Best of 2018 by Hackquarters: What We Achieved in 2018

December 8, 2018

It was a great year for Hackquarters. When you read a company blog, you would think that "Well, you will say this anyway, even if it was a bad year for yourselves". But the thing is it was really a year full of great events that we organized, helped to organize or attended. You will find our events in 2018 in this article, which made us proud like a peacock. Events are ordered by date. You can click on either title or the related photo.

Aksigorta Startup Challenge

10 startups working on insurtech, digital health and technology presented their work to the jury from Aksigorta executives. 3 startups, including Vivoo, Drivebuddy, and Sigorta.io, have been given awards for their success.

Grants4Apps by Bayer

Bayer Türk professionals and Hackquarters team chose 6 startups for Grants4Apps Turkey, including Yubi, Tion, Digime3D, Vivoo, Pons, and PatiBuddy. Bayer Grants4Apps is a global program that offers support to startups and companies that are developing innovative solutions in health and care.

HackCon2

The first day of HackCon 2 started with the welcoming speech by Kaan Akın, Hackquarters CEO& Founder. After the intro, Omegas joined Kaan on stage to share their experience with the Pioneers. Among the questions discussed during the panel were tricks to build a powerful team, and lessons learned.

Blockchain event at Yıldız Teknopark

Kaan Akın was on stage for a "Blockchain" event at Yıldız Technical University. Hackquarters team were mentoring for all startups within Yıldız Teknopark in STARVISE program.

Global Pitch

Hackquarters got invited as members of the jury for the biggest online pitching competition in the world. Hundreds of startups from all around the world applied for the event and after initial elimination, finalists presented their projects online to the jury. The competition was focused on various topics such as sustainability, renewable energy, data, e-governments, smart cities and more.

MediaMarkt Startup Challenge

With MediaMarkt Startup Challenge, MediaMarkt Turkey was looking for technologies to improve their processes in retailtech. 3 winners, which includes Buybuddy, Udentify and Pacer, have been awarded with great prizes from MediaMarkt executives. Winner of the challenge, Buybuddy, got the chance to present their product at Retailtech Hub 2018.

Investment in Turkish Startups Summit (in Berlin)

Hackquarters was in Berlin for Investment in Turkish Startups Summit. We helped Istanbul Startup Angels, Turkish Technology Team and ISPAT organize the event and Kaan Akın was one of the speakers at the summit.

Red Bull Amaphiko Connect

We visited various universities all around Turkey with our friends from startup ecosystem and thanks to Red Bull. Red Bull Amaphiko is an entrepreneurship project which focuses on social impact.

Workup by Isbank

Workup is an acceleration program which is open to all startups from early stage to seed-funded startups. As you can get from the name, the main supporter of the program is Isbank, while Hackquarters is responsible for the content of the program and overall management, with the valuable help of Kolektif House.

Kaan Akın is live on Bloomberg HT

Hackquarters founder Kaan Akın was live as a guest for Girişimcilik Dünyası (World of Entrepreneurship) on Bloomberg HT.

Kässbohrer: 125 years of Innovation (in Ulm)

Mainly focusing on mobility, professionals from all over the world had the chance to witness future of automotive and logistics industry. Hackquarters team attended the event with our friends from TIRSAN. Entrepreneurs from startups which are selected to present in front of that audience also talked about their startups and gave valuable messages to entrepreneurs.

HackCon3

We had breakfast together and talked briefly about what we were doing from the beginning and what is next. During the gathering, we realized that our community has expanded more than we expected. We’ve organized really cool events, inspiring high school and university students since September 2017.

Hackquarters is in WIRED UK Magazine

WiredUK has published the article about top 100 startups in Europe, which includes 10 Turkish startups, with the help of Hackquarters founder Kaan Akın.

Kaan Akın is live on CNN Türk

Hackquarters founder, Kaan Akın, was live on CNN Türk. Akın talked about the biggest free startup event in the world, Take Off Istanbul Startup Summit.

Take Off Istanbul Startup Summit

Take Off Istanbul Startup Summit was the biggest free startup festival in the world. Thanks to our friends at Turkey Technology Team and Invest in Turkey, we were prepared for hordes of startups arriving at Istanbul. We have received more than 2000 applications for Take Off Istanbul Startup Summit, from more than 80 different countries, all around the world. The event took place within Teknofest Istanbul Aerospace and Technology Festival, which is also a one of a kind event in its own category. For that reason, Teknofest and Take Off took place in Istanbul’s new, huge airport, which is set for official opening on Republic Day, October 29th.

NEM Meetup #1

Hackquarters organized the first official NEM Meetup in Istanbul. Even if we did not have much time for registrations and preparations and we hosted fewer people than we wanted, our first event with NEM was a success according to feedback from our audience. We hosted our event in Kolektif House Maslak, which is a great co-working space and “natural habitat” to startups and entrepreneurs.

Kaan Akın presented Hackquarters in the 2018 YTILI Fellowship

Hackquarters was one of 10 startups, who presented comprise the 2018 cohort of the Young Transatlantic Innovation Leadership Initiative (YTILI) Fellowship, a program run by the U.S. Department of State. With support from the U.S. German Marshall Fund, YTILI brings European entrepreneurs across the Atlantic and connects them with mentors and leadership training.

Gitex Future Stars (in Dubai)

Our friends at NEM Dubai Office invited us to Dubai to take part in Gitex Future Stars. We gladly accepted the invitation. Gitex Future Stars is probably one of the biggest startup related events in the MENA region. There were a few startup competitions and lots of awards to be given to entrepreneurs.

Google Assistant: Build Actions for Your Community (in İzmir)

Recently, we were very happy to collaborate on Google for their “Build Actions for Your Community” events in Turkey, which currently focuses on Google Assistant. Hackquarters team joined the event in EBILTEM (Ege University Science, Technology and Research Center), İzmir. Along with our team, GDG İzmir team and our friends from Google and our friends (Berkay Yavuz, Aziz Akgül, Çağın Torkut, Muhammet Enginar and Engin Dogusoy) joined us as mentors in the event.

HackCon4

We got together for our 4th HackCon at Kolektif House Maslak. A warm “Welcome Home” speech was made by Kaan Akın, explaining what we’ve accomplished before, our aim for the future and what we expect from our new batch of Pioneers. As Pioneers, we love talking on Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, Digital Transformation, and IoT/Smart Machines. We will try to provide more resources and feed our new Pioneers with great information on those topics.

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