TRVC11: Dilek Dayınlarlı From Istanbul to Silicon Valley: The ScaleX Vision

Yunus Çelebiler sits down with Dilek Dayınlarlı, Founding Partner of ScaleX Ventures, one of the first Turkish VC funds dedicated to helping enterprise software startups scale globally from day one.

With more than a decade in venture, Dilek has been an early backer of Turkish tech champions like Insider, İyzico, Picus Security, and DataRow, and has built a cross-border investment thesis that blends Silicon Valley scale with Turkish engineering excellence.

We dive deep into Dilek’s journey from engineering and telco to launching ScaleX, the lessons she’s learned building a venture firm during COVID, and why she believes Turkey is at an inflection point for producing global category leaders.

This is a must-listen for anyone interested in venture capital, Turkish startups, deep tech, or scaling from emerging markets to the U.S.👇

Chapters

00:00 – Introduction

01:00 – Dilek’s path into venture capital

04:00 – Early bets: İyzico, Insider...

07:30 – Why enterprise SaaS and global-first

10:00 – Silicon Valley & Kauffman Fellowship

13:00 – FoundingScaleX during COVID

16:30 – Talent: bridging Bay Area and Turkey

19:00 – Go-to-market, and dev tools strategy

22:00 – Fund value-add: founder networks

25:00 – Motivation and impact: creating wealth through tech

28:00 – Investing in deep tech and frontier founders

31:00 – Fund strategy and LP evolution from Fund 1 to Fund 2

35:00 – Turkish VC ecosystem today: challenges and opportunities

38:00 – Reflections on being a long-term, adaptive investor

41:00 – Book recommendations: The Power Law & Superforecasting

44:00 – Stock options and wealth creation in emerging markets

46:00 – Final thoughts & shout-outs

🔗 Follow for more conversations on the future of VC in Turkey and beyond.