Investor Advisor with Dilan Sisu

Meet our featured investor, Dilan Sisu. She is an investor at e2vc, where she focuses on early-stage technology startups founded by entrepreneurs from Turkey, Central & Eastern Europe, and the broader diaspora. Her investment focus is primarily at the pre-seed stage, with an emphasis on founder quality, team development, and long-term relationship building.

With a background in business and economics, Dilan’s work is driven by a strong interest in how technology, talent, and capital intersect in regions with deep technical expertise but limited historical access to global markets. She is particularly motivated by partnering with ambitious founders, understanding how strong teams are built over time, and supporting companies that adopt a global mindset from the earliest stages.

1- Tell us more about yourself  

I'm an investor with e2vc, we focus on early-stage technology companies founded by entrepreneurs from Turkey and Central & Eastern Europe, as well as the broader diaspora. 

I’m particularly passionate about working with young talent and understanding how strong founders and teams are formed over time. This is why a lot of my work is centered around talent mapping, long-term relationship building, and connecting people before there is an obvious transaction involved. I spend a lot of time speaking with engineers, researchers, and early builders to understand what they are excited about, what they want to build, and where they can have the most impact.

Coming from a business & economics background, I’ve always been interested in how technology, talent, and capital come together, especially in regions where there is significant technical depth but less historical access to global markets.

2- What do you usually want to see in a startup before you decide to look into it further?  

Before deciding to spend real time with a team, I try to understand a few fundamental things: why this problem matters, who it matters to, and why now.

Beyond that, I pay a lot of attention to the founder’s velocity and clarity of thought. We don’t look for perfect answers, and honestly, we don’t have them either. What matters much more is how fast founders learn, how quickly they can turn feedback into product decisions, and how intentional they are about what they are building.

Another important signal for me is ambition and market choice. Founders who are targeting the US. market from early on tend to think differently about product quality, competition, and scale. That mindset often shows up very early, even before there is meaningful traction.

3- Based on your experience what are some of the frequent mistakes that startups make in their first steps? 

A mistake I see quite often, especially among startups from Turkey and Central & Eastern Europe, is assuming that local or regional markets are sufficient and that expansion can come later. The challenge with starting in Turkey or smaller regional markets is not only that the market size is limited, but also that in many cases buyers don’t prioritize technology in the same way more mature markets do. As a result, teams often build products that work well locally but struggle to compete when they later try to enter larger markets. By then, a lot of time has already been spent optimizing for the wrong constraints, making it much harder to course-correct.

4- Ηow can startups in the Pre-Seed stage increase their chances of attracting investors’ interest?   

At the Pre-Seed stage, you rarely have strong traction or meaningful financials, so interest is mostly driven by the team and the direction they’re taking. Starting with large markets in mind, especially the US, already signals a different way of thinking. This is an outlier-driven space, and founders who make decisions based on where the biggest opportunities are, rather than geographical proximity, tend to stand out.

Because the product is still forming, what matters more is how founders approach uncertainty. Investors pay close attention to how teams think, how they make decisions, and how quickly they learn. Founders who are clear about what they are testing, what they don’t know yet, and how they plan to get there create much more conviction.