GüvenRehberi

What did it do?

GüvenRehberi (guvenrehberi.com; the name means 'Trust Guide' in Turkish) was a SaaS start-up founded in early 2013 that let e-commerce sites be rated through customer reviews. By adding a snippet of code, sites collected reviews from customers who had shopped with them and used those reviews as references. The start-up also awarded a trusted-shop certificate to shops that met certain satisfaction criteria.

Why did it shut down?

In a statement in February 2017, co-founder Onur Onat said they had been unable to scale the start-up as far as they had aimed. As the main reason, he pointed to the market of independent online shops, those not owned by big groups and operating outside the marketplaces, which turned out to be far smaller and more commercially stagnant than they had estimated. Expanding abroad was not an option either, because many successful companies doing similar work already existed in the big markets. For a B2B service with a small customer base, this picture closed off the path to growth.

The story

In early 2013 Alpaslan Topçu and Onur Onat set out with an idea focused on the trust problem in Turkish e-commerce. Many people new to online shopping were wary of buying from a site they had never heard of. GüvenRehberi collected reviews from real customers via a snippet of code added to e-commerce sites' systems and turned them into a reference for the site's trustworthiness. It wanted to make positive experiences visible rather than complaints.

In its eighth month it received investment from Aslanoba Capital; the amount was not disclosed. CEO Onur Onat said their goal was to win over to the sector people who were nervous about shopping online. In November 2013 Webrazzi, the Turkish tech news site, wrote that the start-up was serving more than 40 companies and was preparing to relaunch with a new design. The start-up also awarded a trusted-shop certificate to shops that met its satisfaction criteria. It also worked with Yandex.Market.

In February 2017, however, GüvenRehberi announced that it was ending its services completely. The statement Onur Onat shared with Webrazzi made the reason for the decision plain. The market of independent online shops, those not owned by big groups and operating outside the marketplaces, had turned out, in Onat's words, to be “much smaller and more commercially stagnant than we had estimated”. Expanding abroad was not realistic either, because successful companies doing similar work already existed in the big markets. The founders chose to channel their energy into projects where they saw more potential; Aslanoba Capital made no further comment.

One small note should be added to the story. Years later a new review platform launched under the same name and domain; in its own description this platform says it set out on 1 January 2025. The original GüvenRehberi, founded in 2013, had closed in 2017. Its story shows how a product aimed at a real problem can quietly come to an end when it cannot find a large enough customer base.

Lessons for founders

• Before building a B2B product, measure how big your target customer segment really is.
• If the domestic market is small, factor in from the start the competitors waiting for you abroad.
• Closing a business that will not scale in good time and redirecting your energy to something with greater potential is a decision too.

Sources

1. Güven Rehberi, which rated e-commerce sites, ends its services (in Turkish) (Webrazzi, 2017-02-09)
2. All the investments made by angel investor Hasan Aslanoba (in Turkish) (egirişim, 2013-12-08)
3. GuvenRehberi.com raises investment from Aslanoba Capital (in Turkish) (Webrazzi, 2013-08-19)
4. GuvenRehberi.com: the start-up rating the trustworthiness of e-commerce sites with community support (in Turkish) (Webrazzi, 2013-11-25)
5. About us (the new Güven Rehberi platform, in Turkish) (Güven Rehberi, 2026)

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