Growth Circuit
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Applications open · until 25 October

GrowthCircuit

A six-week accelerator for early-stage technology founders. Every week one question, one workshop and one piece of evidence — from your first customer interview to your first investor table.

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The journey

Six weeks, one question at a time

Each week builds on the last: first your customer, then your value, then your evidence, and finally your growth and funding plan.

  1. Bootcamp Day · Kick-offDiagnose and connectWhere are you today, and where do you want to be in six weeks?
  2. Week 1 · CustomerDescribe your buyer, not your productWho buys this, in which organisation, and why?
  3. Week 2 · Value and MarketPainkiller or vitamin?Will your customer actually pay to solve this problem?
  4. Week 3 · ValidationThe smallest provable thingWhat could you test this week that tells you your next step?
  5. Week 4 · Revenue and SalesHow do you sell to your first customer?At what price, to whom, and through which route?
  6. Week 5 · FundingGrant, investment or customer revenue?How much money do you need, when, and from where?
  7. Evidence and Stage · PitchTurn evidence into a storyHow does five weeks of evidence become one story?
  8. Demo Day · StagePitch, meet, connectWho will you talk to, and what’s the next step?
  9. 30 · 60 · 90AfterYou are not on your own when it ends: we check your progress together at 30, 60 and 90 days.

Week by week

Weekly rhythm

Every week has the same rhythm

No long lectures. Each week you learn a framework, hear a view from the field and work on your own venture.

  1. MondayLearnStructured trainingOnline. A framework, a real example and a tool you’ll use straight away.
  2. WednesdayListenA view from the fieldA founder’s or an expert’s experience. Not a lecture: what did they do, and what didn’t work?
  3. FridayApplyIn-person workshopA quick KPI check, team-by-team work and expert feedback. The week closes with an output.

Outputs

What you leave with

  • An ideal customer profile and buyer map
  • At least 5 real customer interviews
  • A value proposition, market and competition map
  • Evidence of willingness to pay
  • A validation experiment with a success metric
  • A price test and 2–3 growth experiments
  • An investment data room and funding route
  • A Demo Day–ready pitch and follow-up pipeline

Who it’s for

This is for you if…

  • You’re building a technology ventureB2B, B2C or deep-tech. You don’t need an incorporated company yet.
  • You have a teamMETU or not — students, alumni, academics and outside founders alike.
  • You can commit 20 hours a weekThe programme includes field work between sessions.
  • You want to move on evidenceLoving the idea isn’t enough; you’re ready to talk to customers and test your assumptions.

Calendar

Key dates

  1. 28 September – 25 October 2026ApplicationsApplications are pre-checked as they arrive rather than all at the deadline. Applying early helps.
  2. 7 November 2026Bootcamp DayA full in-person opening day: diagnosis, baseline KPIs and mentor matching.
  3. 17 December 2026Demo DayPitches, the evidence area, investor and partner meetings.

Full calendar

Since 2005

Formerly Yeni Fikirler Yeni İşler

Run for more than twenty years by ODTÜ, ODTÜ TEKNOKENT and the Elginkan Foundation, YFYİ now continues as Growth Circuit.

Ready to test your idea against reality?

Applications are open until 25 October and reviewed as they arrive.

Apply to the programme

Applications

Growth Circuit: two decades of Yeni Fikirler Yeni İşler, growing with a new-generation entrepreneurship ecosystem

Run successfully since 2005 through the collaboration of ODTÜ (METU), ODTÜ TEKNOKENT and the Elginkan Foundation, the Yeni Fikirler Yeni İşler programme (YFYİ — New Ideas, New Businesses) is bringing more than twenty years of experience together with a new ecosystem and continuing under the name Growth Circuit.

A pioneer in Türkiye’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, Yeni Fikirler Yeni İşler has, since its founding, helped grow a culture of entrepreneurship among younger generations, turned innovative ideas into technology-based companies, and supported young technology ventures in growing sustainably. Under the main sponsorship of the Elginkan Foundation, and with the long-standing support of our partners and investors, the programme achieved an important first for technology entrepreneurship in Türkiye, enabling a great many founders to turn their ideas into business models and into sustainable companies.

Today we are bringing the experience of that history together with ODTÜ’s entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem and with the Growth Circuit ecosystem. This combination builds a more integrated and more capable structure — one that supports not only the development of ideas, but the founding, growth, scaling and commercialisation of technology ventures. Our new-generation accelerator, Growth Circuit, carries the entrepreneurship and innovation mission that Yeni Fikirler Yeni İşler has held since its founding into the future, with the aim of growing together with founders.

From experience to strength, from idea to growth

The Growth Circuit accelerator no longer centres solely on developing a good idea, but on turning high-potential technology ventures into sustainable companies and accelerating their growth journeys. Through Growth Circuit we aim to give founders access to the right connections, experienced mentors, an investment perspective, and the ecosystem resources that will support their growth.

One of the programme’s key goals is to turn Türkiye’s potential in technology entrepreneurship into enduring, sustainable companies.

As in previous years, Growth Circuit will encourage business ideas that have reached a certain maturity and carry commercial and scaling potential to be directed toward public funding such as TÜBİTAK’s Individual Young Enterprise (BiGG) Support. The aim is to strengthen founders’ access to the financing they need and to contribute to the effective and efficient use of public resources.

In the long term, our goal is to help increase the number of companies that are focused on technology and innovation, able to open into global markets, capable of sustainable growth, and earning foreign currency for Türkiye.

With ODTÜ’s scientific and entrepreneurial depth, ODTÜ TEKNOKENT’s technology and innovation ecosystem and the investment experience of ODTÜ Yatırım Fonu, we will continue to support founders on the journey from idea to product, from product to company, and from company to sustainable growth.

Growth Circuit continues with the goal of being an ecosystem where not only new ideas, but the technology companies of the future, grow.