Building Türkiye's Alibaba: A 25-Year-Old Entrepreneur's Mission to Digitize Turkish Manufacturing

asalamu alaykum my dear friends from beautiful Istanbul Turkey I'm here in a beautiful Sultan Ahmed area of Istanbul a place where history and Modern Life blend seamlessly to meet an extraordinary young entrepreneur brother batan who came from Australia is the founder of unique startup aiming to become something like Alibaba of turkey when you put dedication hard work and effort it's Timeless regardless of where you imply that in What scenario because you say wow I can actually do whatever I put my head towards his goal is to connect Turkish manufacturers with the rest of the world tury need to digitalize their manufacturing sector tackling major challenges faced by many Muslim countries through a blend of Technology business Innovation and Leadership no one cares until everyone cares everyone wants to come in and invest at the same time which is when you've made money his story is filled with valuable lessons for anyone looking to start or grow their own business how do I continue ously improve the website improve the technology and improve the output of my staff members join me in this conversation as batan share his journey a path of many sacrifices past successes and the tough decisions he had to make to pursue his dream how are you today alhamdulillah brother thanks for your lovely introduction and also welcome to you to the lovely city of Istanbul in which I've been residing for the past 3 years after being born and raised in Melbourne so it's obviously very different to where we're used to and where we've been living um but it's got its own Beauty and people that live here recognize that beauty and find it very hard to live anywhere else so welcome to you um thanks for your lovely introduction and I'm very glad we're doing this recording sitting down otherwise whenever we're standing up with you brother everyone looks at me like I'm your little child masah brother alir is very tall so I'm it's with very big joy that I'm in here sitting down with you um thanks for coming I know you had a very busy schedule so I'm glad we fit this in while you were here um like you said I moved here 2 years ago uh to embark on a journey and try to do a startup that's not only beneficial for me on a business sense but also for the country of my origin because I feel like I have a duty and obligation towards this country that's given my family so much and so I moved here um and the way I did it was very instant like um they call it you know burning the ships you know leave the ships behind and just see what happens because I have uh two businesses in Australia that is still uh currently operating and I just burnt the burnt the ships left everything sailed across the other side of the world and I've had very unique experiences and alhamdulillah I'm very blessed to be able to do this the first question I wanted to ask ban was about his experience and expectations in moving from Australia to Turkey and leaving everything behind well of course growing up I came here on holidays so I knew sort of what I was expecting and I felt quite confident in myself saying you know I've been here eight to nine times before this so it'll be more of the same but absolutely I was wrong because holidaying in turkey and living in Turkey are two different very very different things and you gain a whole different perspective that you will never ever get holidaying or spending short amounts of time um because you're hit with the reality and you're part of the culture here really part of the culture here so I give you a simple example I have quite fluent Turkish and I've had good Turkish growing up until I came here and I started living here and I realized that there's so many Turkish words that we don't use in our day-to-day Turkish especially when it comes to bureaucratic things you know registering a company they'll be like where's your Kash imza and I'm like what's a Kash imza right and it's just a stamp to show your signature to register something but I've never used this term in my life so I looked very stupid to a lot of people for the first year that I was here um and then of course there's the whole fact that istan is obviously very congested the amount of people living in Istanbul is almost the same amount of people living in the whole country of Australia which was very very different so everything is much more fast-paced um but human beings are built very beautifully M we adapt to every environment that we're in um as long as you have a positive and optimistic mindset so I think after a couple of those Rusty months I integrated quite well and now it feels like home the next question I wanted to ask was how he got into business right after high school and managed to build a successful Venture from the start well brother I want to I want to answer this question with a personal anecdote that we have with you in which you would not remember but I remember vividly so you were also at the same school that I was at and you would take our students in and ask us our career objectives I don't know if you remember this but you asked me a whole lot of questions and I feel like every answer that I was giving wasn't very impressive until you asked one question what was a big achievement that you done and I answered that question by saying well brother admit I was 86 kilos and I dropped to 66 kilos and you said that's interesting that that day is interesting I said why you said what did you do and I said well you know I ran I woke up I I trained and I walk to school every day and walk back and I fix my eating habits and you put everything aside that I was telling you about my study scores and my a and my results and everything of that you that's the most interesting thing and I said what