Who Is

Dr. Özgür Zan

Serial Entrepreneur · Author · Mentor · Independent Operating Partner

Twenty-five years founding companies. Six startups across four countries. Products used by more than 100 million people. Some succeeded; others failed for reasons I now understand far better than I did at the time.

I have always written and taught alongside the building. Three books across two languages. Years mentoring early-stage founders. The 7P Framework is the system I wish someone had handed me in 1999.

Today I also work as an Independent Operating Partner — sitting between investor organisations and the founders they back, in the gap between monthly boards and stretched senior partners.

Read The Founder’s Sequence Apply for Mentorship Apply for IOP

My journey

Twenty-five years, six startups, four countries, one exit.

25+: years building
6: startups founded
1: notable exit
4: countries founded in
100M+: people reached
30+: customer countries
20 + 11: investors & co-founders
3: books, two languages

Graduated in Computer Engineering from Boğaziçi University in 1999 and shipped the first venture the same year. The bet was that phones would move from ear to eye. The next twenty-five years went into proving and living that bet — six startups across Turkey, the UK, Germany, and the UAE, an MBA and a PhD at Yeditepe along the way.

One notable exit. Some failures I now understand far better than I did at the time. Throughout, I have always written and taught alongside the building — three books, hundreds of mentees, years in lecture halls.

What I do

Five activities, one identity.

Each of these grew out of the others. None of them sit on top of the building — they are part of how I build.

I build.: Building is the throughline. Six startups across twenty-five years, and currently the 7pframework.com platform alongside a new B2B startup.
I mentor.: Direct founder engagements by application, and Independent Operating Partner work with investor organizations — early-stage VCs, angel networks, accelerators, and incubation programs.
I write.: Three books across two languages — Cesaret Ekonomisi (2021), Indispensable Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship (2023), and The Founder’s Sequence (2026).
I teach.: Speaking at universities, accelerators, and founder events.
I inspire.: By being honest about what entrepreneurship actually demands — failures, pivots, hard-won lessons included. The story is more useful than the slogan.

Philosophy

My Entrepreneurial Philosophy

I have distilled my entrepreneurial philosophy into seven imperatives. They are simple, but not easy. Here they are:

01
Focus
Concentrate on one thing. The founder who chases everything catches nothing.
02
Obsess
Obsess to innovate and add value — not to stay in your comfort zone.
03
Learn and Model
Read, observe, and model people who have already succeeded at what you are trying to do.
04
Start Small and Progress
Begin before perfection. Progress creates clarity.
05
Take Massive Action
The difference between knowing and doing is the willingness to move at scale.
06
Simplify
Do not make things complex when they do not need to be.
07
Persist Until You Succeed
Keep going until evidence tells you to pivot — not until fear tells you to stop.

Original framework

The 7P Framework of Entrepreneurship.

The system I wish someone had handed me in 1999.

01
Purpose
“The reason you start — and the reason you survive.”
Purpose worksheet
02
People
“Who builds it with you determines whether it gets built at all.”
PRIME co-founder test
03
Pain
“Fall in love with the problem, not the solution.”
Pain validator
04
Product
“Build the right thing first — then build it right.”
RICE scoring tool
05
Prove
“The market is the only judge that matters.”
Prove worksheet
06
Profits
“From Purpose to Profits.”
Profits worksheet
07
Persistence
“The one who lasts beats the best.”
Endurance · no tool

Explore the full framework on 7pframework.com

Books

Three books across two languages.

One free e-book that introduces the framework, one paid English volume that builds the fundamentals out, and a Turkish memoir-handbook for the founders who started this journey with me.

2026English · FreeNEW

The Founder's Sequence

A free visual e-book introducing the 7P Framework — the system I wish someone had handed me in 1999. Built for first-time founders who want a coherent map, not a tactic checklist.

Read free

2023English · Amazon

Indispensable Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship

The deeper companion volume. Where The Founder’s Sequence introduces the framework, this book builds out the fundamentals — what I learned across 25 years of founding, failing, pivoting, and persisting.

Get on Amazon

2021Turkish edition · Amazon

Cesaret Ekonomisi

The Courage Economy. A memoir-meets-handbook for Turkish entrepreneurs. The story of what entrepreneurship actually demands — vision, conviction, and the courage to keep going through the hardest years.

Buy Turkish edition

Founder mentorship, plus Independent Operating Partner engagements.

Most of my advisory work splits into two tracks. One serves founders directly. The other serves the investor organizations who back them — and who want a seasoned operator close to their portfolio without the cost of a full-time hire.

Track one

Founder mentorship.

One-on-one engagements with early-stage founders working through the hardest stretches of the journey. By application — pricing and process explained inside the form. Engagement models flex from small retainer to selective equity arrangements.

First-time founders: Building from the ground up — validating an idea, picking a co-founder, sequencing the early steps.
Founders raising: Attracting capital with confidence — pitch, narrative, financials, fundraising strategy.
Founders in hard times: Strategies to thrive under pressure — resilience, crisis management, pivot decisions.

Track two

Independent Operating Partner.

For early-stage VCs, angel networks, accelerators, and incubation programs.

What an Independent Operating Partner is. An experienced operator who works closely with portfolio companies — not in daily operations, but closer to execution than the investor partner who sits on the board. The partner sees the company once a month at the board meeting. The IOP is available between those meetings: pre-board preparation, hiring decisions, pivot calls, crisis support, and the resilience conversations that don't fit on a board agenda.

Why this role exists. Most investment teams have two profiles. Bright associates who are Excel-smart but haven't yet run a company. Senior partners who are both — but their time is consumed by deal flow, board meetings, and raising the next fund. I sit in the gap: an experienced operator (six startups, four countries, twenty-five years), time-flexible, scoped engagements, significantly more affordable than a full-time hire with full compensation and equity. Easier to scale up when the portfolio needs it, and step back when it doesn't.

Bridge, not translation. Investors and founders speak different languages — finance vocabulary versus product/team vocabulary, quarterly cadence versus daily cadence. Most operating partners don't bridge well because they have usually been one or the other. I have raised from twenty organizations — five VCs, one angel network, fourteen angel investors — and I have run six startups across four countries. That double-card lets me sit at the same table with both sides without sounding foreign to either.

Discuss an IOP engagementB2B engagement — pricing scoped to the fund or program.

For founders reading this

If you want help between board meetings — execution support, hiring decisions, the conversations that don't fit a board agenda — ask your investor whether they can bring in an Independent Operating Partner. Many funds have platform budget that few founders know to use. Forwarding this section to your lead investor is a fair way to start the conversation.

Engagement policy

Standing rules for every engagement.

No competing engagements. I do not — and will not — advise two companies that compete with one another, whether they sit within a single investor's portfolio or across the investor organisations I work with. A conflict check precedes every new engagement; any material change in scope is re-examined against the same standard.

Confidentiality, in both directions. Information shared with me by a founder is held in strict confidence and is not relayed to their investors without explicit consent. The reverse holds equally: investor-side context disclosed to me is not relayed to founders.

Neutrality. I act in the interest of the engagement, not as a partisan of either side. Where founder and investor incentives diverge, I will state so plainly — to both parties — rather than carry one side's case.

Written terms. Every engagement is documented in writing, with scope, deliverables, fees, conflict carve-outs, confidentiality provisions, and termination terms. Engagements may be paused or ended at any time by either party.

Independence. I do not take board seats inside the portfolios I support, and I do not invest into companies on which I am providing operating-partner advice during the engagement.

Companies and credentials