Growth Circuit
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Programme

From idea to evidence, from evidence to growth

A six-week journey that opens with Bootcamp Day, moves through five themed weeks and ends on the Demo Day stage. Every week closes with something concrete.

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

Bootcamp Day7 November

Kick-off

Diagnose and connect

Where are you today, and where do you want to be in six weeks?

A full day, in person. Together we pin down where each venture stands, its three most critical needs and its baseline metrics — and by the end of the day everyone is matched with a lead mentor.

This week’s pickThe Startup Owner’s ManualSomething Ventured (documentary)

  1. OpeningIn person

    Why we’re here and how we work

    A short walk through the six weeks, the weekly rhythm and what we’ll expect from you.

  2. Founder storiesIn person

    From people who’ve done it

    Founders who grew their ventures share what worked, what didn’t and why they made the calls they made.

  3. DiagnosisIn person

    Growth and needs diagnosis

    Starting from customer-validation basics, we map your current state, your 3 critical needs and your baseline KPIs.

  4. MatchingIn person

    Mentor matching

    A lead mentor matched to your needs, and specialist mentors when you need them.

By the end of the week

  • A 5-week growth roadmap
  • Your lead mentor
  • Your baseline KPIs
  • A connection map

Week 1November

Customer

Describe your buyer, not your product

Who buys this, in which organisation, and why?

The user, the buyer and the decision-maker are not always the same person. This week you define your customer, question your assumptions and plan real interviews in the field.

This week’s pickThe Mom Test

  1. MondayTrainingOnline

    Ideal customer profile and buyer map

    The difference between user, buyer and decision-maker; the core framework for customer discovery and validation.

  2. WednesdayFrom the fieldOnline

    Why good technology doesn’t sell

    A founder walks through their own venture: the gap between a good product and a validated customer need.

  3. FridayWorkshopIn person

    Customer interview workshop

    Write your interview questions, practise in pairs, get feedback on leading questions and bias. Then plan your real interviews.

By the end of the week

  • Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Buyer Map
  • A product–market fit (PMF) hypothesis
  • An interview script and at least 5 real customer interviews

Week 2November

Value and Market

Painkiller or vitamin?

Will your customer actually pay to solve this problem?

Showing interest and being ready to pay are different things. You set out how critical the problem is, your value proposition and the real size of your market — with evidence.

This week’s pickObviously Awesome

  1. MondayTrainingOnline

    Value proposition and market map

    Problem severity, willingness to pay, TAM/SAM/SOM, competition and positioning — worked on your own venture.

  2. WednesdayExpert viewIn person

    What people say vs. what they do

    Why stated intent and buying behaviour diverge: willingness to pay, risk, uncertainty and cognitive bias.

  3. FridayClinicIn person

    Market evidence clinic

    Team-by-team work at value, market, competition and defensibility tables, with an IP table for deep-tech teams when needed.

By the end of the week

  • Value Proposition and Market Map
  • Willingness-to-pay (WTP) evidence
  • Market Evidence File and Competition Map
  • A list of evidence gaps

Week 3November

Validation

The smallest provable thing

What could you test this week that tells you your next step?

A small, measurable experiment instead of a big launch. You form a go-to-market hypothesis, choose the right channel and design a validation experiment that fits your type of venture.

This week’s pickSprint

  1. MondayTrainingOnline

    Go-to-market (GTM) and experiment design

    GTM basics, channel choice and validation experiment design — taught the way it’s actually done.

  2. WednesdayFrom the fieldOnline

    Anatomy of a pilot

    B2B pilots and POCs, B2C acquisition and activation, deep-tech validation paths. How do organisations judge a startup’s pilot?

  3. FridayWorkshopIn person

    Validation experiment workshop

    Draft your experiment brief and stress-test it with “what does this actually prove?” — plus a customer or partner intro where there’s a fit.

By the end of the week

  • A GTM hypothesis and validation plan
  • 1 runnable validation experiment
  • A success metric, an owner and a deadline

Week 4November – December

Revenue and Sales

How do you sell to your first customer?