do you mean you said well when you put dedication hard work and effort it's Timeless regardless of where you imply that in What scenario it will always be good for you so I want you to apply that same thing that you did for losing weight into other Realms of the world and that was a good turning point for me I don't know if you remember this but this is exactly what happened I remember the moment it happened so I started applying that same Theory because I said to myself okay when I put my head to something um I've always had a bit of a you know chubby problem or whatever you can fix that fix that issue as long as you put hard work work and effort and I applied that to all Realms of what I did whether that was moving into turkey whether I whether it's what I did in Australia first you manifest your dream you have visions you have Ambitions you Manifest this and then after that you back it up with hard work because you understand very shortly that no one is going to do this for you and it doesn't matter if you're best friends with your family you're on your own and so I started applying the same principles of losing weight um into different things and alhamdulillah it has always produced the same outcome which is a better and healthier solution to everything this moment reminded me just how powerful guidance can be we often don't realize the Ripple effects of our words and actions at your age level just out of high school to pursue that dream into the business it must have been very challenging tough something that is unusual I remember you starting the clothing business and that was just before pandemic how did you pick that line what did you do in terms of thinking and strategizing to actually take a step to open physical business like that yeah so I think if I analyze myself I was always want to come up with new ideas all the time I was a waiter and I thought of new ideas for the restaurant how could we make this more efficient effective for our clients so any line of work that I went into I felt like I was trying to improve it and make it a little bit better and so I was working in that industry I was working in the clothing industry and it was the same thing again the same principles how can I make this a better experience for my clients you know what can I do and for the first time the clothing business was a way for me to prove that this is not only just an idea cuz I'm sure everyone in the audience right now listening also comes up with some great ideas but how about putting this into fruition and I said one thing to myself I said look I'm 19 I was 18 turning into 19 I'm young I'm living with my parents I don't have any outgoings I'm at the most advantageous position I'm probably ever going to be in in life okay so this is my time to bring my idea any idea that I have into fruition and I took the Leap of Faith by traveling overseas first I went to China and I went to the Canton Fair which I recommend to a lot of people because it opens up your horizons and you see different worlds and that opened up my perspective and I said wow there's so much to do but I have to pick one and stick to it right and so that's what I did I took the leap of faith and turned an idea that I always had into into into practicality once you've turned that idea into practicality if that idea is genuinely a good idea and you get the fruits of Return of it then you get a different level of motivation and confidence because you say wow I can actually do whatever I put my head towards so I think um I'm very comfortable or confident speaking now but I wasn't when I first took the leap of faith it was very hard to do cuz I was 19 I opened up a physical store in essendon which is very out of the scope of our normal um uh demographic in Australia um but I believed in myself so much that he overcrowded logical or smart options it was just let's do what needs to be done um once once that clothing business was very successful you uh experience uh slowdown during the pandemic and you adjusted your business very quickly in terms of producing The Masks um how how how was your thought process when it comes to uh situation like uncertain situations like pandemic where everybody was shutting down in Victoria yet you came up with a brilliant idea and you executed it quite well so I I believe in this notion that I always still believe in when something very bad happens like what's worse than your Shop's being closed down after you've just opened and it's been successful there has to be something you can do I can't control the pandemic that's way outside of my scope but what can I control within this game within this pandemic what can I do what is something that I can produce or change right and so I started writing this down so what's something that I have as a skill uh which was the clothing alterations all of this and how do I bring this into practicality what are my Alternatives brother I'm going to either sit down and cry and complain that it's so bad and Co and pandemic is bad or I'm going to do something about it now regardless of if I attain success or not I would I feel much more comfortable doing something about it that for me is very important what did I do okay we we'll put everything aside it's terrible but what did I do during this terrible time cried complained or or made a solution and that's where I said to myself okay I have to come up with a solution and I didn't expect the amount of demand as well because it was not mandatory when I started but for me it was well just common logic okay there's a pandemic you know everyone's trying to cover their face what is the skill that I have I have a tailor I have alterations how can I put that into use I created the first master design I put it out there and although we achieved good success later on we didn't achieve