An Entrepreneurship Adventure for Students: birFİKRİNmiVAR?
‘Launching Turkey’s Largest University-Wide Entrepreneurship Competition’
birFİKRİNmiVAR? entrepreneurship competition, launched and run by LabX, aims to enhance the awareness for entrepreneurship and innovation skills amongst the youth by finding, rewarding and even financing new business ideas (a unique competition where the winner’s idea is financed by business angels and a new company is born at the end of each competition). LabX intends to further sponsor the competition and carry it through many years by providing assistance and financing for young entrepreneurs’ business startups.
The competition in 2007-2008 academic year has been sponsored and supported by five business partners all of which are leading figures in their own field of expertise. The business partners comprise Turkey’s leading research university - Bilkent University, LabX, GYİAD (Young Businessmen and Executives NGO), Turkey’s fastest growing Technology Development Zone – Ankara Cyberpark and Akbank, one of Turkey’s largest banks and an award-winning global financial institution.
The course of competition is divided into two phases – ‘Business Ideas’ and ‘Business Plans’. The objective in the first phase is to reveal best business ideas. In the second phase, semi –finalists succeeding the first phase are asked to develop business plans to be evaluated by a preeminent jury consisting of executives, academicians and business professionals.
The entrepreneurship competiton birFİKRİNmiVAR? was one of the most exciting and interesting events of the 2007-2008 academic year where it attracted over 750 university students from 25 different universities in Turkey – one of the largest attendance rates for an university-wide competition and offered a total prize of TRY 100.000. In the second year, the competition attracted 952 university students from 101 different universities and offered a total prize of TRY 300.000. Seemingly, the best offering of the competition is when the winner is invited by LabX to present its business idea and business plan to angel investors. If the winner can convince the investors of its business idea's commercial appeal, the dream of establishing a company can actually turn into reality. Together with LabX, first year's winner Begum Bugdayci has set up her own company Kobay Deney Hayvnlari Laboratuarı A.S. (Kobay DHL A.S.) in September 2008 and became the general manager.
In the upcoming years, LabX's objective is to further increase the number of applicants and participating universities by building on the awareness created in previous year' competitions.
For further information and latest updates please visit the website: www.birfikrinmivar.com
A New Concept in Interactive Advertising: Paramarka.com
Paramarka.com, a newly established business venture incubated by LabX and financed by LabX’s Business Angel Network, brings in a completely new concept and founds the basis for the new age of interactive marketing. Paramarka is a web portal which brings brands and consumers together by enabling brands to tender creative advertisement ideas and consumers to make money evaluating products and contributing to advertising campaigns. Paramarka is an unique online platform for brands and consumers to meet and challenge their creativity.
Paramarka.com consists of three parts: Brain, Eye and Ear. Brain is the part where members can find out or even create advertising campaigns for brands by preparing slogans, posters, brochures, domain names, ambient media, press releases and viral videos. The other two parts Eye and Ear are on the way. Online since March 2009, Paramarka.com has reached thousands of members in a very short time frame and has proven to be an unprecedented and unique advertising and interaction platform both for advertisers to reach their target audience and for creative people to stand out with their work.
For further information please visit the website www.paramarka.com
Kobay DHL A.S. : Laboratory Animal Production in Turkey
"Healthy test animals with healthy production,
Healthy tests with healthy test animals,
Healthy results with healthy tests..."
The winner of the ‘birFİKRİNmiVAR?’ entrepreneurship competition in the 2007-2008 academic year has been invited by LabX to present its business idea and business plan to angel investors and the dream of the winner turned into reality. A company in the medical sector was set up under the name Kobay Deney Hayvanları Laboratuarı A.S. (Kobay DHL A.S.) in September 2008 and the winner university student became the general manager of the newly established company.
Kobay DHL A.S., Turkey’s first private sector company to produce laboratory animals, intends to fill the gap in the medical sector by providing specific pathogen free test animals. The fact that there is not any standardized production available in Turkey has made Kobay DHL A.S. the pioneer of the sector. The company’s mission is to optimize the quality and safety of medical tests as these tests actually aim to improve human beings’ health.
Currently angel investors and LabX are continuously guiding Kobay DHL A.S. and the idea-owner for success.
For further information please visit the website www.kobay.com.tr
LabX’s First Business Venture to Go Live: SMS-GROUPS
“First Business Venture Entirely Financed by a Turkish Business Angel Network”
“World’s First Mobile Group Text Messaging Model”
“First VAS Service Simultaneously Supported by All Turkish Mobile Operators”
SMS Groups, a business startup completely incubated and developed by LabX with funding from its distinguished business angel network, is not only Turkey’s but also world’s first mobile group text messaging service. Without having to know any mobile numbers, the system enables users to instantly contact hundreds of pre-defined group members, regardless of their choice of Turkish mobile operators. The users benefiting from this service are charged only the price of one SMS. This cost-effective mobile technology is preferred particularly by foundations, communities, universities, schools, alumni associations, institutions, celebrities and fan clubs
SMS Groups originated with a gripping business idea dreamed up by acclaimed entrepreneurs Baris Muslu and Akin Zeman, who also previously initiated and introduced Turkey’s first mobile chat system - ChatWalk. The unprecedented mobile service SMS Groups offers a high-speed and easy-to-use form of communication among groups of people and all this only at a small charge.
Affirmed as the portable version of the social networking phenomenon Facebook, SMS Groups operates like e-Groups with the only difference being sending SMS text messages instead of e-mails. Within this service, mobile phone users are able to create their own groups or join existing groups. In addition, it only costs the price of a single SMS message to communicate hundreds of people at the same time. The outlay for the group members, to whom the text message is actually delivered, is also the price of only one SMS message.
Baris Muslu and Akin Zeman express their discontent over lack of new inventions and innovations in Turkey and hence, they are proud to defy this belief by introducing an unique mobile communication concept. The founders believe that SMS Groups will emerge as a powerful brand worldwide.