25/11/2013
Sabancı University SUCOOL Program is now accepting applications
Start-Up Company League (SUCOOL) is Sabancı University’s pre-incubation facility for innovative enterprises. Named the most innovative and entrepreneurial university of Turkey, Sabancı University partnered with MIT and the National University of Singapore for a facility that provides mentorship, training, business development and office space support to innovative startups. SUCOOL is open to applications by all technology-based entrepreneurs.
Applications will be collected through November, and 5 to 10 projects will be chosen to start receiving supoort in December.
The SUCOOL Pre-Incubation Program consists of four stages:
The program begins with the “SUKur” training and mentorship phase between December and February, where entrepreneurs learn how to deisgn the right business model for the right product to the right market with the right team.
They implement their plans in the “SUYap” phase between March and May, and improve the plans through their learnings.
The “SUSat” phase in June involves presentations to investors and the ecosystem about their progress.
In the last phase of the program, one project each is chosen to represent Turkey in the entrepreneurship camp and competition of MIT and the National University of Singapore, respectively. At the end of their training, participants make case presentations to international investors for prizes. In 2013, teams competing at MIT and NUS returned with 15,000 dollars in prizes.
SUCOOL has Turkey’s leading and growing mentor pool that includes Ali Karabey, Numan Numanbayraktaroğlu and Dilek Dayındarlı of the 212 Invesment Fund; Cloudarena CEO Arden Argopyan; Vistek CEO Aytül Erçil; Venturro CEO Burak Yaman; 3TS Fund Vice President Elbruz Yılmaz; GEDS CEO Gülay Özkan; Turkishwin founder Melek Pulatkonak; Yemeksepeti CIO Melih Ödemiş; Procter & Gamble Brussels R&D director Merih Pasin; İnovent CEO Ömer Hızıroğlu; and PEAK Games CEO Sidar Şahin.
SUCOOL is open to outside applications while teams that include Sabancı University students, researchers and alumni have priority. The program supports projects and teams that respond to a need in the market, propose improved models for existing products and services, and aim for large markets and sustainable business models. Other requirements are the presence of a team, business model and roadmap, and progress on the product and customer fronts.
Events were held during the Global Entrepreneurship Week to promote SUCOOL:
Meetings were held at the Sabancı University campus in Tuzla on Tuesday, November 19 between 18:30 and 21:30, amd at the Sabancı University building in Karaköy on Thursday, November 21 between 19:00 and 22:00.
For more information: sucool.sabanciuniv.edu