Gökçe has always been drawn to the idea of shaping the future, and that’s also how she approaches her role as a Principal at Oxx. With a career that spans venture capital, corporate innovation, and startup operations, Gökçe brings a wealth of experience to the table. She’s analytical, as evidenced by her series on “Math meets B2B SaaS”, but she’s equally passionate about helping businesses grow by focusing on the people behind the numbers, ensuring that decisions are based on more than just empirical data.
We can look at data and discuss numbers all day long, but at the end of the day, it’s people who make decisions—and people are predictably irrational.
Gökçe’s journey into venture capital started early, as she jumped straight into VC right out of university, working at one of the few VC funds in Turkey at the time. She had been to an international school in Turkey, and then college in the US studying Financial Engineering at Princeton, so remaining in an international environment was natural for her, and VC offered a lot of both versatility and excitement. She’s worked on everything from sourcing deals and fundraising, to sitting in boardrooms of billion-dollar holding companies, gaining a broad understanding of what makes businesses tick. Then, after a stint in startup operations at Koru Kids, where she saw first-hand the highs and lows of scaling, Gökçe returned to her VC roots. However, her time spent as an operator gave her a deep respect for founders, and an understanding of the day-to-day grind that building a company requires.
I gained utmost respect for founders and their resilience—especially after being part of a team that had to be the Wizard of Oz, making things look automated when they really weren’t.
Gökçe has a knack for getting to the heart of a company’s challenges, and she thrives on working closely with founders to help them grow. Her experience at Deloitte Ventures, where she validated new business models and built recurring revenue streams for the consulting business, enabled her to focus on how to bring startup agility to established businesses, and crucially at the scaleup stage, identify how to establish value driving processes at growing businesses. Since joining Oxx, she’s worked with both Crunchr and Black Swan Data, and in 2024 led the work on welcoming SOCRadar to the Oxx family.
Outside of work, Gökçe is happiest when she’s out on the water, sailing in the Mediterranean. And while she’s more laid-back than competitive, don’t let that fool you—a steady, and perhaps sometimes stubborn, hand is exactly what you want when navigating the uncertain waters of scaling.
As an investor, the most valuable thing you can do is ask good questions. If nothing else comes to mind, 5 whys is always a good start.
