Hakan Unsal’s Post

V1 is BACK for our 6th Demo Day with 10 teams pitching their ideas! From longterm founders who have been working on their companies for months to beginners who started building their product 8 weeks ago, each of these teams have had to scale, pivot, and iterate on their ideas to get to where they are today. Come hear stories of success, failure, and learnings from one of the most ambitious builder communities on campus. Interested? Learn more here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gu6qSPY4

What would change if you finally said yes to that big idea that’s been tugging at your heart? The one you keep thinking about but haven’t acted on yet. Maybe it feels too fuzzy, too bold, or just too overwhelming and you don't know where to start. Here’s the thing: clarity doesn’t come before action—it comes because of it. This is your moment to stop waiting and to start. The Big Idea Incubator is a six-month, exclusive small group community designed to help you: 💡 Uncover the heart of your big idea—even if it feels messy right now. 📣 Refine your message and share it with courage. 🌟 Build the confidence and strategy to create real, lasting impact. Early enrollment ends in just a few days. If you’ve been on the fence, this is your sign to take the leap. Will you join us? 👉 Link to Join: https://buff.ly/4eZtZS9

Super grateful for this week - what we started is creating massive impact 💯 After 8 long weeks, a plan shaped up. I wanted my cohort to get hands-on experience. Not just anything random. To build products for real life scenarios. So I reached out to multiple founders and creators. Guess what? We started yesterday, and.... 2 folks from the cohort have gotten their Founder's Statement for 3 weeks! 🔥 It'll all be built using No Code. Vineet Kumar will be working with a startup to help create a dashboard for entrepreneurs and their business journey - with a well known founder who's creating an impact in the society Anshumaan will be working on a project related to a new-age venue booking with the Founders and helping them ideate the further product based decisions. We are just getting started! - it's Day 1! Cohort 2 is on absolute fire 🔥 We are on the final lap of this journey. If you want to be a part of this family in No Code Cohort 3, text up :)

On March 8th, I attended another wonderful event that discussed growth strategies in the Software Engineering Profession. As a startup founder, I learned the following: 👇🏽: • Having a Roadmap & Vision. • Being available for my team, because most times they’ll need my brain to make quick and effective decisions that will impact Zitopy Tech positively. • Self-awareness & Emotional Intelligence. • Having a good strategy for revenue and profit. • Having a good design thinking. • Reframing my mind and exposing myself to opportunities. • Being able to change my mindset and aspiring to change my goals. • Being able to work to solve problems for others (Motivation). • Failure builds resilience, strength, great commitment. • Anytime I hit the roadblock I should revisit the Big “WHY” that made me to start building in the first place. Thanks to Umar Adam Ibrahim, PhD for hosting this wonderful event. And special thanks to the speakers Nafisa Atiku-Adejuwon & Cynthia E. Chisom

As part of the GIST business incubation program, Vlad Popov is learning more about the US market, meeting partners, mentors, and investors in Atlanta, Georgia. Follow the news and useful tips on scaling to one of the largest markets in the world!

Do you feel like your to-do list has you trapped in chaos? When I first joined Forte Labs, I found myself managing scattered workflows and putting out fires nearly every day. Working harder didn’t help—it only added to the overwhelm. What changed everything was building simple, practical systems that gave me control and freed up time for growth. 🌱 That’s why I’m so excited to announce The Systematic AF Club. This membership is all about helping entrepreneurs like you go from overwhelmed to empowered, scaling your success without burning out. 🙌 🚀 Doors open on November 18th—mark your calendar! If you’re ready to move from “just getting by” to thriving with clarity, control, and freedom, this might be exactly what you need. ▶️ Watch the video below to hear more about my journey and why these systems are so transformative. Drop any questions or challenges you’re facing in the comments or message me directly—I’d love to help. 😀