this at the start but but I felt so comfortable knowing that I was doing something knowing that even if I wasn't making a lot of profit the money that I was making I can pay my staff with and I wasn't let letting anyone go and I think Allah then decides when the right time and right place is for you and I think I was just in the right time and right place I was ready for when it became mandatory this the theme I'm sensing is almost like very interesting attitude towards not not allowing situation to dictate your response and sort of looking at things that you can attach yourself to push yourself forward I I I guess that came very handy when you start then moving to uh turkey how did this idea of this current new business came about from that situation what is this what is your idea with the current business yeah look the the business that I've created in in Turkey is not a revolutionary idea the concept exists right but it just doesn't exist in 2ia which Prides itself on its manufacturing and increasing its manufacturing output and what is that it's doing trade online um in China you can find a lot of alternatives to manufacturing out of China in a simple click of a button what do I mean you want to make these glass cups right if I want to see how much it will cost me to get 50,000 of this it takes 5 minutes to do this with China you go in you write glass cups you see 10 factories you send them all a message reply very quickly and before you know it your business idea has some momentum right now there's something happening but this was not the case with turkia we're talking about a country that's increasing its manufacturing output every year that has a very big geographical advantage to its competitors that is doing nothing online everything is old school everything is traditional everything is just like it was 30 years ago so I felt the need and the necessity as a buyer in Australia to have a platform like this in Turkey in which I can do business with and couldn't find it and I think the best ideas come from when you're searching for something for yourself can't find it and then you create that market yourself and I think what I wanted to do is bring an already existing system in the world that's proven itself to the Turkish market and hopefully allow new markets to be expanded into digitally like how do you see that whole e-commerce companies in China selling to Australia or Istanbul or London something incredibly cheap uh bypassing all of the manufacturing in local country like how do you see that whole e-commerce uh developing globally when we look at the trend of manufacturing we realize that in a capitalistic Society um this is the peak of where we're going to being able to buy directly from a manufacturer in a whole different country for cheaper than any other supplier in your country but in the same token we see the trend shifting now on to towards Western countries applying more and more taxes like we saw with automobiles because the Chinese EV manufacturers Just outperformed every other EV manufacturer so to to create the to keep the market at a steady Pace they had to the European Union for example started introducing taxes taxes and taxing companies that are outperforming its local manufacturers and I think this is going to continue to be on the rise otherwise every country will be shooting itself on the foot of course for consumers they want something just cheaper but naturally a government that's not what you want for your own um people and tur has I'm not sure if you're aware of this but has taken a lot of steps into increasing the taxes on um these mentioned Chinese e-commerce Giants to help local sellers because the reality of we have to be re we have to be real and we have to be objective we can't buy this for cheaper in most of our countries this is not about Australia or turkey in 99% of countries it's cheaper to buy from China and we are aware also so that companies like the ones you've mentioned before as are not profitable so they're not doing this to make profit they're actually doing this to change consumer shopping demand so if you can get millions if not billions of customers onto this platform once you do increase the prices you have billions of Shoppers so I think the actual game here is the fact that you're changing consumer buying behavior and I think as Western governments start realizing they will impose more taxes to cre the fair Advantage between the competitors how do you see countries like turkey or any other Islamic country competing should they compete in being the cheapest or better quality or or some sort of a mix where should where do you where do you see let's say turkey going or where should it be going like you said every country like Australia and China have a free trade agreement for example so it's very much cheaper to purchase from China as an Australian but T turkey actually has agreements with Europe you know an agreement for example um hence why some Chinese companies want to start manufacturing out of tudia so they can take advantage of that sort of loophole the way I see it is to outperform China on Price is a long game to play I don't think it's smart for tudia to play on its price factor I think it is smart to play on its value addition factor meaning what value can they what what value can a Turkish manufactur add to this product to then sell it to its consumers and I think that market there is much smarter for turkia I also think that the geographical location of turkia which helps reduce Logistics costs is a big big Power Play Because China's distance to to the world increases Logistics cost and Logistics costs are increasing every single year so when toare can send a track to Germany in a day for a fraction of the cost although the price PR of the product is more expensive it's not