Our Story
We Started
In 2012, Neşen Yücel and Patrick Bosteels, met each other during a meeting in Istanbul, as two professionals finding out that they shared a lot of common goals. Two experienced marketeers and entrepreneurs interested in technology, innovation, futurism and believers in social entrepreneurship deeds, it was a quick decision to start our grass-rooted organisation Stage-Co. We decided to focus on startups, mentors, academics and investors creating a strategy and a platform where we could advice and help and spice up the startup ecosystem in Türkiye, bring international knowhow and local expertise together.
Being a passionate creator, Patrick Bosteels never tasted corporate life. A creator of many things starting in school, at the Academy of fine Arts in Gent, Belgium to become a photographer, cineaste. Patrick spent his first professional years as a free-lancer working for video-productions and television stations. Followed very soon by his first company and many followed.
Getting great feedback on his talks on conferences exploring the full mobile eco-system that gave him the exposure and appreciation to get more and more into mentoring for VCs and start-ups.
Coming from Belgium, Patrick had no entry point in Turkiye but a great network in Europe. Being a serial entrepreneur, Türkiye was an interesting challenge. Neşen on the other hand had a vast local network and experience in marketing, and drive to start over a new life after years in corporate life.
Common goals can create strong bonds in order to be successful.
Stage-Co: embracing startups through networking and services
Stage-Co is a fast growing community platform for startups, mentors and investors in and around Türkiye. We focus our efforts and activities around startup and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Türkiye and ignite the local startup potential as well as creating more interaction with the global centers of innovation, startups and entrepreneurship, institutions, groups organisations. Stage-Co was born where “Stage” stands for the stages a company has to go through in order to be successful. Seed, Startup, Growth, Establishment, Mature and Exit are known stages for success.
The “Co” stands for coworking, collaboration and cocreation.
Our goal is to provide a platform and services that helps startups and all involved to create successes.
Networking Rules
Coming from Belgium, Patrick had no entry point in Turkiye but a great network in Europe. Neşen on the other hand had a vast local network.
In order to make this networking actually work out we organise regularly meetups to get all the players in one space where they can interact and find out new collaborations or inspiration. Common goals can create strong bonds in order to be successful.
With the missions abroad we focus on conferences around startups, makers, coworking and investors like WebSummit, SXSW Austin, Pioneer Festival, Pirates Summit and many others. As STAGE-Co we enable these missions to get the best conditions for the participants.
Many Friends in many spaces
The startup environment is growing strong but lacking a long history. This makes that everything needs to be discovered and explored, combined with a rapidly changing ecosystem. No wonder agile is one of the most hyped words next to lean. As Stage-Co we connect to all the players as we act as an independent platform. In this way we connect with academics through universities, maker and coworking spaces, incubators and accelerators as well as Angels and VCs. When we started with CoderDojo in Turkiye we saw the need to include hardware like 3D printing, Arduino starters kit etc. We see this as a starting point and are expecting new challenges and changes as we are still in exploring modus.
We Deliver
With Stage-Co Platform we started building a community. Started in Turkiye and already in Europe, mainly Berlin, Stockholm, UK, Ireland and countries like Singapore, and surely USA. The aim of the community is to inspire and connect startups, people who are interested in innovation, future, and making this planet a better place to live.
Next to organising events, trainings and programs for individuals and organisations, we also provide consultancy for people and institutions for longer term and bigger impact.
Values Indeed
Talking about values looks like mandatory these days.
Trust is for sure the key, as everything we provide starts from true stories told by trustworthy persons.
Openness is a must as collaboration is based on it. And despite all the critics on the X and Y generation, they are more collaborative than the previous generations. Openness also towards the world, not only thinking local.
Probably not mentioned so many times is attitude. Attitude kills to often a collaboration, or even a project. As Winston Churchill said: “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference”. But we can and should always work on it to improve.
Success is the main goal, in a sustainable setup, solving real problems and where possible bring a real added value to society and individuals. The result is happiness. A must to survive.