Our Founder of Hello Tomorrow Türkiye, Timur Topalgökçeli, and His Efforts to Change the World Were Featured in the WORKINPOST Interview
WORKINPOST: We know you for your professional career in research, analysis, and energy, as well as being the Founder of Hello Tomorrow Türkiye. Could you tell us a little about your educational background?
Timur Topalgökçeli: I was born in Vienna to an Austrian mother and a Turkish father. Until university, I attended a French school in Vienna, where I received a science-focused education. This was where I was first introduced to physics. Through this introduction, I learned that everything in the world happens within certain rules, and I grasped the importance of science at an early age. Initially, I considered studying engineering in France for my university education, but I later changed my mind and decided to study International Relations and Economics at the London School of Economics (LSE). I was fortunate to make this decision thanks to receiving a scholarship. As someone with a science-heavy educational background, the program I chose was quite different, but this allowed me to experience the benefits of interdisciplinary interaction. I believe that if you have a strong grasp of philosophy, physics, and mathematics, you can understand economics much better and from a broader perspective. I am a very curious person who loves to learn new things, and I think this has contributed a lot to my educational journey.
WP: You graduated from LSE and started your career in research and analysis firms. However, you later built a long career at the International Energy Agency (IEA). How did your transition to the energy sector happen, and to what do you attribute your long career in this field?
TT: LSE was in the heart of London, right at the center of global business, where many industry leaders and even prominent politicians frequently gave lectures and conferences. This environment gave me the opportunity to meet experts in various fields, and I made the most of my time by doing internships at different companies.
During a book presentation at school, I met Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Prize-winning expert in microfinance. He had a profound impact on me, inspiring me in many ways, and led me to save up money for my next vacation to travel to Bangladesh, where I did a volunteer internship. After getting what felt like the longest vaccination list of my life, I went to Bangladesh and spent a month there, reporting on my internship. I witnessed firsthand how microloans were given to illiterate individuals to help them escape poverty. However, what stood out to me the most was something else—I truly understood what it meant to live without electricity. I heard from a nurse how she had to assist in childbirth in the dark at a hospital with no electricity. This experience played a crucial role in shaping my future steps and made me realize the urgent need for action in the energy sector. I firmly believe that small actions can transform millions of lives.
The second major factor in my transition to the energy sector was attending the COP Summit organized by the United Nations in Copenhagen. The Grimshaw Club, where I was a board member at LSE, played a significant role in securing me an invitation to this prestigious event, which only select guests could attend. Although the summit ended in failure despite global leaders' efforts—without a new international protocol replacing the Kyoto Protocol—I gained invaluable insights and understood the immense role of energy in our future. Without hesitation, I reached out to high-ranking IEA officials at the event and expressed my desire to work with them. They didn’t hire me immediately, as they were looking for someone more experienced, and the hiring rate was extremely low (900 applicants per position). However, the work experience I had accumulated helped me significantly in the following months and throughout the long interview process. I started working at the IEA after completing an eight-month internship in the financial sector.
WP: As someone without an engineering background, did you face any disadvantages working in the energy sector?
TT: Of course, there were some challenges. I worked with incredibly smart engineers, and as I delved deeper into energy topics, I sometimes felt the lack of formal education in fundamental physics principles related to thermodynamics, mechatronics, and electricity. For example, to understand why certain battery technologies were not advancing, one needs a certain level of physics knowledge.
However, it’s essential to remember that knowing where the sector is headed and its limitations is just as crucial—you don’t have to be a physics professor for that. Just as we need engineers in this field, we also need policymakers, economists, and academics. The key is having an entrepreneurial mindset and being open to innovation. Solving energy problems requires an interdisciplinary approach.
WP: What is your assessment of Turkish consumers’ and industries’ attitudes toward energy? What are the shortcomings, and can they be addressed in the short term?
TT: The Turkish energy sector contains both numerous challenges and solutions. Our biggest problem is that we import a significant portion of the energy we use and utilize our electricity inefficiently. On the one hand, we are developing rapidly (urban transformation, young demographics, population growth), and on the other hand, our slow progress in energy efficiency continues to increase our energy demand.
However, there are also positives: Strategically, we are in a highly critical location, as 70% of the world’s fossil fuels are distributed to the West through our region. Additionally, Turkey has abundant resources in wind, hydroelectric, and solar energy. I believe we need to increase the use of these natural resources while simultaneously taking important steps in energy efficiency. Another critical issue is the liberalization of the Turkish energy market, and I believe significant progress is being made in this regard. The next step is to use high-tech solutions, digitalization, and awareness campaigns to increase energy efficiency.
