Season 01 · Episode 01 boarding · 18 June 2026 · 19:00 GMT+3 Live now · Recordings published 48h post-broadcast Growth Summit İstanbul · 12 June 2026 · Free, limited seats $19B deployed across the region · 320+ growth-stage operators Founder applications open · helo.land/needfunding Season 01 · Episode 01 boarding · 18 June 2026 · 19:00 GMT+3 Live now · Recordings published 48h post-broadcast Growth Summit İstanbul · 12 June 2026 · Free, limited seats $19B deployed across the region · 320+ growth-stage operators Founder applications open · helo.land/needfunding

Season 01 in session

Where growth
decisions happen.

A living platform of founder journeys, capital, and operating playbooks. Meeting once a year in İstanbul.

Watch this week's session Summit · 12 June · İstanbul

01 · Who belongs here

For everyone building what comes next.

Founders raising. Investors deploying. Operators scaling the team. Three doors, one room.

Founders / 01

If you're raising in the next twelve.

See how others closed the round. Hear what funds underwrite this cycle. Walk away with sharper conviction, plus three warm intros.

Apply for capital

Investors / 02

If you're deploying this cycle.

Sit one room away from every founder closing in 2026. Watch the room declare its thesis on the record, before the next round prices it.

Join a roundtable

Operators / 03

If you're scaling the team.

C-suites of scaled portfolio companies on what's actually working: GTM, AI rebuild, second-line hires, the ESOP rewrite.

Request a Lab

02 · The Journeys

How they actually did it.
In their words.

Featured Journey

Mehmet Uygun, Getmobil

Founder · Marketplace 06 Chapters · 32 min read

Mehmet Uygun, CEO & Co-Founder, Getmobil

What changed at the Sunday meeting that rewired the company.

"That Sunday we decided the company's growth must never be blocked by capital. We moved from a capex-heavy model to a technology and data driven platform — and that was the turning point. Don't make moves because an investor wants it; do it because the market and the customer demand it."

As told to helo.land · 2026 · İstanbul

~$30MRaised to date

4×Angel exit · 2.5 yr

180Team

Read the journey

Enterprise · B2B

Kıvanç Harputlu · Onlayer

Why we walked away from a global acquisition offer.

"Don't be afraid to ask the same question forty times until you truly understand the customer's pain. In enterprise B2B, trust is your most valuable currency."

$8.2M round Read journey

Cybersecurity · Global

Mehmet Caner Köroğlu · Brandefense

We sold our cars to make payroll — then hired a CEO above ourselves.

"World-class cybersecurity isn't reserved for global superpowers. Our team wins because we are better fighters at the table — and because we own our data."

4,000 brands · 28 countries Read journey

SF · YC W23

Ferhat Babacan · Bluedot

We moved to San Francisco, killed the model, and pivoted to fleets.

"See what the market doesn't want, kill it quickly, move on. Build, kill, build. Talk to your customers constantly and build only what they truly need."

Hertz · Rivian · City of SF Read journey

6 journeys published · indexed by stage, sector and capital event Browse all journeys

03 · The programme

Free year-round.
Once a year, in person.

Stream the sessions live. Apply for a private roundtable. Bring your team to a Lab. Or join us in İstanbul on June 12. Pick the door that fits where you are now.

Format · 01Growth Summit

The flagship live event. One stage, one day. The region gathers in İstanbul.

İstanbul · 12 June

Format · 02Growth Sessions

The online season. Twelve panels across the year. Broadcast live, archived in full.

12 sessions · live

Format · 03Growth Roundtables

Private investor meetings. Twelve to fifteen seats. Single thesis. Chatham House rules.

Apply to host or attend

Format · 04Growth Labs

Workshops & masterclasses. Run by sitting operators on the playbooks in use right now.

Request a Lab

04 · The platform

Always-on. Always live somewhere.

Around 30 live Sessions a year, on the record and on stage. Roundtables run privately each month. Labs once a quarter. The library grows with every conversation. One subscription. The whole resource.

30 live Sessions a year.
Roundtables · Labs · Library, year round.

50,000+

Founders & investors reached

118+

Hours on the record

05 · Up next online

The next live sessions.

Free to attend. Recorded and indexed within 48 hours. Around 30 live Sessions a year across Season 01.

EP. 01 Boarding

18.06.2026 · 19:00 GMT+3

The AI rebuild. What founders are tearing down this quarter.

Three founders who reorganised their entire engineering and GTM stack around foundation models. What broke, what compounded, what they wish they'd done eighteen months earlier.

EP. 02 Investor

25.06.2026 · 19:00 GMT+3

Growth capital in 2026. Who is getting funded, and who is not.

