About this episode

Akin Babayigit discusses the Istanbul gaming ecosystem and shares insights on investment and founder challenges.

McKinsey, the United Nations, Skype, Rocket Internet, Facebook, King. Then Akin Babayigit co-founded Tripledot, spun out Luna Labs, and now runs Arcadia Gaming Partners, a $100M fund he deploys alone.He left Türkiye at sixteen and never moved back, which makes him one of the few people who can talk about Istanbul as both an insider and an outsider. We get into how the ecosystem was built, why Sidar Şahin still shapes it years after disappearing, why payback windows are the wrong lens, and what he told a room of Turkish founders that they did not want to hear.Chapters 02:42 Leaving Türkiye 06:23 Building Tripledot 08:51 The Sidar myth 18:21 One trick? 20:47 First mover advantage 23:25 Payback versus IRR 28:32 What AI changes 31:43 The AppLovin dependency 40:07 fal and Layer 42:22 What Türkiye lacks 49:28 The unsexy work 54:24 After gaming 1:05:20 Türkiye and Israel

People in this episode

Host: Deconstructor of Fun

Guest: Akin Babayigit

Topics covered

• Istanbul ecosystem
• gaming industry
• founder insights
• investment strategies
• AI impact
• Turkish startups

Keywords

• Istanbul
• gaming
• founders
• investment
• AI
• Tripledot
• Arcadia Gaming Partners
• Türkiye
• Sidar Şahin

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: McKinsey, United Nations, Skype, Rocket Internet, Facebook, King, Tripledot, Luna Labs, Arcadia Gaming Partners

Places: Türkiye, Istanbul, Israel

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