just the price of the product that important it's the shipping it's the logistics it's all of these factors so I think maintaining potentially a higher price point for Turkish manufacturers is good as long as they can educate their buyers that with the logistics costs being reduced it actually comes to the same price with potentially a better quality so I think there's a big big Market to be played there but also there's another perspective that I have on this whole thing you don't have to always try to be cheaper or you know cheaper logistically or even on a price point against a company you just need to be or a country more so you just need to be an alternative some people just want to buy from Turkey right and when I say some people I'm talking hundreds of thousands of companies the problem here is that we're not even an alternative on the digital scene we're only an alternative If someone knows someone that knows someone that knows someone that knows someone and that's not where you want to be in a digital age where you want to be is just an alternative yes you can research and buy from China if you want to you can buy from India if you want to or you can buy from Turkey just being an alternative is enough and that's what I aim to actually bring to the market new new potential Alternatives how much effort or what did you have to do to start a business what were some of the key uh things that you now realized or that were quite challenging or maybe different than what you thought so it's definitely much much more challenging to open a business in Tura than it is in Australia and I know a lot of people message me constantly saying I want to open up a business in tur um and they think it's some it's it's on the same level it's very far from my strong suggestion to your audience if this is something in their mind turkey Market is a tougher Market to penetrate you need to have a bit more Capital to start with this is definitely the case that I'm realized and my suggestion is pay a little bit M more money to get a lawyer from the get-go if there's something that I could have changed get a lawyer or an accountant from the get-go and there's freelance Platforms in toia I'm going to name them because one's Beyond look for example go on Beyond look get a freelance lawyer and tell them to help you draft this you're going to pay $2 $3,000 more but damn are you going to save the hurdles that I went through because it's very bureaucratic it's very old school pen and paper in the quickest time that you can open up a company it takes 3 days the quickest time I'm saying you're a jet speed cuz you do appointments with multiple places and whatnot and you have to have Capital to start with when I started in 2022 if I'm not wrong it was 50,000 L which is about you know 2 to 2 and a half th000 sh right now that might be increase I don't know um but you need to have money to start with as well I would start off with a lawyer or an accountant and be on the safe side that's that's one of the biggest advises that I would give um yeah when it comes to Investments yeah into the company uh what was your experience finding invest investors into your project and what are some of the barriers you came across yeah so I am I am finding it quite challenging I think naive B believed in the theory of you just start something and you read all of these investor websites and they say we invest into brilliant ideas that are changing the world and you sort of buy that and you say oh my God I have a brilliant idea they would definitely invest in me but it's far from that Alibaba started in 1999 with a $25 million investment which equates to about $100 million today with inflation and whatnot starting with $100 million is a big deal yes it's a multi-billion dollar Deca corn now but you've started off from such a point where you realize when you're not naive anymore and you start learning that there's big actors in this play this wasn't a random cool entrepreneur quirky guy that had a sales pitch and then out of nowhere he got a $100 million investment so then you realize that there's a lot more factors that you need to conquer and just don't believe everything you read online there's a lot of things that go into it I've personally struggled because the sector that I'm in it requires a lot of cash burning um like we were mentioning before and that's not something a lot of investors look too too keen on unless they have a bigger belief in your overall picture and I'm not in an industry that is very In Demand right now like an AI right AI project idea give a give it $500,000 and let's see how it works I'm also not in a market in which we have a lot of investors willing to just throw out money right um I'm going to say this because I didn't know this myself and hopefully a lot of people get value from this but investment has rounds and this starts from a preed investor a seed investor a series a investor a series b c and d investor I heard this thing on Shark Tank but I didn't know what it was can you explain a little bit of course absolutely preed refers to an investment that's done to an idea so there's no product there's no product in in place but you've got a good idea and they they want to give you a small ticket investment for you to start exploring this idea a seed investment is when you've put your idea into fruition a little bit more and now it's like planting a tree right they'll throw the seed in there for you to actually get started which will push you into MVP MVP um phase MVP is the time for you to test this product in the market as we pass through these stages the ticket that of investment that's given keeps increasing so let's say 0 to 50K is your preed 50 to 250k is your seed and then you'll have $250 to a million is your is your MVP now if you've proven uh the concept