Ep 36 - Ayse Guvencer - Founder & Startup Advisor

In this episode of the Founders & Funding Podcast, Philip Smith speaks with Ayse Guvencer, Founder of ELVT Advisory and Founding Operator at Celestine Materials & Innovation. Ayse works with deep tech and technical founders on go-to-market, positioning, and commercial operations, and shares why the startups she sees most often have excellent technology and the wrong message attached to it.

She explains why Celestine, which turns agricultural waste into usable building materials, is funded through grants rather than VC, and how the funding route available to you often depends more on your sector than your traction. Ayse also walks through her Stack Trace operating system, a layered framework she built to help technical founders diagnose whether their problem is really a GTM issue or something two layers further down. They also discuss the most expensive hiring mistakes technical founders make, and why she advises tailoring your investor deck to the customer rather than the VC.