Serhat Pala is a serial entrepreneur who, together with his wife, has co-founded, grown and sold numerous businesses that have reached $50M in annual revenue, including biomedical company Confirm BioSciences, which was recognized by Inc. magazine as one of the fastest growing private companies in the US for six consecutive times between 2013-2018

Throughout his tenure there, Confirm BioSciences also won numerous awards both locally and nationally, including Best Place to Work, CEO of the Year, Commercial Leadership Award and others.

In addition to Confirm BioSciences, Serhat co-founded (1) an ecommerce platform company in the early days of the Internet that operated in several b2b and b2c industries. such as medical supplies, office supply distribution, tactical gear retail (2) A SaaS company that utilized at home test kits for Employee Wellness programs with anonymized health data use for self-insured employers (3) Pre-employment screening digital solution for rapid drug testing of employees.

 

Serhat’s talents range from online marketing, sales channel development and logistics to business coaching and bootstrapping. He is especially adept at negotiating deals with large enterprise companies — both brick-and-mortar and online — like Walmart, CVS, Rite-Aid, Walgreens, Ebay, and Amazon.

He has done product development (both as a sponsor and as a patent-holding inventor), built lead generation engines, and assisted companies of all sizes with distribution, service, and finding manufacturing partners. He has played key roles in helping companies adapt their operations to the internet to reinvent themselves.  His international business experience includes sourcing and establishing manufacturer relationships and channel development with distributors in Asia, Europe, and South America.

 

His international business experience includes: sourcing and establishing manufacturer relationships and channel development with distributors in Asia, Europe and South America.

Serhat brings years of experience, contacts, and acumen in business growth. More importantly, he can provide an objective viewpoint with his vast experience across industries, which allows him to provide diverse ideas and solutions.

Not simply an entrepreneur, Serhat has also regularly pursued philanthropic endeavors. He has been a member of the San Diego Rotary Club since 2008, helped start Kids4Community (an organization helping kids start volunteering at an early age), and has always encouraged the employees in his companies to participate in volunteering.

Earning an MBA from San Diego State University in 2000, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Bogazici University of Istanbul, Turkey, Serhat currently serves as an advisor for Confirm BioSciences, on the board of Lavin Entrepreneurship Center of San Diego State University and few other emerging companies as he searches for his next entrepreneurial opportunity.

 

RECENT EXPERIENCE:

Partner – Breakaway Partners OU (2021 – present)11

Breakaway Partners is an early stage investor focusing on high growth companies in SaaS, New Health, Machine Learning, Environmental Friendly Technologies.

Mentor – Various Accelerator Programs (2020 – present)

Serhat works with various dilutive and non-dilutive accelerator programs and VC studios such as NYU Stern Business School Endless Frontier Labs, Techstar LA and HealthCare Vertical, 500 Global, Zip Launch Pad

Investor, Limited Partner, Advisor – Various Venture Capital Funds & Angel Networks  (2021 – present)

Serhat acts as advisor, deal lead and limited partner to various early stage funds such as Vela Partners, 1414 Ventures, Geometri Ventures, NuFund, Delos Holding Liquid Fund and TechCoast Angels San Diego

Co-Founder – Special Advisor, Confirm BioSciences (2013 – present)

Confirm BioSciences is a diagnostic testing commercialization company and a leading provider of high-quality, comprehensive screening tools and solutions across the full spectrum of health and wellness. In December 2020, Confirm BioSciences was acquired by Clinical Reference Laboratories (CRL)

Founder & CEO of GBSS (2000-2013)

A group of ecommerce and technology companies in the office supplies, outdoor gear, medical supplies, 3D printing and pet care industries. They were all early versions of niche ecommerce B2B or B2C operations that led to three successful business unit exits for Serhat.

Columnist, Inc. Magazine & Book Author

For over three years, Serhat wrote about anything interesting and actionable for fellow entrepreneurs (or would-be entrepreneurs). The name of his weekly column: “Getting Unstuck,” was the same as a book he published in 2017.

Co-Founder, RhinoForce (1999-2001)

RhinoForce, a shopping cart and search solution provider for community websites, helped various large websites implement early e-commerce and advertising business models.