Independent VCs from the region's most active growth funds, on stage, on the record. The questions founders ask in DMs, answered in front of the room.

EP. 03 Founder

02.07.2026 · 19:00 GMT+3

Building global from Turkey. Three things everyone gets wrong.

The two operators who actually crossed the chasm into international markets. What scaled, what stalled, and what next year's founders should stop copying from US playbooks.

07 · On stage

The operators and allocators
building what's next.

Every speaker is a sitting operator or an active partner. No moderators-for-hire. No filler.

Growth Summit Speaker

Where growth
decisions happen.

The global platform for founders, investors and operators to connect, share what works and build what's next.

Featured Founder

Şeyhmus
Ölker

Co-Founder, Megafortuna

12 Jun 2026 İstanbul

ŞÖ

Growth is what happens when you stop guessing and start measuring.

Growth network

Past speakers.
Present voices.

Our previous guests. Founders, operators and investors who've shared what they know, and stay in the conversation.

Şeyhmus Ölker

CEO & Co-Founder, Megafortuna

Co-Founder · CommerceS01

Niyazi Önen

Chairman of the Board, Dardanel

Chairman · FoodS01

Serkan Ömerbeyoğlu

Founder & Executive Chairman, Dgpays

Founder · PaymentsS01

Tuğrul Ağırbaş

Co-Founder, Genwise

Co-Founder · AIS01

Ersan Öztürk

Founder, Tiktak

Founder · Q-commerceS01

Ali Ozan Çiçek

Founder & CEO, Hiwell

Founder · HealthS01

Gökhan Akar

Founder, Onicorn · Angel investor

Founder · AngelS01

İsa Korkmaz

Co-Founder & CEO, Navlungo

Founder · LogisticsS01

Mehmet Uygun

CEO & Co-Founder, Getmobil

Co-Founder · MarketplaceS01

Kıvanç Harputlu

CEO & Co-Founder, Onlayer

Co-Founder · EnterpriseS01

Caner Köroğlu

CEO & Co-Founder, Brandefense

Co-Founder · CybersecurityS01

Ferhat Babacan

Co-Founder & CEO, Bluedot

Co-Founder · MobilityS01

Serdar Gemici

Co-Founder & CEO, Albert Health

Co-Founder · HealthS01

Tali Şalhon

Co-Founder, Paket Mutfak

Co-Founder · FoodS01

08 · Capital partners

The funds writing
this cycle's cheques.

Every name on this wall is on stage across the year, and one room away on June 12.

Join as capital partner

09 · Summit partners

Powered by helo.land. In partnership with the platforms making it possible.

Lead Partner · 2026

BytePlus

Co-host alongside helo.land
Opening remarks · 12 June 2026

Associate Partners

2 positions open for 2026

Support Partners

Open · 2026

You can sit alongside the room.

Five partner positions a year. Not sponsorships. Seats in the room with the operators and capital allocators we feature.

Become a partner

5 positions / year · written response in 5 days

Growth Summit İstanbul

The day
everyone gathers.
In one room.

Save the date

12.06.26

Friday, June

Kolektif House, Levent

Format

Seven panels

Single stage · 10:00 to 17:00

Seats

200

Free, limited access

On stage

36+ speakers

Founders, investors, operators

Lead Partner

BytePlus

+ Redington · AWS · Univenn

Save your seat See the programme

Free to attend. Limited seats. Recordings published post-event.

Programme · 12.06.26

Seven panels.
Cover to cover.

No parallel tracks. No competing rooms. Every conversation in front of every attendee.

Morning

Growth capital · Fintech · CVC

Afternoon

App studios · Gaming · Exits · Closing

Single stage · 07 panels

10:00 to 17:00

Growth capital. Who is getting funded, and who is not.

10:35
Fintech after Series A. Scaling with institutional capital.

11:05
The Corporate Lens. How holdings build with founders.

11:50
Built for millions. The app studio playbook in the AI era.

13:35
Turkey's gaming decade. From local hits to global studios.

14:05
The exit conversation. When, how, and how much preparation it takes.

14:50
Where this is all going. Closing conversation.

15:20

10 · Founders

Raising in the next
twelve months? Apply.

Warm intros to the funds we know are looking, on the thesis we know they're underwriting this cycle.

Submit a one-page brief.

Three lines on the company, three on the round, three on the unfair advantage. We read every one.
A thirty-minute call with the helo.land team.

Where you are, what you're raising, which funds make sense, and which ones don't yet. We say no honestly.
Warm intros to the right partners.

Not a CRM blast. Three to five named partners, each with context on why we made the introduction.

Apply