Alpay Koralturk is not your average startup founder. After working hard at a top high school in his native Turkey, Koralturk came to the United States on a full scholarship to college. Triple-majoring in computer science, math, and economics at Wesleyan University, Koralturk figured he had set himself up for a career path in the financial world.
“Someone told me I should get into investment banking [because] as an immigrant it would be a good job with a good paycheck. I worked at JP Morgan after my junior year, and was offered a job in 2008,” said Koralturk.
Despite the financial crisis, Koralturk kept his position, working 18-20 hour days at the derivatives desk at JP Morgan. But something did not feel quite right. “When a friend visited and all we talked about was rates, I knew I needed to get out of this world,” Koralturk said. So, Koralturk decided to make a change.
Following the advice of a longtime friend who joined JP Morgan after college and left quickly for the startup world, Koralturk began looking elsewhere for opportunities to use his computer science and mathematics background. He became acquainted with Shana Fisher, Managing Partner of the New York-based venture fund HLVP. She introduced him to the CFO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in 2010, who ended up hiring him as an advertising business analyst.
Koralturk left Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia at the end of 2011 to work with Fisher, who took him under her wing for a brief time before he ended up joining Moda Operandi, an eCommerce startup and one of her portfolio companies.
Koralturk learned that it wasn’t about his experience in the startup world, but about being able to figure things out. “If they are trusting me with all this responsibility and I’m doing a good job, [then I thought] I could do this on my own,” Koralturk said. With newly-acquired confidence from his experience at Moda Operandi, Koralturk’s sights were finally fixed on becoming an entrepreneur.
But, as with any good founder story, Koralturk was met with an unexpected turn of events. When family affairs called him back to Turkey, Koralturk was forced to redirect his endeavors back towards home. By networking with like-minded product and tech folks in Turkey, he was put in touch with Mehmet Ecevit, who had an idea for an opportunity “too good to pass up.” After adding a third co-founder, Kaan Karamanci, the three founded Gram Games, a mobile-first gaming company.
“Turkey, as a country in gaming, had all the initial signs of breakthrough success but there was no big gaming success story.” After a pivot, the company decided to implement a fast iteration strategy and a flat organizational structure. The result was 1010!, a game now played by over 100 million people across the globe. Koralturk had caught the startup bug, and in 2014, he decided to move back to New York City to try something new. Gram Games was later acquired by Zynga this past March for $250M.
Like any New Yorker, Koralturk was accustomed to moving apartments frequently within the city. Also like a typical New Yorker, Koralturk found it frustrating to get rid of and buy new furniture with each move. For the entrepreneur, this common pain point seemed like a good challenge.
“[I thought to myself] ‘there needs to be a better way to do this.’ What’s wrong with moving? There has to be a better way to sell furniture,” said Koralturk.
Upon further investigation, Koralturk found he wasn’t the only one to have noticed the problem. Furniture was and is still is the top household waste category, and has the least-recyclable waste. The data points lined up, and from this investigation, Koralturk created the company Furnishare.
For clients, Furnishare makes the moving process easier by picking up furniture from movers and reselling this furniture to new homeowners. It takes the burden off of movers’ hands by picking up excess furniture from a mover, storing the furniture in the warehouse, and delivering the pieces directly to a buyer. Movers can make a profit from the furniture sold, and buyers are able to find designer pieces at a lower cost.
“I wanted to build a service that I would use," said Koralturk. "My vision from the get-go was to democratize well-designed furniture, do it in a sustainable way, and make sure everyone could get access to the most beautiful home they could get based on their price point.”
For customers as well, this vision seems to have paid off. From the beginning, customer reviews have been extremely high, with customers even offering to pay more for the service. Creating a cycle between the moving and buying process, Furnishare helps both movers and buyers win, with the added bonus of helping the environmental economy. And for a determined, hard worker like Koralturk, the benevolent payoff is worth the effort.