About
Ozan Sonmez.
Honest by default.
Startup mentor, angel investor, accelerator builder and author. Ozan has spent fifteen years between Silicon Valley, Europe and MENA doing one thing consistently: telling founders what everyone else is too polite to say.
5000+
Founders mentored
40+
Programs designed
20+
Countries
15 yrs
In the ecosystem
Roles
What he actually does.
- 01
Global Ambassador, UC Berkeley SCET
Connecting founders and institutions from Europe and MENA into the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology network.
- 02
Co-founder, The Brutally Honest & SAGE HQ
Building the tools and the venues where founders get assessed honestly instead of applauded politely.
- 03
Angel investor & ecosystem advisor
Early cheques and advisory work with funds, accelerators and ecosystem builders across three continents.
- 04
Author & host
Tech for Good: Empires of Innovation, plus the podcast of the same name and a long trail of talks.
Founders do not need another fan.
They need one person who says it early.
Ozan Sonmez
The path
Three chapters, one habit.
01
Operator first
Fifteen years inside startups, programs and corporate innovation teams before ever giving advice from a stage.
Foundation
02
Program builder
Forty-plus accelerators, bootcamps and innovation tracks designed for institutions from Siemens and Ford to UNDP and KAUST.
Scale
03
Brutally honest
Five thousand founders mentored, and one line keeps coming back: nobody told them this early.
Today
What Ozan builds
His own ventures
Ozan does not only advise companies. He runs them, and the advice you get comes from the same places where he has to make the calls himself.
- Active
The Brutally Honest
Co-founder
The house behind everything else, including the Brutally Honest Mentor assessment platform: tools and programs that give founders, investors, corporates and accelerators the feedback nobody else will give them.
Visit The Brutally Honest
- Active
SAGE HQ
Co-founder
Entrepreneurship training for high school and university students, running with schools in more than 20 countries.
Visit SAGE HQ
- Active
Idea Stormers Game
Co-creator
A board game that puts teams through the messy part of innovation: finding a real problem before falling in love with an idea.
Visit Idea Stormers Game
- Active
FOUNDER INSTITUTE TÜRKİYE
Co-director
Co-directing the Turkish chapter of Founder Institute, the AI-native company builder, taking people from first idea to a company that can raise.
Visit Founder Institute Türkiye
- Past
Zillion Pitches
Co-founder
Built after a 2017 pitch to Tim Draper went badly. A place for founders to practise the pitch before it counts.
No longer running
The network
Say what you need.
He knows where to look.
Ozan has lived and worked out of San Francisco, Istanbul, Riyadh and Helsinki, and the network did not stay in those four cities. Funds, accelerators, corporates and operators across several continents are one message away. Tell him what kind of person or partner your company needs right now, and if someone in that network fits, he will point you to them.
San Francisco
Berkeley, funds and the Valley operator crowd
Istanbul
Founder Institute, corporates and the local ecosystem
Riyadh
MENA programs, institutions and government innovation
Helsinki
Nordic deep tech, Slush and the EU network
Bring the problem you have been avoiding.
One hour, one founder, zero pep talk. You leave with the honest read on your pitch, your traction and your next ninety days.