A Conversation with Batuhan on Cross Sectoral with Weather Intelligence
Gökmen: Hello Batuhan.
Batuhan: Hello.
Gökmen: Today, we’re going to talk a bit about you. Let’s start with who Batuhan is, shall we?
Batuhan: Sure. Batuhan is an industrial engineer, currently involved in business development operations at Buluttan.
Gökmen: What does Batuhan like? Besides industrial engineering and business intelligence, let’s touch on the personal side a bit.
Batuhan: Of course, I enjoy listening to music, spending my time, my free time on music and movies, TV shows, plus cooking and eating. Besides that, I have a bit of interest in philosophy, but lately, I can’t find much time for it.
Gökmen: Why, are you working too much?
Batuhan: Haha. Yes.
Gökmen: Well, philosophy is important. You know, the love for wisdom, philosophy.
Batuhan: Absolutely.
Gökmen: Since you describe yourself as a person who is on a journey, I guess you don’t intend to just be an industrial engineer or work in a weather intelligence company. I assume philosophy provides you with a love, a light, as well.
Batuhan: Definitely, I mean, the answer to the question “Who is Batuhan?” can actually change at any moment because we are on a journey, we are living. In the path I am on right now, I am trying to make an impact with Buluttan. You could say Batuhan is an individual who has a passion for discovering who he is, right?
Gökmen: Absolutely.
Gökmen: How did your paths intersect with Buluttan? As an industrial engineer from Bilkent, Ankara, I vaguely remember this process, of course, but I’d like to hear it from you. What were you doing back then? Were you looking for a job? Did it happen by chance? Was it a conscious choice? Can you tell me a bit about how that process developed?
Batuhan: Actually, like every student, every engineering student, I was looking for a job, an internship during the summer. I was looking for a place where I could gain experience. But my motivation wasn’t something else; I had corporate experiences, although they were limited. I didn’t want that kind of experience.
Being involved, being aware of the impact you create, that was my motivation, actually. And the experience you gain is highly influenced by that. So, I was researching startups, ventures. I saw an open position at Buluttan in business development.
When I researched the company, the fact that it was a company working on weather intelligence solutions, developing different services in different sectors, and that it was at a level that I could call the beginning, really caught my interest.
Because I wanted to make an impact here, that was my focus, and gaining experience was my focus. I saw it as a great opportunity, honestly. Our paths crossed like this at Buluttan.
Gökmen: Great, it seems like the wind was blowing in your favor a bit. From what I understand. How do you evaluate the experience you gained over the past period, the challenges you faced, the joys, the beauties, your colleagues here, everything you led in terms of work and people? What did you expect, what did you find so far?
Batuhan: Well, if I need to come from a general perspective, the fact that it’s a team gathered for a purpose, and for this purpose, well, there are many purposes actually, but our general goal is to develop weather intelligence and create value in different sectors.
I had very different experiences in this process. In my daily and weekly tasks, there are processes that differentiate even within the energy sector. Especially in renewable energy. I encountered situations related to the impact of weather intelligence on wind energy, solar energy, and in hydroelectric power plants, like the impact on energy distribution forecasts.
I was aware of how much the weather affects everything and everyone. This situation allowed me to see that weather intelligence is something that companies can really use and incredible benefits can be gained from it, both in terms of experience and personal development. We can also touch many different sectors. This is very important too.
Gökmen: What did you expect? What did you find during this period?
Batuhan: Actually, I can say I found more than I expected. After a while here, we started to receive incredible demands, and because there are very different sectors, I gained a lot of knowledge in terms of learning. How different sectors operate, which business operations exist. And here, how weather intelligence can be included in their operations, how we will determine the framework, how we will provide services, and which areas we will integrate weather intelligence into these companies’ operations, making decisions on these matters, taking action, participating in long-lasting works, all of this has been really beneficial.
Gökmen: In fact, we can say that Buluttan initiated a transformation here. We call it Weather Wise Transformation, you know that. It affects many sectors, both cost optimization and additional income generation from different revenue channels, and taking responsibility for changing climate effects and extreme weather events, especially in terms of human and equipment safety.
We started this transformation. How do you see the field of weather intelligence and the products in this area in Turkey and the world right now? Many new startups are emerging globally, with valuations in the range of millions to billions of dollars.
Big companies have started to focus on these areas, allocate energy and resources. How do you see it? We said the wind was blowing from behind, but maybe we can detail this a bit more.
Batuhan: Definitely, the wind is blowing from behind. Because everyone has to do this at some point; there’s a reality called climate crisis. Well, here, in fact, mitigation and adaptation, can we prevent it?
And while preventing, how do we adapt to it, these questions come to the forefront. Here, both Buluttan and other weather intelligence companies have positioned themselves in terms of adaptation, how to adapt to the climate. Because in terms of reduction and prevention, not much has been done so far, and the effectiveness of what will be done is unknown.
Therefore, everyone, states, big companies, small companies, need to adapt to this in some way. Bulut and other weather intelligence companies are actually positioning themselves in the adaptation part, how to adapt to the climate. Because the resolution created by the data collected with observation data, which is one of the other additional sources we collect with observation data, actually affects the inconsistencies and hyper-locality a lot.
Here, what we focus on at Buluttan is not only how to effectively and accurately transform weather intelligence into the business operations of companies in different sectors but also reducing the resolution created with data consisting of other additional sources collected with observation data to the most granular level.
Globally, as I said, they have to do this first. And we are taking the wind from different points, both in terms of the sector and the technical side behind this work. So, I believe Buluttan is very ambitious about this, and I think it will make a name for itself in the future.
Gökmen: Awesome! We’re fighting for it, hopefully. We’ve initiated the transformation. Let’s see how far we can take it, both domestically and internationally. So, may your weather be as you wish, wherever you are. Shall we end it like this? Stay tuned for Buluttan.