in MVP that's when you can start looking at series a funding which is about up to $20 million if that's also been successful then you can start looking at series B up to $200 million now what I noticed in the Turkish market is that the Turkish market is not one that has too many investors in series a plus so after series a up to $20 million the money just sort of doesn't run in the economy which is very different to Australia um England or or the United States where a series a funding is another day in the park right they do 100 series fundings investors up to $20 million tickets this is one of the biggest challenges when you come to a Not Just Turkey it might be another Market you might be opening in an African country you might be opening in Bulgaria of of some sort of Bosnia you realize that the investors are less willing to give you the big tickets that they would be if your company was headquarters anywhere else that's a big challenge to do with so how how does your conversation so far goes within investors let's say I want to invest so what would be your pitch or your angle how do you uh talk to investor how do you approach them or find them where do you look for investors well there's a lot of um obviously Google search goes a long way and there's a lot of tools that help you connect with investors much quicker but I'll tell you a typical conversation hello I have a lovely idea and I want to change the world and make turkey manufacturing okay how much money have you guys made what's your Revenue that's a typical conversation and that hurts and it stings really badly because you're here in the belief of your idea being so Grand and then You' got someone that just don't forget an investor investment company has a team and these company teams these teams in the companies are analysts and what they analyze pitch decks and they look at it and they say okay he's not making Revenue blah next so the first thing I would like to say to all my uh people that are going through a similar route is that no no one cares until everyone cares what does that mean that means that everyone wants to come in and invest at the same time which is when you've made money my suggestion is try to make Revenue before you go to investment I think the conversation will be much more fruitful because it will change from speaking about an idea to speaking about a real tested product um which is the exact phase that I'm in right now um so like I said I think I've stopped asking for investment until I'm I've got this Target in mind for how much revenue I want to be generating um and once I've reached that revenue is when I real re reach out to investment and say look what I've done what do you see yourself in next let's say 6 to 12 months uh achieving what would be your ideal outcome I think the the most important thing that I can do right now for this project is once i' cuz I've launched I get feedback from buyers and sellers alike they will say oh this button does work or I tried to speak to this guy and he didn't respond to me and everything that you hear you need to create solutions for right and I think that's for example a lot of buyers and sellers I see them messaging on the platform and then they'll share personal details like here's my number get in touch with me and then I don't know what happened to that conversation if they're sold or not sold so if I could look at that and be like oh you know I can't believe they're doing this how bad is this that's in my opinion an illogical way to go my job right now is what Solutions can I provide to this problem how can I make sure that they stay on the platform I have some buyers they get a message they don't know about it that means I'm not sending good enough email notifications so my day-to-day is focused on improving the product to have a better and seamless experience so that when you go to an investor and they they they tell you the problems you have the right solutions to these problems you're ready to tackle these problems y this is how I solve this and that's how I solve that they will ask you what what issues are you facing and you have to have an answer for this um and I think my day-to-day looks like how do I continuously improve the website improve the technology and improve the output of my staff members how did you find working with the developers do are you using local developers how do you find that experience I use local developers I've created my own team alhamdulillah I'm very blessed to have a fantastic team in which especially the head developer the backend developer and I have created a bond besides just developing for the platform he believes in the project and that's priceless you can't pay for that you know um I've been very lucky and I it's almost like he's almost a co-founder on the project without even having a term or an agreement like that of that sort what was the experience of the users using the platform so far I think the most Monumental moment for me so far was when a seller not only did he meet someone that wants to buy his product he came to us running saying what am I going to do I've never exported like how do I do this how do I navigate this and we sort of like taught him the ways and how to do this and we've brought him to a point where he's exported um internationally which has never done before it's from a local Village in toia that would have never done this sale and we've allowed him to take payments overseas it wasn't so much the sale it was the fact that we helped someone facilitate this transaction that they never ever would have otherwise was and that on scale is what interests me the most so you connected somebody from correct China to Turkey to to some Village in Turkey what with the products or there would be no way that the these two uh parties would otherwise meet