Vocational School of Justice
IZMIR TRAINS ITS ENTREPRENEURS
Izmir business world is acting in solidarity in order to encourage young people to put their ideas into action. Melisa İtmeç, Business Development & Communication Specialist, EGIAD Melekleri, who attended the “Applied Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management” course taken by 315 students of Izmir University of Economics, stated that the city is eager to support the young entrepreneurs, and compared to cities like Istanbul, the competition in Izmir is much calmer. Supporting angel investors in 37 different industries including energy, construction, logistics, e-trade, agriculture, livestock, etc., İtmeç pointed that they wanted youth to benefit from the opportunities Izmir has to offer.
Izmir business world is looking for its entrepreneurs, indicated İtmeç and she said, “Entrepreneurship involves innovation in development of new products, development methods, markets, raw materials resources. While deciding whether to support the entrepreneurship, we check to see if the entrepreneurs are working as a team. The product they developed needs to be ready to go out on the market or needs to be on the market already. We want entrepreneurs to be in good command of what they are doing, be aware of all the details, and to be able to foresee the financial plan. Only then, they meet with an angel investor. We believe that bringing the entrepreneur together with an experienced investor, industry specialists would be very effective in making the right decisions. This way, they can take their place in business successfully” dedi.
İtmeç stated that angel investors are those individuals who invest in small startups or entrepreneurs or provide capital for a business start-up, and she said there were 450 angel investors nationwide affiliated to Undersecretariat of Treasury.
“Entrepreneurship Starts at School”
Taylan Demirkaya, Lecturer and Director of IUE Embryonix, stated that at “Applied Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management” course, they aim to raise students’ entrepreneurship awareness and he said, “During the course, students learn how to develop a new business idea and turn that into a business model. 315 students university wide take this course. They make presentations to professional investors and entrepreneurs. KOSGEB has been supporting this course since 2015. Students, who successfully complete the course, qualify to receive their certificates which come with an offer of 50 thousand grants, and loan for 100 thousand TL that is non-refundable for 2 years”.