At Hello Tomorrow Türkiye, we know that there are many promising and highly successful energy entrepreneurs in the country. We are thrilled to discover and support them in accelerating their growth.
WP: Could you tell us about your transition to Hello Tomorrow and how you founded Hello Tomorrow Türkiye?
TT: My first encounter with Hello Tomorrow was when I was invited by its founder to be a permanent jury member for the Hello Tomorrow Global Challenge, a competition for high-tech startups. At the time, I was still working at the IEA. When I later decided to leave my job to start my own energy startup, we made the decision to expand Hello Tomorrow from Paris to the world.
I convinced the Paris-based team of Turkey’s immense potential and decided to establish the world’s first international hub of Hello Tomorrow here. Hello Tomorrow focuses on specific fields such as energy, nanotechnology, water, waste management, agriculture, and health. I transitioned from the IEA to Hello Tomorrow through the energy sector because I believe this is one of the most critical issues for Turkey.
After working with global energy leaders at the IEA (often referred to as the "Davos of Energy"), I identified gaps in high-level decision-making and thought about how we could address them with a bottom-up approach. At that moment, I asked myself, “What will truly change the world?” However, I should emphasize that this was a question based entirely on concrete data. One of the answers to this question was undoubtedly "science-driven entrepreneurship."
Now, as the founder of both an association and a company, my biggest motivation in accelerating deep-tech entrepreneurship is my wholehearted belief in its impact.
WP: What is the mission of Hello Tomorrow?
TT: Hello Tomorrow's mission is to combine science, technology, and entrepreneurship to develop next-generation technology solutions in the most impactful sectors for humanity and to accelerate this process by building deep-tech startup ecosystems worldwide.
There is currently a global trend where more scientists are striving to become entrepreneurs. However, their biggest challenge is not knowing how to do it. This is exactly why Hello Tomorrow was founded: to enable scientists conducting R&D and working in laboratories to commercialize their ideas.
I want to emphasize an important distinction here: Instead of focusing on new e-commerce sites or social media projects, we aim to find and support deep-tech projects that truly contribute to the world. We want to showcase startups producing these projects as role models and bring science to the prominence it deserves within the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
As Hello Tomorrow Turkey, our primary goal is to connect Turkey to our global network of innovators and create a deep-tech ecosystem that will identify, fund, and support science-driven startups, ultimately contributing to our local economy. Our objective is not to send these talents abroad and cause brain drain but to ensure they create value here in our own country. However, this doesn’t mean we won’t introduce them to international companies. One of our key goals is to connect local startups with global corporations and vice versa, fostering real macroeconomic value in technology production.
Additionally, I must mention that as an organization, we do not take any share of the success of the startups we support. So far, we have relied solely on sponsorships and grants, which has helped us sustain ourselves as a "startup association."
WP: How do you assess the position of Turkish startups in terms of future ideas/technologies? How many projects from Turkey have impressed you and received support from foreign investors?
TT: I can say that we have discovered highly successful startups in Turkey in fields such as energy, IoT (Internet of Things), artificial intelligence, and biotechnology. For instance, in areas like cancer treatment, robotics, and rehabilitation...
These innovations are not just being developed in major cities like Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir but also by innovators across the country. We have entrepreneurs conducting R&D on perovskite solar energy in Selçuk, developing their own fuel in Trabzon, and working on robotic bomb disposal technology in Urfa. These startups will be evaluated by our global jury this year, and the winners will receive support from international investors. I wholeheartedly believe they will achieve great success.
WP: How did you come across Workinton? What are your thoughts on Workinton?
TT: I got to know Workinton through PMO Partners, a project management and consulting firm. I visited my friend's office at Türk Telekom Arena, where he mentored Workinton on international acceleration program design and implementation.
When he mentioned Workinton’s contributions to the pre-incubation, incubation, and entrepreneurship ecosystem, I realized that Workinton could be a potential partner for Hello Tomorrow Turkey. One of the key reasons for this is that Workinton has a significant incubation center and supports this system with its own resources. I believe they have the potential to become a major player in this field in Turkey.
WP: What do you think about Workinton’s incubation center and its support for startups?
TT: Workinton provides high-standard office spaces in key locations, offering significant opportunities for startups. I know they already support many startups.
If they could provide more opportunities for R&D-focused startups, particularly in deep-tech (for example, an R&D laboratory), they could become one of our key partners.
(Excerpt from WORKINPOST.)
