Mentors & Experts
Different people with exciting backgrounds
Bill
Bill Kenney is a founder, convener, and connector. He has founded 6 companies. His current venture, MEET (meetroi.com) helps B2B growth companies scale quickly through trade shows and in-person marketing. MEET builds and executes strategy that creates a consistent and efficient flow of quality prospects for its clients. Bill entertains audiences frequently and speaks on a variety of topics, including entrepreneurship, networking, revenue generation, and community building. He also leads several community building efforts in his home state, Connecticut, USA. He is an avid sailor, cyclist, and paddleboarder.
Burak
Burak is the founder of Etohum, leading accelerator and seed investor organization in Turkey. Etohum selects 40 startups every year, trains, mentors and seed invests startups every year. Etohum has already invested 80 of startups. Etohum organizes 'Startup Turkey' and 'Startup Istanbul' events, where startups pitches to investors and high networking with European, Asian and African internet ecosystems. Additionally after working at financial and technology firms for 10 years, he wrote a book depicting the founding stories of internet startups in Turkey. He worked as a part-time lecturer in Istanbul Technical University and Bahcesehir University.
Yousef
Yousef Hamidaddin for the last 5 years has been focused on building and deploying a regional innovative strategy starting from Jordan & worked on developing 40MUSD in innovative funds to deliver solutions that address the a region to be well positioned as an "open lab” - a term coined for early adoption that can take solutions globally.
He was a board member of ICTAC (ICT Advisory Council) to the Minister of ICT, a board member of Int@j (Information & Communication Association of Jordan) which is a voluntary non-profit, private organization representing, promoting and advancing the Jordanian software and IT services industry in the global market. He sat on the Technology & Innovation Cluster Committee under the Ministry of Planning & International Cooperation, & appointed as part of the Jordan Technology Re-launch Team labeled as Reach 2025 which was was launched in November 2016. He was the chairman of the Innovative Solution Board an initiative from the Foundation of HRH the Crown Prince of Jordan. He was also CEO of Oasis 500 a Jordan based MENA wide accelerator where he managed a portfolio of over 130 startups, and raising 18MUSD in followup funding.
Yousef is a frequent speaker on innovation, entrepreneurship, &
acceleration across MENA.
He was a board member of ICTAC (ICT Advisory Council) to the Minister of ICT, a board member of Int@j (Information & Communication Association of Jordan) which is a voluntary non-profit, private organization representing, promoting and advancing the Jordanian software and IT services industry in the global market. He sat on the Technology & Innovation Cluster Committee under the Ministry of Planning & International Cooperation, & appointed as part of the Jordan Technology Re-launch Team labeled as Reach 2025 which was was launched in November 2016. He was the chairman of the Innovative Solution Board an initiative from the Foundation of HRH the Crown Prince of Jordan. He was also CEO of Oasis 500 a Jordan based MENA wide accelerator where he managed a portfolio of over 130 startups, and raising 18MUSD in followup funding.
Yousef is a frequent speaker on innovation, entrepreneurship, &
acceleration across MENA.
Ozan
Ozan Sonmez supports and mentors startups, investors and accelerators globally for a healthier ecosystem through various engagements and initiatives in Turkey, Middle East, South East Asia and Europe. After running several startup accelerators, in Turkey and also in Saudi Arabia, he took over the T-Jump Startup Hub in San Francisco as the Managing Director and turned it into a seed stage investor/accelerator and renamed it to Growth Circuit.
He has a background in financial management with Deloitte, and since 2008 he had been actively engaged with startups & accelerators & investors. He served as a judge and instructor in global programs, such as MIT EF Arab Startup Competition, Global Startup Battle (TechStars initiative), Startup Istanbul & Startup Turkey, Startupbootcamp, Hult Social Business competition and Startup MENA. He serves as an angel investor, mentor & advisor to startups like Silkroad Images (500Startups Portfolio Company), Pony Express (x-YC Team) and Scotty (Raised +3m$) and is a regular MC, trainer, lecturer, advisor to various universities & entrepreneurship centers.
He has a background in financial management with Deloitte, and since 2008 he had been actively engaged with startups & accelerators & investors. He served as a judge and instructor in global programs, such as MIT EF Arab Startup Competition, Global Startup Battle (TechStars initiative), Startup Istanbul & Startup Turkey, Startupbootcamp, Hult Social Business competition and Startup MENA. He serves as an angel investor, mentor & advisor to startups like Silkroad Images (500Startups Portfolio Company), Pony Express (x-YC Team) and Scotty (Raised +3m$) and is a regular MC, trainer, lecturer, advisor to various universities & entrepreneurship centers.