About GHV

At Golden Horn, we believe that ideas rule the world.

Sitting down with a creative person who has this earth shaking idea, playing with it, refining it, molding it, seeing where it can go, teasing out the associations and further ideas it can engender. These are things that excite us. And, we know, motivates the creative people with which we want to work.

Instead of quickly forcing ideas into the world of finance, we’re driven by ideas and we nurture them and let them grow. While doing that, the interface that the finance world needs to interact forms, thus the ideas evolve into products, then into business plans, then into companies that are exciting to many.

We love ideas, we know finance.

Since we know finance, we also know that the scarce resource is no longer finance! The critical ability is to get to the germ of an idea and see if, and how, it can turn into something big and to do that by exciting the originator of the original germ. That is what is exciting!

We bridge these two worlds without breaking the ideas or force-fitting them to the finance world yet without ignoring the legitimate information needs of that world. Having played with the ideas through and through, we find, makes it easier to convey to the finance world exactly what they can expect with what sort of risk.

PLAYING WITH IDEAS IS FUN AND WE LOVE IT

We praise the community with ideas and entrepreneurs. Our bet is when we can nurture the idea into a product and then to a company, finance will follow. For finance to follow, the logic of finance will also have to be met, and that also we know how to make happen. The experience and composition of our team is such that we understand managerial and financial imperatives as well as the creative ones.

If we try to depict the life of a startup on a one-dimensional linear view, at one end of the journey is the ideas, the later stages are to do with "things". These "things" such as IPO are more "bank-like". In the journey from ideas to "things", we can make a difference all along the path but where we intend to make the most difference is in the beginning of this journey. Our partnership in the beginning will ease the path for the rest of the journey to becoming a successful company dovetailing with the financial, managerial and industrial worlds.

The riskiest, but for us the most interesting, part of the journey is the beginning, the startup period. One can ask “why take that risk, let someone else do it?” Our experience is that there are more risks in the beginning not only because of the nature of the business but also because how the startup is managed. And we are convinced that many a good idea has been wasted by mismanagement at these early stages; by not paying attention to the idea itself, by trying to push it too fast, by not understanding the creator.

Our expertise and experience give us an edge on how to handle this stage while creating value together. The financial tools and dogmas that are used to manage the startup don't fit the nature of the startup. Instead of force-fitting the rules of finance and management that are designed for a later stage company, which will be used later in the journey of a company, where there are "things" to manage; the "ideas" can't be managed with. When the criteria of management, operations and success of a later stage company is applied to a startup, the result increases the risk.

GOLDEN HORN VENTURES TAKES AN ENTREPRENEURIAL APPROACH TO INVESTING

Golden Horn Ventures is the only venture capital company that is committed to technology ventures in Turkey. Golden Horn Ventures takes an entrepreneurial approach to investing and partnering with companies whose technologies have certain characteristics such as innovative, disruptive, scalable, high growth and emerging.

For an entrepreneur looking for venture capital, this means that you will be dealing with a principal of the firm from day one. If we chose to invest our time in your business, you can be sure that we are serious about investing our capital as well. As a portfolio company, you will be supported by a partner who has been directly involved with your company since the initial investment consideration. We will, as a result, be able to quickly identify opportunities to contribute to the development of your company whether you need to round out your management team, connect with a potential customer, or find a strategic partner. Our ongoing, direct involvement will also enable you to react quickly to financing, acquisition, or exit opportunities.

Our expertise in technology and business allows us to add value to our portfolio companies. We believe in ideas and companies in Turkey being world-class and what they lack for a success story, we provide working arm-to-arm with the entrepreneur.

Our venture capital firm was conceived as a place where a small number of very experienced investment professionals, working collaboratively from a single office, could build a portfolio of promising startup companies and then put our experience and our networks to work to help those companies build valuable businesses.

Over the past 30 years, we have been directly involved in the development of many companies and have, through our prior firms. That experience has convinced us that we can deliver the highest returns to our investors by doing the work of venture capital ourselves, from sourcing investments, through due diligence and supporting our portfolio companies, to ultimately exiting the investments.