An entrepreneur is someone who risks his or her own labor and capital. But today the meaning has changed a bit more. A startup is an organization that seeks to grow with venture capitalists and angel investor ecosystem and where there is a high level of uncertainty. So a bagel seller is not an entrepreneur, but “Simit Sarayı” is.
The period is not important for you to become an entrepreneur, experience is important. You can become an entrepreneur during or after university if you have experienced the business world, entrepreneurial methodologies at university or yourself. Self-educated entrepreneurs who have seen a little bit of the business world are the ones I think will be more successful. Not having money is not a big problem, but whether you are a risk taker or not is a big factor in entrepreneurship. “Working in an uncertain environment for 2-3 years or working with a nice salary?” Ask yourself this question sincerely, and if you have even the slightest hesitation, don’t become an entrepreneur.
The answer to this question varies depending on which period you are in. TUBITAK and KOSGEB are the most well-known support institutions. Platforms such as Etohum are among the leading private institutions to go to for those in the prototype stage. Entrepreneurship competitions can also be a source of support.
Doing business with low capital is both good and bad. If you have a low-capital venture, it means that others can also enter with low capital. This is not a very good signal for investors. The good thing is that you don’t need a lot of money to test your idea.
Although I have no e-commerce experience, all startups need to spend money on awareness, promotion and new member acquisition. If you want to test your idea in the market, even $50,000 may be enough, but to scale up, based on my observations, you need over a million dollars of capital.
Since TUBITAK and KOSGEB are generally R&D-oriented, they make retroactive payments in cases where you have capital. Therefore, if you are at the idea stage, these types of institutions are not for you. Ideation phase
With the support of your family or friends, you should get to the prototype stage. If you have tested your prototype in the market and gained good momentum, you can join platforms like Etohum. The biggest benefit of platforms like Etohum is that they develop candidates in entrepreneurship through certain acceleration camps.
I don’t think an idea can grow with a little time, but you can test your idea while working. This reduces your risk, or at least ensures that you don’t quit.
Although concepts such as “Harvard drop-out” may seem very cool, I am one of those who think that having a good university degree always opens doors more easily. (If I had gone to Harvard, I would definitely have graduated.) I’m not saying that you have to be a university graduate, as there are examples of people who are not university graduates but have very good startups now, but if you have the opportunity, study!