Espor is a spin-off company, which was established at the incubation center of Ankara Cyberpark in 2005. It graduated from the incubator a year later in 2006, and currently has 7 employees. Espor develops software, which is used in the analysis of the sport matches/competitions.
Espor tells us their story about starting up a successful company with the support of the Ankara Cyberpark Incubator. The interview was conducted with Bilal Aday, Founder and General Manager of Espor Digital.
Is this the first company that you have started, and what drove you towards it?
Yes, Espor Digital is the first and only firm that we have started. What drove us towards it, was the need to increase the competitiveness of the sport companies and introduce the information technology int sports and enable the more effective use of it.
How did you finance your start-up operations and how long did it take for the company to become self-sustainable?
When we first started the company we self financed it. The development process continued 12 months and after 12 months the company has become self sustainable in financial terms.
"We could not have developed our products nor overcome initial company start-up obstacles without the support of the Ankara Cyberpark Business Incubator."
Bilal Aday, Founder and General Manager, Espor Digital
What are your major products and services and how are they unique? What is your competition?
The most important product of our company is e-analysis software. Although similar softwares exist abroad, the one developed by us differentiates itself through ease of use, different technologies used, and additional characteristics. The software is available in many languages; and it has sub-products for different sport kinds like basketball, volleyball and hentball. We are the only firm operating in this sector, we don’t have any competitors in terms of product. And our products can easily compete with those products abroad.
How did you first launch the product?
We launched our first product e-football analysis after 12 months we established our company.
How do you measure the success of the company?
We measure our success with the feedback we get from our clients.
Who are your clients and how many do you have? How are you focusing on expanding your user community?
Our clients are sport clubs and technical men. We have 150 clients in Turkey and 4 abroad.
Are you planning to patent your product and do you see any obstacles in doing so?
We are still working on it to patent out products. It is not an easy process but we don’t see major obstacles.
What was the biggest challenge in starting an innovative business in your country and how did you overcome that?
The biggest problem in starting an innovative business is same in every corner of the world, access to financial resources. As innovative businesses contain high risk, it is always harder to get outside financing. It was the same in our case as well. But we got a lot of advantage by being located in an incubation center. We could access to office space and other services at more affordable prices; and also we benefited from the tax advantages (In Turkey there is personel and corporate tax exemptions for those R&D companies operating in a technopark/ incubator of a technopark). So we could overcome those financial challenges to some extent.
Who are the shareholders in your company?
There are three shareholders of our company. These people are also the founders of the company. They work actively in the development process of the products.
How have you benefited from business incubation?
We couldn’t have developed our products and get over the obstacles of the initial periods of our company. The incubation center offered us office services and other secreterial services at very affordable prices. Also we benefited from various training programs.
How do you plan to internationalize your product and if so, how?
We are planning to introduce our products to international sport clubs and technical men, we have attempts about this. We are closely following international sport events, organizations and fairs so we are aiming to present our company and products. We are developing our products in different languages like German, Russian, Serbian, Macedonian etc.
With hindsight, are there any particular lessons or messages that you wish you would have known when you started up your company?
Developing and marketing a products are totally different things and requires totally different expertises. You can achieve the ultimate success when you have correct strategies in both these fields. Besides R&D, the business side is also utmost important.
Do you feel that you had the necessary advisory and support network when you started your company?
Yes. We really appreciate the support of Cyberpark management company. They always provided us suppoort and consultancy when we needed. They never let us feel that we are alone.
What is your message to funders/supporters and what is your message to the users of your product?
Funders need to have more trust in innovative companies, and R&D companies. These innovative companies may be riskier to invest in; but they need to keep in mind that the higher the risk, the bigger is the return.
Our message to the users of our product is to be in touch with us and provide their valuable insight and feedback to us, which will make us develop our products.
For more information about E-Spor, please visit the E-Spor website.
For more information about the Ankara Cyberpark Business Incubator, please see their profile in the Global Network Directory and see the attached briefing sheet.