Fun dinner with chief mentors, VCs, university observers, life coaches & family from the European @innovationacademy in Turin!! Photos by Radha! #eiamoments #eia2017italy#eia2017turin #accelerator #startups#entrepreneurship #Torino #Turin
I love supporting global women entrepreneurs, like Sydney Alfonso
Considering getting evicted due to Netflix's Original Series Sense8, TBT
Joining ITUGate as a mentor
Happy to join the global mentors of Istanbul Technical University's International Start-Up Acceleration Program ITUGATE. During their six month stay in San Francisco this year, I'll be mentoring a set of technology-producing companies and entrepreneurs entering the US & international markets.
Read more about ITU ARI Teknokent's program to help companies to enter the US market and to provide access to Silicon Valley. It's based at Galvanize, one of the best startup centers in San Francisco.
The Berkeley Method Bootcamp: Mentor & Pitch Judge
This was one of the startups I judged at The Berkeley Method Bootcamp, Fall 2016, UC Berkeley's Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology -- and the team our room sent to the finals.
Featured in a video interview for BMOE, talking about the issues of early stage startups.
Interviewed for a Growth Hacking thesis
...by an Irish entrepreneur from the European Innovation Academy this summer. Here are his questions, and my answers:
• What is growth hacking in your opinion?
Accelerating the usual rate of growth of a product or service.
• How relevant is growth hacking for start ups?
It’s required for startups to differentiate themselves from lifestyle businesses and other non-scaleable businesses.
• In your opinion, has there been a paradigm shift away from traditional sales and marketing? If so, is it here to stay? If not, why not?
Marketers would say no, growth hacking is the same as marketing. What might be different is the time scale.
• What are the characteristics required to be a growth hacker?
Knowing where people are, how they can be reached, and what it’s worth costing to do so.
• Is an appreciation of marketing and coding needed to growth hack successfully or is a deeper understanding required?
Expert growth hackers would probably say there is a deeper understanding, but I think anyone can be a growth hacker to a basic degree. I like growthhackers.com as a resource for newcomers.
• What method / methods of growth hacking did you or your organisation employ to gain traction?
The last startup I worked with was so unfamiliar with growth hacking they refused to consider the San Francisco and Silicon Valley standards I suggested. They are not based in the USA. This would have been a way for them to level the playing field, and I suggest it for startups outside the USA.
• Should big data be embraced in the customer acquisition process or is privacy becoming more important?
If you can get access to data, by all means, use it. Also, don’t be a creep, and think of the user. There is plenty of data users don’t mind parting with for real value. It does not have to be a privacy issue.
• Are there a set of steps a startup can take in order to optimise the growth hacking process? Is growth hacking an art or a science or a combination of both?
It’s both an art and a science. As I suggested earlier, try tapping into the community of growth hackers at growthhackers.com
Chief Mentor At The European Innovation Academy
Honored to be a Chief Mentor at the European Innovation Academy this summer in Nice, France. (That's like Tim Gunn's role on Project Runway, for up to 7 groups of entrepreneurs.)
500 college student entrepreneurs will take an idea to a tech startup in 15 days in this program that brings together faculty from 75 nations, and education programs developed with universities and organizations like UC Berkeley, Stanford, Google, IBM and Amadeus.
Thanks to Ajda Mustafova for making this connection.