At what price, to whom, and through which route?

Price, revenue model, sales and growth come together in one commercial frame. You work on your real sales scenarios and set up measurable growth experiments.

This week’s pickTo Sell Is HumanHacking Growth

  1. MondayTrainingOnline

    Pricing and unit economics

    Revenue model, sales pipeline, conversion funnel, and the basics of customer acquisition cost and lifetime value (CAC/LTV).

  2. WednesdayClinicIn person

    B2B sales and negotiation clinic

    Reaching the buyer → discovery → proposal → objections → negotiation → close. On your own real scenario.

  3. FridayWorkshopIn person

    Growth experiment workshop

    Find the bottleneck in your funnel, pick your core growth metric and design 2–3 experiments, each with a metric, an owner and a date.

By the end of the week

  • A pricing hypothesis and revenue model
  • A sales pipeline and a price test
  • 2–3 measurable growth experiments
  • Your next sales action

Week 5December

Funding

Grant, investment or customer revenue?

How much money do you need, when, and from where?

You work with your own real numbers. You pin down your runway, your funding need and the evidence an investor will want to see — then sit in front of a mock investment committee.

This week’s pickVenture Deals

  1. MondayTrainingOnline

    Cash, runway and the financial model

    Cash flow, monthly burn, runway, funding need and the basics of a data room.

  2. WednesdayExpert viewOnline

    The right money at the right time

    Grants, customer revenue, bank instruments and venture capital side by side. What does each kind of fund want to see, and when?

  3. FridayWorkshopIn person

    Investor readiness workshop

    Data-room review → evidence grilling → a short pitch and hard questions at a Mock Investment Committee (Mock IC).

By the end of the week

  • A financial summary and funding need
  • A funding route and investment ask
  • An investment data room and evidence file
  • Pitch v1

Evidence and StageDecember

Pitch

Turn evidence into a story

How does five weeks of evidence become one story?

No new content. You turn the evidence you’ve gathered into a convincing pitch, test it against hard investor questions and rehearse the Demo Day stage.

This week’s pickTalk Like TED

  1. WorkshopOnline

    Pitch workshop and hard questions

    Story structure, clarity and delivery on one side; an investor’s grilling of your claims, traction and ask on the other.

  2. RehearsalIn person

    Dress rehearsal

    Timing, stage flow, jury expectations and Q&A. The last critical fixes.

By the end of the week

  • Final pitch v2
  • A progress summary
  • A Demo Day–ready pitch

Demo Day17 December

Stage

Pitch, meet, connect

Who will you talk to, and what’s the next step?

The ventures take the stage. Alongside the jury, one-to-one meetings with genuinely interested investors and organisations — with a next step and an owner recorded for every one.

  1. StageIn person

    Venture pitches

    Each team presents six weeks of evidence to the jury and guests.

  2. Evidence areaIn person

    Evidence on the table

    Interviews, experiments, pilots and numbers — the work behind the pitch, made visible.

  3. MeetingsIn person

    Investor and partner tables

    One-to-one meetings with interested investors and organisations; alumni and awards.

By the end of the week

  • An investor, customer and partner follow-up pipeline
  • An owner and next step for every connection

Tracking

How we see your progress

  • Weekly KPI checkEvery Friday workshop opens with a short KPI check. What moved, what got stuck?
  • Mentor check-inA short weekly check-in with your lead mentor, plus specialist mentors when you need them.
  • Connection trackingIntroduction → meeting → action → outcome. Every connection has an owner and a next step.
  • Against your baselineAt the end we put where you are next to where you started on Bootcamp Day.

After the programme

Demo Day isn’t the end

We keep following your progress after the programme closes.

  1. Day 30First check-inRevenue, customers, pilots, investment, team and any new support needs.
  2. Day 60Did the connections pay off?The connections made and the open commercial or investment actions.
  3. Day 90Impact recordThe programme’s impact on your venture is recorded, and we point you to further support if needed.

Ready when you are

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.