The fascinating thing about pitch events is that they reveal patterns you wouldn't notice otherwise. When you put 20 founders on the stage, from different corners of the world, each with limited time to explain their vision, you start to see what really matters. The art of pitching under pressure revealed itself in two forms. Detailed five-minute deep dives where founders unpacked their visions. Lightning 60-second pitches where every word had to count. Both formats pushed founders to do something incredibly difficult - distill years of work and passion into moments of clarity. Hosting "Pitch Perfect: Your idea's big break" at SF TECH WEEK by a16z was more than I could have hoped for. People weren't just there to present or judge - they were there to learn, to connect, to build. What struck me most was how founders who had just pitched started giving each other advice, and how the audience, instead of thinning out, stayed engaged until the last pitch. Thank you Mala, Vince, Hardik, and Lei — for going beyond giving feedback and asking the kind of detailed questions that usually only come up in private meetings. And to our partners EchoHer, CMU Tech & Entrepreneurship, Matija Pavicevic 马丁, Roan Weigert 🤖, and the incredible founders who shared their visions with us — Michael Cutajar | Brandon Amoroso ⚡ | Joan Rodriguez | Derek Gregg | Timothy Sun | Daniil Sergunin | Juan Pablo Linares Uscher | Nnamdi Adom | Faraan Irfan | Amir Zarkesh | Daud Grewal | Jonathan Brown | Navneet Sankarambadi | Arjun Chintapalli | Bhavani Kalisetty | Wayne Chan | Matthew Lin | Erfan Erken | Breck Yunits | Jordan Gray — you made this event what it was. See you at the next one! 42px Media #SFTechWeek

This week, I had the privilege of attending an event hosted by LearningLoop.com community, where a founder shared insights on his amazing journey as an entrepreneur that resonated deeply with me. A question was posed: "Do you regret anything in your journey?" His reflection on personal life and relationships struck a particularly strong chord, prompting me to ponder over my own recent experiences. On a personal note, this week marked my wife's birthday, a day I had hoped to make special for her. The plan was heartfelt yet simple: take our kids to a playground, granting her some precious "me time" at a nearby cafe. However, life's unpredictability intervened. An unexpected HFMD diagnosis for our child redirected our day towards the doctor's office instead. With the original plan off the table, I pivoted to Plan B, aiming to give her a relaxing day at home while I took care of our children. Yet, as fate would have it, my metaphorical child, Fr8Labs demanded my immediate attention, pulling me away into a day of unforeseen challenges. The day unfolded far from what I had envisioned, leaving me with a sense of having fallen short in giving my wife the celebration she deserved. Reflecting on this, I'm setting a personal and professional mission: to dedicate the coming year to strengthening Fr8Labs to a point where it can stand more independently. My hope is that this will allow me not just to fully honor my wife's next birthday with the attention and celebration she merits but also to possibly mark a quiet milestone of achievement in my professional journey. I share this story not in search of sympathy, but to open a dialogue about the challenging balance between personal commitments and professional responsibilities. I'm asking everyone here for support to keep me on track with this mission and hold me accountable. Your encouragement, advice, and reminders would mean the world to me as I navigate this journey. Week 8 of 26 Weekly Posts Challenge (https://lnkd.in/gXTFNTHT). #EntrepreneurshipJourney #PersonalGrowth #Fr8Labs #StartupChallenges #LeadershipGoals #AccountabilityPartners #BusinessResilience #EntrepreneurialLife #PersonalReflections #TeamFr8Labs #InnovationLeadership

One cue to watch for as you’re seeking early signs of traction is how well your idea alone can pull in customers — even if they’ve never browsed the website or played with a demo. Vanta CEO and co-founder Christina Cacioppo knew she’d picked the right idea when the team no longer needed to go out and find customers (it was just Cacioppo and a few engineers at this point). Customers were trickling in through a strong word-of-mouth engine, even though Vanta hardly had a website — just a bare-bones homepage with an email address to contact. On The Review, we rounded up stories from founders about what their startup’s first sparks of traction felt like (link in the comments).