Revolutionizing movie going

One of the things that mentors love to say to entrepreneurs is “think global.” What they mean is that a startup should not just focus on a local market, even at birth. Of course, this piece of advice is rarely kept, as going global is usually feared by entrepreneurs. How can they make it in a market they know so little about while they are still struggling in their home market where they have a good network? This is a question you cannot really know the answer to unless you try.

Fortunately, there are some who take this leap of faith.

It makes me very happy to see an increase in the numbers of startups going global who were born in Turkey. Armut.com is expanding to the United States, Mutlubiev is expanding to Italy, Insider is expanding everywhere and Sinemia has successfully established itself in five different markets.

I had the opportunity to meet and have a conversation about the future of Sinemia with its founder and CEO Rıfat Oğuz. Oğuz is among the people who used to work at Turkcell and has turned into a very successful entrepreneur. In this regard, I have to applaud Turkcell for the number of amazing entrepreneurs that the company has produced. It might be a story to tell in a different article.

Oğuz is exactly what you would expect from a founder of a Silicon Valley startup. He is young, energetic, focused, and has many interesting stories to tell that are similar to one involving Elon Musk, SXSW, Dolores from the hit series West World along with the founder of Etherium, all in the same story line. But one feature about him stands apart, he constantly thinks about his company and how Sinemia will change the movie industry.

He says Sinemia is not in the ticketing business but is in the fintech business. I believe this understanding is what separates Sinemia from its competitors like MoviePass in the U.S. Sinemia does not buy bulk tickets from every movie theater. Instead, the company pays the full price of the ticket you buy for any movie theater you choose. This is way more expensive than making deals with each and every movie theater but gives him the freedom and flexibility he needs when Sinemia launches in different countries. It only takes a few days to set up an operation in any country around the world, which is really amazing. Oğuz underlined that their U.S. operation is growing faster than any other country and they will soon launch Sinemia in a few Asian countries.

The second major strategy that is different than its competitors is the fact that Sinemia considers parking and the meal you eat before going into the theater or the popcorn you buy at the theater as part of the movie going experience. Therefore, Sinemia is focused on expanding its services in all the above mentioned areas and maybe more.

I hope Oğuz and his team will realize everything they dream about and really change the whole movie going experience for the better.