"We advise against shopping on the internet due to recently increasing fraud cases.  It should not be forgotten that sharing credit card information online can result in serious consequences."

Aydın Agaoglu, President of Turkish Consumers Union (Tuketiciler Birligi)

The above quote was in the Turkish press last week (thanks, Caglar).  I wondered who these jokers were and browsed their website, Tuketiciler.org.  Not surprisingly, the site is not much more than fear mongering and calls for vairous boycotts. 

I invite the Turkish media to be a bit mroe selective in responding to PR requests.

I participated in two separate VC events last week.  One was a private conference organized by Brains to Ventures, and the other was the Venture Capital Forum organized by EVCA (European Venture Capital Association).  At both events, I was a panelist discussing the VC environment in Turkey.

The B-to-V event was a private event so I can not go into detail on the topic specifics. One could definitely sense the tense mood created by the stressful few weeks in the financial markets, and the recession the global economy is experiencing, yet the conversation was focused on investment opportunities and the upside.

At the EVCA VC Forum, the mood was much more gloomy.  First, I was surprised by how different European and US VC communities are.  In Europe, most VCs come from private equity, banking or accouting backgrounds, whereas in the US, you meet many former entrepreneurs.  The European VC mindset seems focused on down-side protection rather than building great businesses.  Of course I realize I am generalizing and there are some who fall outside of this stereotype, in general, European VC industry appears as if the professionals were primarily picked by prioritizing "those we can trust with our money".

I have been procrastinating writing about the new round of funding for Grou.ps, primarily since it had already been widely reported.  Then, Fred’s post from this morning prompted me to finally post about both the round, and the other critical news from Grou.ps, the open-sourcing of the platform.

Fred’s conclusion is:

So using the less is more mantra, someone should build just that, make
it drop dead simple, and then build the killer API that lets everyone
build on top of that. It may be that the big social nets are in the
best spot to do that. Or maybe not.

Emre Sokullu, the founder and CEO of Grou.ps, commented on Fred’s blog, pointing out that the needs of group members and owners differ, which is a good point and an area that Grou.ps focuses on intently.

Another thing that Grou.ps has made a huge leap in is the open-sourcing of the platform.  This goes beyond the killer API solution Fred offers and is a critical step for wider adoption of Grou.ps.  Some of the proceeds from the new round will go towards opening the whole system, which, according to Emre, will:

• Commoditize the Grou.ps platform, makes it the natural choice of all online community leaders
• Give Grou.ps the competitive advantage to hire the most talented and motivated people from the pool of open source contributors.
• Let everyone create their own modules, share it with the rest of the world
• Allow the team to rethink their framework and make it even more modular and easily extensible

Grou.ps is already getting a lot of comparisons to Ning as a competitor.  The open-sourcing should help it stay competitive on the technology front.

Congratulations to Emre and the team on the new funding.  I’m also excited to be collaborating with the Golden Horn Ventures team to make Grou.ps a winner in social groupware.

Emre Sokullu is organizing BarCamp Istanbul on October 20th at the Besiktas Campus of Bahcesehir University.  His blog post and the BarCamp page cover the details.

Emre has a post announcing that Seedcamp is coming to Turkey.  This is great news for Turkish entrepreneurs, because where Seedcamp operates is precisely the zone in the Turkish capital universe with a vacuum.  From Emre’s post, my interpretation is that the Seedcamp team is not actually visiting Turkey but has indicated that they are interested in seeing Turkish ventures.  I was not able to find any Turkey-specific details on the Seedcamp website.

What is Seedcamp?

Seedcamp is an attempt to jumpstart the entrepreneurial community in
Europe by putting the next generation of developers and entrepreneurs
in front of a top-tier network of company builders; including seed
investors, serial entrepreneurs, product designers, architecture
experts, HR specialists, marketers, lawyers, recruiters, and venture
capitalists.

Why is this important?

Europe has the necessary ingredients to build the world’s next
generation of leading technology companies; talent, capital, ideas, and
examples of success; but what it lacks is the tradition of
entrepreneurialism. This makes it hard for young entrepreneurs to
secure funding, develop the right connections and build teams. Seedcamp
is directly addressing these challenges by bringing together
entrepreneurs from all over Europe and exposing them to the collective
experience of people who can help turn their grand visions into
successful businesses.

What is Seedcamp looking for?

A strong team of at least two people who have a creative idea and
the energy and commitment to execute. The teams do not need years of
experience; in fact, Seedcamp would most benefit first-time
entrepreneurs with early, seed-stage ideas. Ideas should leverage the
Internet and not have previously been funded. For a full list of
selection criteria, visit the website:
http://www.seedcamp.com/pages/apply_application_critera

Timeline

• Seedcamp is currently accepting applications: http://www.seedcamp.com
• Deadline is August 12, 2007
• Top 20 teams will be chosen and invited to Seedcamp Week in London
• Seedcamp Week takes place from September 3 – 7, 2007
• The top five teams will be chosen to receive €50,000 and continued support from the Seedcamp network

I would highly recommend it to any new Turkish internet venture.