Thought leader and contributor to The Wall Street Journal bestseller “Global Class,” a book on the future of international business, offering a playbook on how the world’s most successful companies scale globally (written by Klaus Wehage and Aaron McDaniel). As an entrepreneur and global business leader, I shared my experiences and insights from having scaled companies like Talabat to regions across the world.

BitOasis is one of the region’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency exchanges and platforms. It provides various services that facilitate the buying, selling, and storing of multiple cryptocurrencies. I joined the company as the first team member entrusted with spearheading the market entry into Turkey. I'm humbled to share that we achieved this significant milestone in under six months. My primary responsibilities involved adapting the product to meet Turkish regulations and user expectations, building and leading the Turkey management team, hiring our initial 20 employees, establishing partnerships with local banks and payment providers, launching the first marketing campaign, and successfully onboarding our first few thousand customers.After a successful launch in the Turkish market, I decided to leave BitOasis and pursue my next startup opportunity.

As the Managing Director, I held full responsibility for managing the P&L of the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Oman. Overseeing the largest P&L within the organization, our focused efforts led to accelerated growth. Notably, we achieved a nearly twofold increase in yearly growth in both the UAE and Kuwait, while accomplishing an exceptional fourfold increase in yearly growth in Oman.Additionally, I had the invaluable opportunity to gain firsthand experience through involvement in the region's two largest mergers: Zomato and Carriage.

In addition to my role as Managing Director, I had the privilege of being entrusted with a dual position to spearhead the international expansion of Talabat in the region.Undertaking the launch of Iraq proved to be the most intricate yet enlightening experience of my career. Taking charge of formulating and executing the expansion plan both in financial and operational aspects, adapting the product to meet the specific requirements of Iraq, assembling the initial team of 20 employees, including the Iraq management team, onboarding the first few hundred restaurant partners, and orchestrating the launch marketing campaign were among the key responsibilities I handled.

Talabat is a Delivery Hero company.

At the outset, my main goal was to enhance the sales team's scalability and streamline the sales process through the implementation of SalesForce. Thanks to the successful execution of these initiatives, I had the privilege of growing the team from a modest 7 members to an impressive 100 individuals before embarking on my new role.During this transformative journey, we experienced remarkable progress by quadrupling the number of restaurants on the platform. This expansion played a pivotal role in driving significant growth and widening our reach in the market.

Insider connects data across channels, predicts future behavior with AI, and individualizes experiences from a single platform with the fastest time to value.Insider secured around $250 million in funding from renowned venture capital firms like Sequoia and Riverwood. This significant investment propelled Insider to join Turkey's exclusive group of tech unicorns.As the first team member leading the launch and expansion of their Middle East operations, I worked extensively across the GCC, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt, introducing Insider to potential clients. This experience provided valuable insights into the region's unique dynamics and consumer behaviors.During my two-year tenure, we achieved significant success by onboarding esteemed companies in the region, including Aramex, Virgin, Jarir, Talabat, AirArabia, and more.

Uniyemek was a specialized food delivery platform catering exclusively to university students, focusing on serving campuses and areas with a high student population.Securing almost a half-million-dollar funding round was a significant milestone in my journey as a young entrepreneur. With a small team I was leading, we developed a student-tailored product and expanded our operations to six major cities in no time. Through swift and decisive execution, we emerged as the second-largest player in the market, trailing only behind Yemeksepeti. We were ahead of the curve by introducing student-friendly features like "order now, pay later" well before it gained widespread popularity.However, a few years after my departure, Uniyemek discontinued its operations.

Inbound serves high-frequency e-commerce businesses by leveraging strong analytical skills to provide valuable insights and data-driven strategies.As a first-time entrepreneur, Inbound provided a safe environment to learn from my mistakes. The opportunity to collaborate closely with leading e-commerce companies gave me a profound understanding of the digital landscape and consumer behavior. I have since been leveraging this knowledge in my subsequent endeavors.I am delighted to witness my former co-founders achieving market dominance and becoming trusted partners for renowned brands in Turkey, including Gap, Sephora, Marks & Spencer, DeFacto, Decathlon, and more.