The person behind Aspire

Allan Bartholomew

Founder & CEO, Aspire

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Allan founded and leads Aspire, where he oversees the infrastructure businesses build on, the founder and investor events programme (including the VC Founders Summit), and the sales pipelines Aspire builds for its customers. His background is in business development, and that background is what shapes how Aspire works with businesses: fewer decks, more introductions, and a clear line back to the outcome a business owner actually wanted.

He founded and runs several of the brands Aspire owns, and holds an operating role at another. All are listed below.

Background

Allan studied mechanical engineering at Özyeğin University in Istanbul from 2013 to 2019, alongside coursework in entrepreneurship and global business. He chose to build businesses rather than take a conventional engineering career, and his early ventures, several of which failed, taught him the lessons on distribution, sales and partnerships that still shape how Aspire works today.

He entered Web3 through Coinoxs, a venture studio and accelerator, where his work in business development and event coordination put him in the room with companies and organisations including OKX, UNHCR and Gear.io. Alongside that work he founded Aspire Academy, an English-language and professional-preparation programme for business professionals in Istanbul.

He also founded Saucy, an Istanbul-based events and entertainment brand that grew into a community of more than 14,000 artists, students, influencers and creatives across more than 44 countries, with partnerships including LVMH and Hennessy and events such as an NBA-themed night featuring Lil Pump. Saucy is where his approach to combining physical events with digital audiences and international networks took shape.

In 2019 he founded Aspire Solutions in Istanbul, focused on helping companies grow through business development, partnerships and international expansion. That business became the foundation for Aspire Capital, the platform he runs today.

He also founded the VC Founders Summit, an international founder and investor networking platform built on his own experience as a young founder who leaned on friends and family for early support. The summit has run in Dubai, Paris and Singapore; the 2025 Dubai edition brought together more than 300 founders and executives and more than 100 venture capitalists, limited partners and private funds.