Uğur Kaner
I'm Uğur, a product-focused, repeat founder with design and engineering background. Besides starting up, I advise and invest in select startups and mentor early stage founders.
Some things about me
- I live in California
- I've lived in 3 continents: Asia, Europe and America
- I'm currently working on my new startup to make AI useful for businesses
- My other startup Collective has reached 9-figure valuation. It's backed by some of the top investors like General Catalyst, QED, Google’s Gradient Ventures, Expa, and Ashton Kutcher.
- Before Collective I helped Udemy (IPO, $UDMY) start, MBX (YC W14, raised $190M) grow.
Some things I believe
- Health is the most important thing. Mental health often outweighs physical health, but both feed each other.
- Put people in the center of everything you do. Building deep, long-term relationships is what matters at work and in personal life.
- When hiring, prioritize personality, attitude, and skillset—in that order. Work only with good people who have a positive attitude. Technical skills can be learned.
- A good measure of success as a leader is when former teammates would recommend you. Always do your best to do right by people.
- You can optimize for speed, quality, or cost—but only pick two at once. Prioritize wisely depending on the situation
- Thinking before acting is much cheaper in the long run. Act deliberately, not reactively
- Make decisions to win, not to be right. Winning together matters more than individual pride.
- Embrace failure as a part of growth. There's no growth without learning, there's no learning without failure.
- Limitations are key to creativity. Constraints force you to think outside the box and push boundaries.
- Outcomes over output. Focus on meaningful results, not just busywork.
Some investments
I invest in founders, missions and visions I feel excited about. Some of my most exciting investments include Stripe, Space X, Republic, Wonderschool, ZenBusiness and AltoIRA.
Contact
You can find me on Twitter and LinkedIn
