Incubation centers seed innovation culture in Turkey

By Tuncay Kayaoglu

ISTANBUL

“Aiming to raise future’s Steve Jobs and Bill Gates,” reads title of a Turkish technical university’s newsletter, which announces the opening of an incubation center within its teknopark. When I read the newsletter, many questions pop up in my mind, if not outright disbelief: is it easy to raise people like Steve Jobs? How can you incubate ideas and innovation, in finding the next great big thing? Is this about fund or something elusive? For the teknopark’s managers, their conviction stems from their belief in hard work, creativity, and commitment of young Turk entrepreneurs.

Although Turks may have missed every major technological revolution since the industrial revolution, they are determined to catch it up in the Internet era. Government has been generous too: with incentives, funds, and subsidies, many teknoparks have been opened around Turkey in recent years. These teknoparks aim to bridge the gap between university, industry and entrepreneurs. “Istanbul Technical University’s Teknokent is opened in 2002 and houses 150 companies and startups with 5,000 personnel. It is a village for technology,” its director Arzu Yilmaz told AA. In another quarter of the city, Istanbul’s Yildiz Technical University’s teknopark houses 180 companies and starts with and 3,000 personnel.

There are many incentives including tax breaks and lower rents that bring these companies together in the same space and foster a spirit of collaboration and competition. The waiting list to get in the teknoparks is long: in addition to a great project, one should have a company, solid income, patience and persistence before moving in.

What about those without these resources to wait for a spot in the teknopark? Enter: incubation centers.

“We have opened an incubation center that has 800 square meter in 2011 within a teknopark. We select 20 projects every year among 700 applicants. Following the admission process, we let them use the university’s laboratory, research centers and offices equipped with computers, telephones, and internet for free. Also, we have the budget to buy additional equipment to support the startups. Young entrepreneurs are able to attend MBA-like seminars to learn the business side, such as marketing and copyrights,” Yilmaz told. At the end of a yearlong work, they have to present their work, and if our sponsors support them, they can have a place within teknopark, she added.

There exist similar incentives at Yildiz University’s incubation center. Mahmut Karaman, teknopark’s director, voiced caution that one should not expect quick outcome: “Innovation is a long term effort. Those guys need at least 2 years to produce something tangible,” Karaman insisted. He noted that there are many gifted software developer; thus they allocate more space for those developers whereas Istanbul Technical University’s teknokent and incubation center attracts startup and companies that focus on hardware.

“What if they fail at the end of yearlong work,” one might ask. It seems certain that incubation centers equip the nation’s young generation with something more valuable: innovation culture. Having spent 18 years at the US, Karaman commented that Turkish people has “a contractor gene” that motivate people to gain wealth by tested and conservative ways whereas American generation are inclined to innovate so as to realize their dream. Yilmaz, on the other hand, said incubation center have started to produce result already. “Although it has been 2 years, some entrepreneurs developed light body armor that the Turkish Ministry of Defense is interested in working with them to move it to manufacturing phase. Another came up with a sanitizer that kills all hospital germs. Those innovation make me believe in those facilities,” she said.

In addition to Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir are popular places for incubation centers; and many more are to open in near future. Will those centers take up the challenge? As one worker from teknopark told me, “There is no better place than here for great innovation.” The seed innovation has taken its roots, your initially skeptical AA correspondent is convinced after his visits.

englishnews@aa.com.tr