Taylan Demirkaya is a seasoned educator, mentor, and investor with extensive experience in finance, marketing, and entrepreneurship. With a Ph.D. and M.B.A. in Finance from Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi and Başkent Üniversitesi, respectively, and a background in Business and Social Skills from TED Ankara Koleji, he has built a career guiding startups towards success. As a University Lecturer at Izmir University of Economics, he imparts knowledge relevant to evolving business environments. Demirkaya has served in various roles such as former Investor at Glocalzone, Business Mentor at Kovvan, and Coordinator at Embryonix.

As a Business Mentor both in TÜSİAD Bu Gençlikte İŞ Var and Startupbootcamp, he has helped entrepreneurs to develop their customer segments and reach them effectively with minimal resources. Moreover, he specializes in sustainable agriculture, financial technologies, sharing technologies, social enterprises and did not invest in e-commerce and non-innovative business models. He has established a reputation for his expertise in investment and evaluation of innovative technology initiatives, having worked as a KOSGEB arge inovasyon destegi degerlendirme ve karar kurulu üyesi. Additionally, he also served as the Izmir Chapter Director at Startup Grind, an internationally renowned startup community, and as an expert advisor and keynote speaker at TED conferences.