EdTech Angels: Choosing your life partner - Erensah Ayanlar
Guest: Erensah Ayanlar, the Chief Customer Experience Officer at Mesmerise, a company delivering immersive experiences in VR. She has a passion for food & education and is an angel investor in 16 companies, of which 25% is in EdTech.
Frank Albert Coates: So let's jump into it and talk a bit about your background and specifically; why did you start investing in EdTech?
Erensah Ayanlar: So, my background is actually a lifelong learning journey. So just to give a bit of context as to what you would see on my LinkedIn profile. I started working in the finance industry at JP Morgan in London. And then I got married and moved back to Turkey.
And when I did that, I wanted to learn something around food and beverage because I'm really passionate about food. So I worked in a local company, a global company like Starbucks, and then I decided to leave the corporate world and founded, well co-founded a consultancy and advisory company with my husband.
And then had a first go at being a founder myself. Well, actually a co-founder at a startup - you're not gonna be seeing that on my LinkedIn profile. It was around, supporting kids, children with skills like curiosity, creativity, resilience, and learning to learn and unlearn, which we thought was actually lacking in what they were teaching at school.
So it failed but I call it as first attempt in learning. So we learned a lot from that. One being you can't put digital, you know, in the back burner, you always need to kind of bring that along in your journey. And at the moment I'm working remotely, so I'll say globally, for an immersive technology company based in London.
So I work in the Metaverse. So when you look at that kind of journey, it is all about learning. And the reason why we're investing in EdTech is actually, as a professional, I had to unlearn a lot and I had to keep on reskilling and upskilling myself. As a mom of two, I have two wonderful kids who I love very dearly, watching them going through their education system, which was really built for the industrial Revolution. I actually saw that there was still need for personalization of education. Because my two kids, you know, they're born and raised in the same family, but they're totally different. They learn in a different way, yet they go to the same school, you know, they're being taught from the same people.
So that was a problem that kind of I witnessed as well as future proofing them. So are we actually teaching them the skills that they need to futureproof themselves?
So, the biggest problems are also the biggest business opportunities. So with that in mind, we started investing in EdTech companies, and supporting the founders who are passionate in the area of democratizing education, personalizing education, and really re-imagining learning in general.
Frank Albert Coates: A bit of a follow up on that. So how much do you think your finance experience, knowing what could potentially work and also the new co-founder experience, moved you towards investing?
Erensah Ayanlar: That's actually a very good question. Yeah. So, we invest through a family trust with my husband. And I will say that, you know, we complete each other like Jerry Maguire would say. I do have a finance background, but he's currently still in finance. He's a founder of a private equity firm, so he brings that finance knowledge. What I bring more is like, how do you tell the story, how do you communicate it? How do you manage the team and the operational side? So that basically is a package that we have when we are investing in these EdTech companies.
Frank Albert Coates: And if you dive a bit further into the EdTech field you mentioned a few areas that you're looking at and that you have invested in. Do you want to talk more about sort of your investment thesis, because obviously you're not only investing in EdTech?
Erensah Ayanlar: To give you the big picture, we kind of like to invest in exponential technologies that impact large groups of people. Currently we have 16 investments and we focus on food tech, blockchain, FinTech, EdTech obviously, and we also invest in funds. So, at the moment, 25% of our investments is actually in EdTech.
And what we are really looking at is any company that focuses on either upskilling or reskilling of workforce or future proofing the kids.
So supporting them with, you know, curiosity, creativity, resilience, everything that we were actually focusing on in our failed startup and also personalizing education.
So, those are the two areas that we're kind of supporting at the moment. And we have met amazing founders who are really passionate about the problem, not necessarily their solution, which is key.
Frank Albert Coates: Absolutely. And if you look at the way you invest; how much do you look at the impact or the ROI versus the sort of belief and passion that you have in the area?
Erensah Ayanlar: So it differs between categories. If we're looking at the EdTech bits it's more impact driven. So, kind of our investor profile for EdTech is very much hands on. We actually invest pre-seed or seed level and we provide mentoring would like to support the founders and co-founders to grow and to scale up. In that sense, we are more impact driven on EdTech because we do believe that, you know, education is a major driver in changing the world and building the future.
Frank Albert Coates: If you want to compare yourself with other business angels or investors. Yep. How would you say that you're different? Well, I guess the sort of marketing question is; why should people come to you versus someone else?
