About Emre UstunerAbout Emre Ustuner

Founded in 2002, Lensal.com was one of the first major milestones in Emre Ustuner's entrepreneurial journey.

Launched while e-commerce in Türkiye was still taking shape, the platform was run by him for approximately 20 years. That experience built long-term expertise not only in digital product development but also in the operational and commercial sides of online retail.

In 2006 he turned to social networking with Eskidostunubul.com. Built to help people reconnect with old friends, it was among Türkiye's early social networking ventures and, according to the founder, reached around 500,000 members.

Together, these two ventures laid the foundation for experience spanning the commercial use of the internet through to the growth of online communities.

With Phoneist, launched in 2011, Ustuner introduced a product approach that combined location data with social interaction, gamification, and mobile marketing.

Phoneist let people interact at the places they visited, complete tasks, and take advantage of rewards — and as a location-based platform it was covered by the technology press of the time.

In 2013 the project extended into R&D on BLE and iBeacon technology under the name Phoneist Smart Beacon. Work supported by TÜBİTAK and carried out within Yıldız Teknopark was part of an effort to improve the interaction between mobile apps and physical spaces.

LOLLY, which Ustuner founded in 2016, was developed as a Q&A app bringing together gamification, mobile advertising, and user engagement.

In his later projects, Ustuner has focused on platforms that help people not only connect online, but come together around shared interests and concrete needs.

Fly&Health, which he launched in London in 2023, is a healthcare platform that connects patients seeking treatment with verified doctors and clinics in different countries. Patients describe their needs in a single request, and doctors specializing in that treatment reach out to them directly.

Qapl, launched in 2025, is a social platform that brings together people who want to do similar activities in the same city and around the same time. It aims to help people create shared experiences in the cities they live in.

Turkishbase, launched in 2026, aims to build a community and professional network among Turkish people living in cities around the world. By bringing together individuals, organizations, and work opportunities, it focuses on helping digital connections turn into real-world collaboration.

In Emre Ustuner's way of working, software development, product design, and entrepreneurship are not separate processes.

Making an idea technically feasible, understanding users' real needs, and turning the product into a sustainable business model are complementary parts of the same development process.

The projects he has built across different technology eras reflect different applications of this approach. From e-commerce and social networks to location-based technology, and from mobile apps to new digital communities, his career has stayed focused on changing technologies and user behavior.

Today, he continues to work on software development, digital products, and next-generation platforms.