Meet the 35-year-old who went from kitchen-side startup to senior technology CEO

Trendyol

Demeta Mutlu.

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND — Demet Mutlu started her e-commerce company from her kitchen table as a Harvard Business School student while pursuing an MBA, and is now the CEO of Turkey’s largest e-commerce employers.

Mutlu dropped out of Harvard in her first year to focus on her company, but at just 35 years old, she is the CEO of Trendyol.com, has raised over $50 million (£41.5 million) in venture capital funding and was appointed Young Global Leader of 2016, which was described as “the most exclusive private social network in the world.”“

Mutlu sat down with Business Insider at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and gave us her top tips on how she achieved her success, as well as how she’s used her new Young Global Leader status to help more women get into tech:

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

Lianna Brinded: You grew an extremely successful company from scratch. What do you think is the recipe for your success as someone who transformed a startup into a huge e-commerce company?

Demet Mutlu: I think entrepreneurship is about being a lifelong student. I founded it seven years ago, but I’m constantly learning and being a sponge for new experiences, which is exactly what an entrepreneur needs. Each stage required different skills. You can’t have an ego, you have to keep learning.

POUND: All entrepreneurs make mistakes along the way. What do you think are the key areas where you made mistakes or encountered obstacles, and how has this shaped you as the leader you are today?

DM: If you think about technology, it’s about making mistakes long before you get the final product right. It’s about trying lots of things and discovering what works, and about innovation and pioneering new things. You may fail, but you can fix them.

We made some mistakes with brands that weren’t successful, but we re-launched them in different ways or tested the brands in too small segments and small customer cohorts. So if it works well, we’ll scale it, and if it doesn’t work, we’ll revise it. You can’t expect to release something perfectly.

That’s what I love about him.

POUND: Being the CEO of a tech company, being young and being a woman is a rare place in the business world. How difficult is it to navigate this space?

DM: It’s a huge (challenge), but being a woman is a huge advantage in the consumer business. Women are key consumers, and being one of them and understanding what consumers want can make a big difference as a (leader), especially when trying to raise capital.

However, a huge challenge for women in the tech industry and entrepreneurs is raising capital. Only 10% of venture capital funding goes to women company leaders, and that’s a problem. I was lucky to raise about $60 milliony Global Tiger, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), but more VC support for women is needed to ensure greater development in this sector.

POUND: As a female CEO of technology and your distinction as a young global WEF leader, how are you using your position to ensure greater equality for women in tech, as well as more women in the sector?

DM: This is what I’m passionate about – encouraging more women to get involved in technology and entrepreneurship. Through the Young Global Leader network, we have worked to encourage more women into programming (and other fields), and I always want to promote the fact that you can achieve anything. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you can do it. If you want to become a techie but want to come back as a mom, you can do that.

Through Trendyol, I also promote greater integration and support for women in the workplace as well as in external areas. For example, we sponsor Galatasaray Women’s national volleyball team. In company, 50% of leadership positions are women, and overall 55% of talent is women.

POUND: At WEF, the biggest threat to businesses this year is unemployment or underemployment due to the rapid pace of AI and automation adoption. As a technology company that is a large employer in Turkey (1,200 employees), how do you as CEO go about ensuring that tons of people are not displaced in the workforce while also addressing the gender gap that is more prevalent across the industry?

DM: I think there needs to be a lot of retraining, especially for women who are not working, for example, coming back after having a child. But overall (in this new era of technological development) we need to encourage more women to study STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) so that they can be relevant in the future.

This is why STEM is so important and we need more women and role models in this field (to lead the cause).

As a young global leader, part of my role is also to predict the future and what the future holds (bringing more women into the workforce and STEM). Many places still do not fully exploit the potential of having more women in the workforce.

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