Erensah Ayanlar: First of all, not everyone should come to us. I think there is not like one size fits all. Saying that there has to be a good kind of match. Why should they choose us? If they share the same values and the same passion about this, you know, workforce upskilling and reskilling, and really kind of getting the kids ready for the future and personalized learning, then you know, we share that. That's number one.
Number two is we are not just like give the fund and we're not gonna deal with you. We actually enjoy and we do support the co-founders and the team through their journey. And you know, I mentioned the package that we provide as the family trust. So it actually covers the financials; so how do you do a pitch, not just put the numbers, but how do you deliver that? So that's the first bit. And then how can you scale? And obviously that is also done through network. So network is not just for finding funds, it's also finding the right partners to collaborate, to learn from, and potentially obviously to find funding from.
I would say our hands on approach with mentoring and also network along with the shared values would be why they should be calling us.
Frank Albert Coates: And it's interesting, you mentioned network, so coming from the EdTech Garage we saw the need to connect the founders first in Europe. What kind of networks or communities have you found useful or are you trying to use together with the founders to help them?
Erensah Ayanlar:
Community is so important. Not just to get to know people, but to learn from each other because a lot of success stories are being shared.
Even kind of weird talk about, you know, I'm an investor, I've done that, but not everyone shares their failures. And through this journey, I mean, money is a commodity, you know, it's abundant, actually. You can find it everywhere, but how to get there and who to go to. You need to learn through the journey. So, going back to your question, obviously EdTech Garage and, you know, we actually connected via a wonderful co-founder who we've invested in, who's been on the show. So, that's a very, very good example.
Also, a part of other kind of platforms where they actually bring founders, academics and investment companies together.
I found the communities very, very useful and it also allows for the warm introduction that you might not get, you know, like whatever you are. They're very beneficial.
Frank Albert Coates: And when you think about the business angel networks, how do you connect with other investors or business angels and learn from them? What have you found useful?
Erensah Ayanlar: There are actually two sides that we get that from. One is as I mentioned, we've actually invested in funds. So through them we get a lot of information. And seeing what they're investing in; because if you actually know that you have a similar investment thesis, then obviously you kind of bring someone along. You can actually expand the network or support a founder who needs something based on your skills.
Frank Albert Coates: Absolutely. And I think what we see also is that a lot of the networks are local.
Erensah Ayanlar: Well, I actually think things have slightly changed after covid, so I would actually say the boundaries, the physical boundaries are not that relevant anymore. And it could be that obviously with our work, being abroad as well, we create that connection and that's actually an advantage that we provide to the co-founder.
So we're not kind of just, you know, regional. We're actually global. Our investments range from Africa to UK to US to Turkey, obviously, and Middle East. So we bring those people together and leverage the geographical communities and connect them together. Because we're not just basically benefiting from them; one of our responsibilities as business angels actually bring the good things together so they grow.
Frank Albert Coates: And just concretely in terms of the investment thesis, you mentioned a few things about it. What are your typical sort of investment sizes and when do you invest with others? Are you a lead investor for instance?
Erensah Ayanlar: In the big picture, our average ticket size is about a 100 000 dollars. But, it does change based on the category. On the EdTech side, you know, it's about 50 to a 100 K. On other sides we've gone up to 250 and 500 K. And when we invest also changes based on the category.
So if it is a more technical, scientifically proven technology, we're happy to basically get involved later on Series C, series D. But, for EdTech specifically because we're also passionate about it, we'd like to help to build it out and scale it out. So we are mostly pre-seed and seed.
Frank Albert Coates: And if we go over to the advice to startups. So with all the startups you worked with and all of those who have approached you but you haven't worked with; what kind of advice would you give them as they are seeking their funding among different sources.
Erensah Ayanlar: Can I give 3? First, really do your homework about everything, about the problem, about what you need and who to go to. Especially for pre-seed and seed founders, you're actually choosing a life partner.
So choose as if you're actually choosing your life partner. That is really key. They're gonna be there from the beginning throughout that journey. So, you don't need to get one depending on what you need. Make sure you bring in people who brings value. I mean, that is so critical.
And just referring to our previous conversation, be a part of the community. I cannot stress enough the value a community brings for learning, finding co-founders, finding team members, you know, just learning from mistakes, sharing and celebrating. Just the stress of the whole situation is actually just lessened by being a part of something bigger.
Frank Albert Coates: And when startups approach you, you talked about warm intros, et cetera. Do you have any preferences in how they approach you and also maybe some examples of what they shouldn't do?
