Ahmet Talat
KARASU

Within the years that I graduated from university, the companies who wanted to work with fresh graduates would seek employees with the same stereotypical text: “bachelor’s degree with the possibility of master’s degree, at least one foreign language, 2 years of experience, male candidates should have completed military service and not older than 25 years old”. This combination seemed very hard even for me who started university at the age of 17, so within the first three years of university that I dreamed of becoming an academician, I just had fun. Nevertheless, in the last year, I was already surrendered to the idea of managing this ideal combination. I managed. However, I came to notice that it didn’t matter in professional life.

I started thinking about the idea of entrepreneurship within the years of my professional experience for which I was admired for doing the job of 3 people. I fit the profile that was told in the self-development books which said entrepreneurship is a state of mind. Our entrepreneurship reached a point beyond our expectations within six months. We had clients but the idea of “start-up” wasn’t perceived like today, or it was us who couldn’t perceive the idea. We couldn’t separate our ways with the brand. A couple of years went by. One of the days that I was thinking of going back to professional life, I made a job application and it changed my life.

I was young and I gained a place in the company. I led a lot of units and processes which I started to like. However, I realized that being close to the boss wasn’t as perfect as I thought of. In a couple of years, my body started to give health signals. My doctor advised me to quit my job, so I did.

As you would know disposition never changes. I had to go through the same process in senior positions. Throughout this time I started being interested in different disciplines. I directed my motivation to new working fields and researches which I believed would enrich me by means of professionalism and I applied what I learned into my business life. Concepts of leadership, management, brands, and new-generation marketing have entered my life during this time.

I am lucky that the time I spent half of my career in real estate is also the time that real estate went through the most radical changes. Briefly, I experienced the good, the bad and the hard times of the change in real estate sector when real estate trade is evolved into “sell – build” concept; urban transformation created many victims; sales to foreigners increased and therefore the imbalance created by this is tried to be overcome by legal arrangements like Consumer Law; lastly with some arrangements to the Citizenship Law to make real estate sales a way to gain citizenship.

Over the years, international travels have started taking more time from my life, leading to more frequent work on overseas real estate investments, global partnerships, and multinational development activities. Today, with my esteemed colleagues, we operate in the fields of real estate development, marketing, and sales with our own brands in more than ten countries, and we accompany the parties who dream of moving their business or lives to other countries in their residence and citizenship processes.

WORKING AREAS

· Real Estate Projects

· International Real Estate Development

· Real Estate Investment Funds

· Venture Capital Investment Funds

· Alternative Financial Instruments

· Traditional and Digital Marketing

· CRM, Big Data, Customer Analytics

· Sales and Marketing Processes Management

BIOGRAPHY

I was born in Edremit, Balıkesir and completed my primary, secondary and high school education in Edremit.

I received my bachelor’s degree in Economics from Anadolu University and my master’s degree from Yıldız Technical University. I worked as an assistant/student at Yıldız Technical University Institute of Social Sciences for 1 year.

I started working in the private sector in 2005 as a Credit Rating Analyst at Dun&Bradstreet Türkiye office.

In 2009, I started working at Canimco, a Canada-based consultancy firm, and worked in the field of investment consultancy for 3 years.

In 2012, I was one of the founders of Popique Organics, Turkey’s first color and design themed organic babywearing brand. In 2013 Popique Organics was being sold in Turkey’s most luxurious retail chains. We handed over Popique Organics, which turned into a professional success to its new investor in 2016.

In 2013, I was introduced to the real estate sector at İnanlar İnşaat, which was an exceptional break in my professional life. During my tenure at the company, I took part in the project preparation, sales, marketing, finance, after sales, CRM and customer analytics processes of more than 20 projects. I took responsibility for the foundation and the management of the company’s International Sales and Sales Finance departments.

In 2016, I started working at 24 Gayrimenkul as Sales and Marketing Director. I managed the preparation, sales, marketing, sales finance, CRM, customer analytics and digital marketing processes of 16 projects developed by the company and became one of the important actors in the segment change process of the company. I was among those who laid the foundation of the new generation sales and marketing processes of 24 Gayrimenkul, which today works in harmony with hundreds of domestic and foreign partners and consultant companies.

In order to transform the experience and knowledge I gained in real estate development, sales and marketing processes and real estate investment funds into a new synergy, I was among the founders of ONN INVEST, which offers turnkey projects and services to project developers, local and foreign intermediaries and real estate investment funds, together with the valuable friends I crossed paths with in this process. I am currently carrying out important projects with many local and foreign stakeholders in ONN INVEST and its group companies WIN IN TURKEY, ELİS CAPİTAL and WONN LLC, where I am currently the senior manager.

I enthusiastically follow finance and real estate technologies (fintech & proptech), which not only shape the future of our sector but also enable us to establish new ties with other sectors and create new areas of work, and I strive to remain a part of innovative technologies and work areas. For this reason, I have recently focused on alternative markets and financial instruments as well as real estate and venture capital investment funds and have accelerated my activities in this field.

I work on leadership, governance, brand and consumer behaviour with personal enthusiasm.

I served as the chairman of the Real Estate Export Committee of the Real Estate Investors Association (GYODER), of which I was one of the founders, for two terms. I also served as the Vice President of the Real Estate Service Exporters Association (GİGDER), which took over the flag, for two terms. With the excitement of the first day, I continue to work for the success of our country in the international real estate market.

INTERESTS