exactly and they communicated the how how do they communicate on your platform we've created our own messaging platform we've actually developed this ourselves in which they can message that can send files they can completely communicate in there and if they want us to get involved into this conversation we can get involved into it as well the reason why someone might be thinking why didn't you just use a plug-in of some sort the reason be behind this is because our platform is very unique in which if a problem arises between the buyer and seller 6 months after the order I still need to be able to investigate this and there was no third party tool that I found that we can plug into the website that allows us to retrack conversations from 6 months ago um because the the file size becomes too large of each message so we had to create such a um system in which we zip the files and then we can retrack them if we need to to look and investigate further and help them legally resolve this issue so we created our own messaging platform to do this and yeah I imagine you are still looking for investment uh to grow your business uh who is ideal investor in your business what what are you looking for I've got two answers to this one side of me the business guy says whoever gives you a million dollar is your guy that's one way to go about it because they're willing to give you that money and you know how to create more wealth with this money but then you're asking my ideal and I think my ideal investor is a well-renowned company with a brand image in tudia of success that believes in the concept more than the platform that I've built today he believes that turkey needs to turkey needs to digitalize their manufa facturing sector and once to really get involved in this and can help me with their ecosystem they some people call it smart money because it's not just money that would be an ideal case scenario I personally believe that turkey with its position in the middle of the supply chains uh globally here could play a critical role and Inspire similar sort of Industrial Development um and economic growth uh in other countries in the region um how do you see this whole uh region developing in terms of the business or economy are there some trends that you are noticing in general I love this question growing up we grew up in a world where the Western World and in particular America is the main dominant force of the world and for a young guy in Australia or anyone else around the world it seems like this will never fade away the big super power the big the big guy in the arena will always control everything but then you start looking into history and you realize that in history things take turns and it's always a constant sort of loop of different major actors that take control of the world and I'm sure if you were in 1600's Ottoman Empire you thought that the Ottoman Empire would never collapse right you think that wow such a global superpower they control all the trade routs what can go wrong they've got the highest technology the biggest cannon the most land have taken over Empires what's going to change over here until then you realize that times change and with Time new powers new Global superpowers emerge I guess what I'm trying to get to is this yes today the global superpower controls everything right but this doesn't mean it's always going to be like this and it's going to shift and change and when it shifts and Chang there has to be certain powers that can fill in these holes I see tury as one of them those Powers not the only power but I see tury as one of those powers that can help create an ecosystem in countries that it that it helps so for example you seen a deal that tury made with Somalia right now giving Somalia military aid is not enough anymore in this day and age if you really want to be behind the country you need to provide it an ecosystem from its markets to food products to cars to phones to technology it's a whole ecosystem that you need to provide cuz this is what your alternative superpowers are providing I think turkey in the past 20 to 25 years has focused on building its ecosystems and has now taken steps in each one of these departments from the food sector to the manufacturing sector to many many sectors and I think this is going to be a super important and pivotal thing when the world starts changing and um the the main actors start losing their influence a lot of people are talking about it from now you know the UK is not the same UK it was before who's going to fill in these France France has lost a lot of its influence in Africa who's going to feel in these spots and there will always be major actors but I think turkey is in a very very Prime position um to to fill in these these um targets so there's a lot of Demand on Turkish people to be creating the right businesses to facilitate how do you see other Muslim countries in the region in general Muslim countries where they might not have same level of manufacturing or economic policies uh and they might be years behind what we see here in Turkey in terms of uh Economic Development I think um the Gulf States are trying to diversify their Investments primarily Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates are trying to convert oil money into other things right now um and I think that makes sense for them um I don't think it doesn't make sense for them but I still see a mistrust between Islamic Nations abilities to actually be a be a superpower and I still think that there's not enough Faith so I believe that if faith is built and this is not by you and I talking or anyway this is just done by power how much power can you bring to the world is Faith is built between these nations that are so close to each other um then the power will start increasing and increasing