Erensah Ayanlar: There are so many examples... How they approach; they can approach whatever way. I mean, I think we're at a time where warm intros obviously do take priority for introduction, but that doesn't mean that we're gonna be investing in them.
So, you know, email, WhatsApp, phone call, LinkedIn, like all of those are fine. I'm not really on social media so I can't, kind of got the other ones. So they can use all the channels and use all the channels that are available. What they should not do is; time is our most precious asset and attention. So if I'm going to be giving my time and attention to you, I wanna make sure that you've done the same.
So the no-no is, if I'm part of a mass email, it goes to bin automatically. So if I'm gonna be basically spending time, I would like to make sure that, you know, the other side has done that too.
Frank Albert Coates: Let's go over to the market and what you're doing now in the metaverse. So Metaverse, AR, VR, XR - lot of buzz words that have been used over the last couple of years.
And we've seen, I guess over the last months that with everything that's going on in the investment landscape as well, that some things have definitely not worked. So what do you think is crucial for education in particular, but also your thoughts on the metaverse going forwards and especially from a startup founder perspective. What works, what doesn't?
Erensah Ayanlar: Nobody knows, it's still in the very, very early phases, so it's still in the discovery phase, but there's a huge potential with these immersive technologies. Which is one of the reasons why I actually kind of started getting involved in this area because the power of data and the power of customization that can happen within these technologies allows for the personalization of not just education, but also the upskilling and reskilling thing. That's one. So the personalization aspect is definitely there.
The other thing is the immersiveness of the experience. So the way that, you know, we say, I tell you something, you'll forget. And then if you do it, you will actually remember it. So that allows you to do that irrespective of time, place, and space.
So, I truly believe that these are really, really powerful tools that will impact education. Obviously, you know, there's still a long way to go. The headsets will be improved. I mean, if you look at the exponential progress in that area, it will be there. So I don't see that as like a barrier - it is a barrier now, but it won't be in the future if you look at where we came from. And building the right use cases for this training and educational sector is key. Obviously at the moment there's a age 13 limit on using these headsets so there's still some work going on on the developing brain, but if you look at it above, you know, it is there.
And one of the things that we're also working at the company that I work for is training. We're looking at employee training to start with. But you know, it can be expanded to anything.
Frank Albert Coates: And so employer training is definitely one area. Are there other areas that you think are, you know, really hot areas within the metaverse now?
Erensah Ayanlar: There are so many hot areas, but what we focus on is enterprises at the moment. We do have a product which basically provides kind of a large event and meetings and conferences for enterprises.
So bringing people together in this hybrid work because hybrid work is here to stay. How do you make sure you bring people together and feel that core presence is the advantage that these tools actually provide.
So we already have that product, training is being built and it can be extended into very, so many other use cases. We will see how it works as we try more of them. As I said, it's in the beginning of a journey, but a very exciting one.
Frank Albert Coates: I agree with the hybrid work situation. There's so many tools, but you don't feel that there is one yet that sort of gives you that connection, right? There always is some distance in these tools.
Erensah Ayanlar: And I don't think there's going to be one tool. There's going to be a variety of tools. So a tool that works for one scenario doesn't mean that it's gonna work for the other one. So I think we're basically just increasing our toolkit, so we're having more things in our bags, which we can use.
We just need to find the right way. It's like the match, finding the perfect match, just like you would find your perfect investor profile.
Frank Albert Coates: Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. And one question related to the market as well. The investment climate in general has tightened up over the last six months. How do you see it and what do you think founders should focus on now?
Erensah Ayanlar:
I think one thing that it would really help founders to focus on is to rethink measures of success. What worked before may not work now, especially when you look at it; cash runway has lengthened maybe up to 18 months. So growth does not necessarily mean profitable.
You need to look at how do you maintain that profitable growth. And, you know, high valuations always don't mean success, so be more realistic. I think it's a good time to be realistic. Good time to reflect and see how you can continue in this journey.
Frank Albert Coates: Absolutely. Is there anything else that you want to say to founders, in this current climate or any other advice that you would like to share with them?
Erensah Ayanlar: Not for the current climate. Don't be disencouraged. I mean, first of all, I wanna thank them for putting their souls into this.
Remind them not to fall in love with their solutions because that prevents them from being agile. Whereas if you actually really understand and love the problem, it makes it easier for you to be relevant all the time.
