Mentor to 500+ startups. Founder of Openfor.co and Co-Capital. Builder of 15+ AI products. One mission: far more people building something useful, in 20+ countries.
I help people build. Sometimes as a mentor, sometimes as a founder, a builder, a writer or a host. Same mission every time: more people with a real shot at creating something useful.
Everyone can build now. What most founders still lack comes after the build, and where you're born still decides who returns your email.
of startup capital went to one metro of under eight million people.
One minute, no talking. The network, the mentoring, the companies, the book. Then scroll on for the details.
My own version of what Openfor.co and Co-Capital do: the people who speak at my sessions, mentor my founders and back the ecosystem with me.
Guests, speakers and mentors from my sessions and programs, as listed on openfor.co. Names show where people work, not a partnership or endorsement. Plus public programs in Türkiye and the UAE.
500+ startups mentored, from idea stage to late-stage scale-ups with eight-figure revenues. You come in with a problem, I open my AI tools, and we build the thing together while we talk.
I sit between founders and investors, Japan and the world, every day. I know what each side wants from the other, in their own words, fresh from this week, not from a book. Point me at the problem.
Judge at 20+ pitch competitions and demo days. In my own programs I've rated six cohorts, ten review rounds each. Founders I've mentored came from, or went on to, Y Combinator, a16z, Techstars, Antler, Founder Institute, Plug and Play, 500 Global, SkyDeck and Alchemist, and raised from leading VCs worldwide.
Nobody leaves empty-handed.
The agentic incubator for the 99%. AI drafts, mentors check, you decide. Every week you ship something real.
Co-founded with Yu Li Shein, COOA private, investors-only community around the founders we develop. Built for relationships, not pitches.
Yes, these are businesses. Members pay on purpose. It keeps us independent and keeps everyone accountable.
Four moves, one loop, for every founder I work with.
named products shipped, plus a long tail of internal tools, automations and experiments. AI agents, databases, full platforms, this site. Everything I tell founders to do, I run on myself first.
Also in the drawer: a public-speaking AI coach, a piano learning and teaching app, and a few retro game remixes. Small tools, built for my own use first.
Companies I hold direct relationships with, mostly equity, out of the programs I run. Plus dozens more I advise every month.
My answer: Universal Basic Entrepreneurship. Not everyone building a unicorn. Far more people with a real chance to build something useful. Written with a thousand voices from this community.
Writing since 2020, filming since 2025. Founders, fundraising, Japan and Asia, AI, and the human side of all of it.
Keynotes, panels, firesides and hands-on workshops, from Tokyo to Abu Dhabi. In English, with Japanese on request.
The latest events, and the rooms they filled.
Where it started, and where my work has been recognized, judged and published since. Linked to the source wherever one exists.
Erdinç Ekinci, founder of Openfor.co and Co-Capital, mentor to 500+ startups, author of ANTHROPRENEUR.
Erdinç Ekinci is a Tokyo-based mentor, founder and builder. He has mentored 500+ startups from idea stage to eight-figure scale-ups, runs Openfor.co and Co-Capital, and has built 15+ AI-powered products. He is the author of ANTHROPRENEUR.
Erdinç Ekinci is a Tokyo-based mentor, founder and builder working across Japan, Korea, Taiwan, the wider Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. He has mentored 500+ startups, from idea stage to late-stage scale-ups with eight-figure revenues, and has judged 20+ pitch competitions and demo days. He founded Openfor.co, an agentic incubator, and Co-Capital, an investors-only community, and has run six accelerator programs. He has worked with public agencies including KISED, KOSME, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, JICA, NEDO and JETRO, hosted 130+ events and built 15+ AI-powered products. He is writing ANTHROPRENEUR, a book on human agency in an age of abundant intelligence.
Figures as of October 2026. Network counts LinkedIn followers and connections, combined. Names of organizations show where people in my network work or where I have spoken, not a partnership or endorsement.