like um the there's a building right across the building where we're here right now called Turkish de I don't know if you've had a chance to have a look at this is organization of turkey States yes maybe tury on its own with 80 million people is not going to change the world but then once you add start adding kazakistan usbekistan Tajikistan and you asan you add these Powers into it now we have hundreds of millions of people living in an ecosystem and now you can do greater and bigger things so my main message would be to believe in one another and try to continuously choose your economic ties wisely with those that you have a bigger Affinity with due to religion culture Etc last question before I ask you a little bit more uh of business topic uh if somebody's 25 years old finish University maybe start starting career or think and thinking maybe they've got also idea to do business um not necessarily moving to another country but whatever they are watching uh they want to do something yeah how do you advise somebody 25y old to start acting upon their idea from thinking about to developing it actually starting the business and then growing it yeah I think uh my biggest advice is to do multiple things in one time don't do one thing don't listen to Just One advice and try to do that apply different strategies and then funnel down onto what works so what does this even mean read books while you're doing this keep yourself inspired listen to podcasts start taking small small steps I think everyone tries to take a big step you know one big step just take small step do the logo today and then tomorrow I don't know it depends if it's a service or a product based business take another step towards this and then keep taking continuous small small steps in which later you will find that it naturally just starts leading you into the right direction but God wants you to take those steps to start with God wants you to put yourself into that way and then I feel as though everything sort of come towards you so I think my biggest sort of takeaway would be don't do one thing don't base all your eggs into a single basket and say put so much effort onto that one basket like that needs to work no it doesn't maybe some other thing is going to work right so I think you should try to maximize your time efficiently to do multiple things and then find what works and funnel down on it so finally some question yeah uh what do you do for fun here what's interesting here for you that you do when you are not working uh I think tury is a beautiful country to visit even if it's a weekend getaway with a car just go to a little gem of um you know a certain area of T that you wouldn't have when you just come as a holiday and do big tourism trips cap doyo or istan you know the classics so I think just getaway to little cities is is something fun that I do but if I'm going to be honest I don't live a very very very fun life here cuz I'm more focused on Sports work and watching G win games so I think that's that's a lot of what I've evolved myself around just training working um spending time with the family my family lives here so I have a special case for that as well oh and also just traveling to nearby countries feel in a travel I've alhamdulillah just flew over the weekend to to the UK let's check out the UK flew to Netherlands to Macedonia to a lot of things these are the you need to take advantage of the situation you're in right now and for me it's geographical proximity to places that I always wanted to visit thank you very much for your very thoughtful advice and we hope that uh this works out for you Allah put Baraka and blessings into this uh where what is the website where where we can check to see your project and maybe learn more about what you do yeah you can check uh www. the.com um which is T he e k y n a k that's the platform in which you can check the website and inshallah the next time we speak if we do speak I'll also say download it on the App Store so that we'll have that under way as well inshah thank you very much it was pleasure to interview and we hope inshallah to see you next time I appreciate your time and I appreciate your kind with thank you very much Salam Alam

Join us in Istanbul for an inspiring conversation with 25-year-old entrepreneur, Baturhan, who is on a mission to digitize Turkish manufacturing and build the "Alibaba of Türkiye." In this exclusive interview, he shares his journey from Australia to Türkiye, the challenges of starting a business abroad, and his vision to connect Turkish manufacturers with the global market. Discover how he left everything behind to pursue his dream, the sacrifices he's made, and the insights he's gained along the way. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, interested in digital business models, or curious about Türkiye’s growing economy, this episode is packed with valuable lessons and inspiration. Contact Information: 👤 To contact Baturhan, visit his LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/baturhankaynak/ 🌐 For more about TheKaynak, visit: https://thekaynak.com *** Disclaimer: The content in this episode is for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. We encourage viewers to seek professional advice before making any investment or business decisions. We accept no liability for any outcomes resulting from actions taken based on the information discussed in this episode. ------------------- Learn More! To learn more about Islamic finance and economy, and to support Muslim Money Matters in producing future videos like this, consider becoming a member of our platform. 🌐 Join us at https://www.muslimmoneymatters.com 📲 Connect with Almir on social media: 🔗 Links: https://www.almircolan.com/links 📩 Subscribe to Almir's email updates: 🌍 Website - https://www.almircolan.com