About

Barış Esmer

I write here, and I build at Mynd Labs. Fifteen years operating commercial growth in FMCG, market research, real-estate-tech and industrial export, and since August 2024 proving what one person can ship with AI-native tooling.

Research and insight, 2009-2020

I started in market research: senior research roles at Akademetre (2009-2011) and Kantar (TNS) (2011-2012), then a research manager role at Nielsen (2012-2016) leading Philip Morris International, the highest-budget client at Nielsen Türkiye. From 2016-2017 I ran sales and insight partnerships at Ipsos, managing PepsiCo and BAT as key accounts and tripling their research budgets through multi-source data integration. From 2017-2020 I moved client-side to Anadolu Efes, Türkiye's largest brewer, as Marketing Strategy & Insights Manager, leading the insights-driven revitalization that stabilized Efes Pilsen at 50% share during a sustained competitive crisis.

Scaling a US marketplace, 2020-2024

From September 2020 to August 2024 I was Marketing Operations Director at PadSplit, a US co-living marketplace, where I owned lead generation and demand scaling: 5 to 20 US metros, 900 to over 25,000 rentable rooms, and a remote marketing team I grew from 1 to 30. In parallel, since May 2023, I run international sales and marketing for Wünsche Group (Hamburg), scoping Türkiye market entry and France expansion for a German battery manufacturer, channel identification, OEM outreach, first commercial pilots.

Mynd Labs, August 2024-present

In August 2024 I set out to answer a question the previous fifteen years had been building toward: how much of a commercial organization can one operator run alone if the tooling is AI-native from day one. Mynd Labs is the answer so far: an AI platform, a compliance CRM, a migration advisory, a B2B trade vertical and a consumer product, designed, built and run solo without engineering hires.

I'm based in Türkiye. I've also worked directly with Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, HerGünÖğren and Incrementum Digital across these roles.

Working on something interesting? Talk to me.