# Gercek Karakus

> Gercek Karakus is the San Francisco-based founder and CEO of Raklet, a membership and community management software company. His background spans design, UX and software engineering at Six Apart and Redbeacon, earlier ventures including Kimburda.com and FriendStream.TV, and a sustained effort to build Raklet through customer revenue after early accelerator support.

- **Role:** Founder & CEO at Raklet
- **Organizations:** Raklet, Six Apart, Redbeacon, Kimburda.com, FriendStream.TV
- **Education:** BS, Information Systems Engineering, Boğaziçi University
- **Known for:** Co-built Raklet, which joined Techstars Berlin in 2016., Helped develop a platform already used by more than 50 organizations by January 2016., Reported reducing Raklet’s monthly Azure costs from above $20,000 to about $4,000 in 2018.

## Career timeline

- **2008** — Graduated from Boğaziçi University in information systems engineering.
- **2008-2011** — Worked at Six Apart in front-end development and user experience.
- **2010** — Co-founded Kimburda.com, a social search engine.
- **2011** — Launched FriendStream.TV through StartupBus; subsequently worked in UX at Redbeacon.
- **2015** — Reported beginning full-time work on Raklet in September; built the company with Gönen Eren.
- **2016** — Raklet participated in Microsoft Ventures Accelerator Berlin and Techstars Berlin; Raklet Inc. dates its founding to 2016.
- **2018** — Published his Azure cost-optimization account and sought advice on integrating Discourse.
- **2019** — Announced Raklet’s TechSoup partnership in August.
- **2020** — Announced Raklet’s internally built affiliate program in July.
- **2021** — Reported $15,000 monthly recurring revenue while seeking a growth marketing hire.
- **2024** — Shared Raklet’s Q1 recognition in Gartner Digital Markets brand reports.

## Achievements

- Co-built Raklet, which joined Techstars Berlin in 2016.
- Helped develop a platform already used by more than 50 organizations by January 2016.
- Reported reducing Raklet’s monthly Azure costs from above $20,000 to about $4,000 in 2018.
- Reported Raklet reaching $15,000 MRR in September 2021.

## Latest updates

- **2024-03** — Raklet announced recognition across Q1 2024 Capterra, GetApp and Software Advice reports; Karakus commented as CEO.

## Links

- Website: https://www.raklet.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gercekkarakus
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/gercheq
- GitHub: https://github.com/gercheq

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/gercek-karakus
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-21