Erbil Karaman

Erbil is known for bringing the most ambitious Turkish entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley and jumpstarting what some call the “Turkish mafia”. Mafia includes; SpeedDate, Branch.com, Wanelo and Udemy.

After 6 internet ventures and 2 exits, Erbil joined Facebook to help the company reach 1 billion people, one of the most important milestones in Facebook’s history. As part of the founding team, he co-led Internet.org, bringing global awareness into products and and kicking off technology innovation efforts to provide internet to the two thirds of the world. Throughout his time at Facebook, Erbil has hired key leaders both in US and London.

Erbil is an experienced product builder, growth marketer, talent hunter and angel investor. Having one foot in Silicon Valley and another one in Turkey, his life mission is to make Istanbul one of the top technology hubs in the world.

Advisor
500 Startups
October 2015 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area

Product Management Lead
Facebook
March 2012 – Present | Menlo Park, California

Mentor, 20Under20 Fellowship
The Thiel Foundation
February 2012 – Present

Member
Sunfire Offices
August 2010 – December 2012 (2 years 5 months)

Co-Founder & CTO
Sprongo.com
April 2011 – February 2012

Co-Founder
chQit, Inc.
August 2010 – June 2011

CRM Strategy
SpeedDate.com
October 2009 – September 2010

Co-Founder
RealmLab Inc.
September 2008 – September 2009

Founding Engineer & Viral / Email Marketing Lead
SpeedDate.com
September 2007 – August 2008