bigger network
with Turkish people," Hovhannisyan said, noting that Armenia is
a land-locked country of just 3 million. "During the 24 hours of
working with the Turks I got new ideas that are great and I made
great connections."
Similarly Mariam Dilbandyan came to Startup Weekend Armenia-Turkey
with Seeing Hands, a social enterprise that trains the blind to give
massages, with the hopes of building her business. "I heard that a
Turkish group was coming and I know that in Turkey there are many
beaches," she said. And where there are beaches there are people in
search of massages. With 80 million in Turkey, Dilbandyan pointed
out, she has a better chance of scaling her business idea than merely
staying in Armenia.
"My grandparents are from Western Armenia - from Erzurum," she said.
"So I feel a connection with them. I love Turkish people."
Hers was a view that was echoed. In fact, throughout the weekend, as
Sinem Duman, a student at Turkey's TOBB University noted, there was
little if any talk about the historical enmities between Armenia and
Turkey. "I thought the atmosphere would be more tense," she said. "In
fact everyone was eager to make friendships."
"This was an awesome chance to work with our colleagues from Turkey,"
said Artavazd Barseghyan, the co-founder of a Yerevan-based software
company. He noted that he didn't think about his country's bad
relationship with Turkey. "I think that the younger set of minds
are different; we are open and don't find problems - we want to find
solutions." He noted that the Armenia-Turkey Startup Weekend proved
that. "It doesn't matter to which nation you belong to - we are united
in technology."
Among the six teams at Startup Weekend Armenia-Turkey that found
success, Home Planning and Seeing Hands earned recognition for their
original ideas. It was, however, a startup that fuses the sharing
economy to cloud storage - "an Airbnb for file sharing" that came
out on top - WeCloud.
WeCloud, an idea put forward by Berkay Akcora, Anita Alexanian, Umutcan
Duman and Gor Vardanyan, addresses the increasing problem of growing
data but little storage. The startup allows a user to "trade in unused
local storage to provide low cost, unlimited hosting services."
The experience both Alexanian and Duman noted exceeded their collective
expectations. "It's amazing what you can do in 24 hours - how much
you can learn," said Duman. More important, he noted, was how much
he bonded with his Armenian partners. "We weren't focused on being
Armenian or Turkish - just on being the best."
http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/27/startup-weekend-on-the-turkish-border-unites-two-countries-entrepreneurs/
Tech Crunch
Nov 28 2014
Posted 20 hours ago by Elmira Bayrasli
It's not unusual to encounter a Startup Weekend somewhere in the
world. The trademarked event that brings together individuals eager
to build and present it before a panel of entrepreneurship experts
and investors is well known and widely replicated.
Yet, when a Startup Weekend involves Armenia and Turkey - known
adversaries - things change.
Earlier this month, the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey
(TEPAV), the Public Journalism Club (PJC) based in Yerevan, and
Global Entrepreneurship Week in Armenia collaborated to host Startup
Weekend Armenia-Turkey. It was the first Startup Weekend to involve
entrepreneurs from two countries with no diplomatic relations. It
was also a rare Startup Weekend to take place in two different cities.
Kicking off in Armenia's capital Yerevan, more than two-dozen men
and women crowded into Elite Plaza, a sleek business center. The
facilitators, Ece Idil Kasap and Emin Okutan, partners of the Turkish
accelerator Viveka, eased the crowd donned in black Startup Weekend
t-shirts into the weekend's activities. It was a slow start, with
more feet shuffling and hands in pockets.
Soon enough, however, the room started to buzz. Armenians and Turks
broke into six mixed teams and began to work on developing their
startup ideas. By the time pitches came around on Sunday afternoon
in Gyumri - a city 75 miles northwest of Yerevan - new ventures,
along with friendships, had been formed.
Mihran Babayan and Vahagn Hovhannisyan, both based in Yerevan,
had come to the event with their plan for Home Planning, an online
interior design business. "I thought I could develop a bigger network
with Turkish people," Hovhannisyan said, noting that Armenia is
a land-locked country of just 3 million. "During the 24 hours of
working with the Turks I got new ideas that are great and I made
great connections."
Similarly Mariam Dilbandyan came to Startup Weekend Armenia-Turkey
with Seeing Hands, a social enterprise that trains the blind to give
massages, with the hopes of building her business. "I heard that a
Turkish group was coming and I know that in Turkey there are many
beaches," she said. And where there are beaches there are people in
search of massages. With 80 million in Turkey, Dilbandyan pointed
out, she has a better chance of scaling her business idea than merely
staying in Armenia.
"My grandparents are from Western Armenia - from Erzurum," she said.
"So I feel a connection with them. I love Turkish people."
Hers was a view that was echoed. In fact, throughout the weekend, as
Sinem Duman, a student at Turkey's TOBB University noted, there was
little if any talk about the historical enmities between Armenia and
Turkey. "I thought the atmosphere would be more tense," she said. "In
fact everyone was eager to make friendships."
"This was an awesome chance to work with our colleagues from Turkey,"
said Artavazd Barseghyan, the co-founder of a Yerevan-based software
company. He noted that he didn't think about his country's bad
relationship with Turkey. "I think that the younger set of minds
are different; we are open and don't find problems - we want to find
solutions." He noted that the Armenia-Turkey Startup Weekend proved
that. "It doesn't matter to which nation you belong to - we are united
in technology."
Among the six teams at Startup Weekend Armenia-Turkey that found
success, Home Planning and Seeing Hands earned recognition for their
original ideas. It was, however, a startup that fuses the sharing
economy to cloud storage - "an Airbnb for file sharing" that came
out on top - WeCloud.
WeCloud, an idea put forward by Berkay Akcora, Anita Alexanian, Umutcan
Duman and Gor Vardanyan, addresses the increasing problem of growing
data but little storage. The startup allows a user to "trade in unused
local storage to provide low cost, unlimited hosting services."
The experience both Alexanian and Duman noted exceeded their collective
expectations. "It's amazing what you can do in 24 hours - how much
you can learn," said Duman. More important, he noted, was how much
he bonded with his Armenian partners. "We weren't focused on being
Armenian or Turkish - just on being the best."
http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/27/startup-weekend-on-the-turkish-border-unites-two-countries-entrepreneurs/