Why Global Investors Are Coming to Istanbul | Şan Yalman, Istanbul Slush’d (TRVC 35)

Why are global investors paying more attention to Istanbul and Turkey’s startup ecosystem?In this episode of TRVC, I sit down with Şan Yalman, Investment Associate at Intera and co-founder of Istanbul Slush’d, to talk about investing, venture capital, and what it takes to connect Turkey’s founders with the global technology and investment ecosystem.Şan began his journey into venture capital at StartersHub in Istanbul before moving to London, where he joined Intera as its first employee. Today, he invests across private markets, including venture capital funds in the US and Europe, giving him an LP’s perspective on the industry and exposure to funds including a16z, Khosla Ventures, Lightspeed and Ribbit.We discuss what LPs learn from investing across different VC funds, why smaller funds can produce extraordinary returns, and the very different economics of managing a $50 million fund versus a multi-billion-dollar fund.But much of our conversation is about Istanbul Slush’d.Şan tells the story of bringing the Slush concept from Helsinki to Istanbul and building an organization largely powered by young volunteers. From the beginning, the ambition was not simply to create another local startup conference, but to build a bridge between Turkey’s entrepreneurial talent and global capital.This year, that means bringing investors and technology leaders from around the world to Istanbul, including people from Accel, Index Ventures, OpenAI and NVIDIA. We talk about the new Investor Day, AI hackathons with OpenAI and Manus, founder-investor matchmaking, and the deliberate effort to put global GPs, Turkish VCs and local founders into the same rooms.We also step back and discuss the Turkish startup ecosystem itself. Şan argues that Turkey has exceptional entrepreneurial talent and can be a particularly demanding place to build a product: Turkish consumers are accustomed to strong digital experiences in areas such as banking and e-commerce. That high bar can be an advantage for founders who eventually want to compete globally.We finish by talking about the growing Turkish technology diaspora, the importance of connecting founders and investors across Istanbul, London, Silicon Valley and elsewhere, Şan’s podcast recommendations—and a memorable story about a stranger who rescued his trip to Slush Helsinki by bringing his forgotten passport from London.**Chapters**00:00 Introduction00:36 Şan Yalman’s journey into venture capital03:45 The LP perspective: investing in VC funds05:18 Why smaller VC funds can outperform06:59 Bringing Slush’d to Istanbul11:12 Building Istanbul Slush’d like a startup14:03 What makes Slush different17:05 OpenAI, Manus and the new AI hackathons19:12 Bringing global investors to Istanbul26:33 Turkey’s startup ecosystem, global expansion and the diaspora33:34 Personal recommendations & a memorable Slush story