Founder & Operator

I build and operate systems.

I take complex things apart, find what actually drives them, and build the system around that. For a decade that has been waste and sustainability tech. Lately it is AI.

Tech founder and AI operator. Board member at Girişimcilik Vakfı. Founder of Cask & Beyond Whisky Club.

Umutcan Duman

Work & Enjoy

Things I run, things I am cooking, things I love.

Running

Evreka

A sustainability tech company operating in 30+ countries, restructuring how the waste and recycling sector works.

On the board

Entrepreneurship Foundation

Turkey's entrepreneurship foundation. I came through it as a Fellow, and now sit on its board. The work is investing in young people: giving them the room, the network and the confidence to see entrepreneurship as a real option. Whether they end up choosing it is up to them.

In the kitchen

A few things not yet served

New AI verticals in progress. They will show up here when they are ready.

Enjoying

Cask & Beyond Whisky Club

Tastings, distillery trips, and a small community around good whisky. An app is growing inside it, with AI woven into how people discover, taste, and remember.

Enjoying

Long distances

Ironman, ultra marathons, ultra-distance cycling.

Writing

Where I think out loud.

the operator's notes

Build logs from AI experiments, notes from a decade of scaling globally, and the forces underneath. In English and Turkish.

Read on Substack

cask & beyond

Whisky: tastings, bottles, and the club. A different kind of depth.

Read on Substack

circular lab

Circular economy and sustainability. Where the waste side of the work gets written down.

Read on Substack