The passionate Baruch College student Ahmet Ozgurcag launched his business, Incremedia, at the end of March 2019. 

With this, he joins the ranks of the many Baruch student entrepreneurs. 

The company works to grow businesses by offering innovative ways to create a set brand presence.

“Incremedia works with small business owners and local artists to create an online presence for those who don’t have a strong skill set to create stuff for social media,” Ozgurcag stated. 

He is one of the many students who start their businesses early.

While working at a temporary art gallery in Chelsea, Ozgurcag encountered a fateful turn of events — his observant and creative nature led him to his first client.

“It was a spur of the moment thing, I got my first client by complimenting someone’s pants,” he laughed. 

“I was walking past her up the stairs, and she told me it’s her work, so we talked for probably 60 seconds maximum and she gave me her business card.”

He then realized, “If I can do this for her, I can do this for others as well.”

Ozgurcag’s journey into business and marketing can be credited to his variety of interests in high school. 

He is a proud alumnus of Virtual Enterprise, a high school business program that propels students into working as young business professionals with industry experience.

His virtual company AquaTerra, representing Westhampton Beach High School, won first place in the 2016 National Business Plan Competition, while he was the senior sales director.

“I’ve always been interested in high school with marketing, I’m a people person and I love helping especially local business owners,” he said.

Ozgurcag’s desire in starting small can be traced back to his humble, modest beginnings. His journey to launching a business is one to applaud — Ozgurcag comes from a family of Turkish immigrants, and he describes the large weight of responsibility on his shoulders from a young age.

His father, being one of 11 kids, has inspired him to push beyond his limits to make his family, and even himself, proud.

“After years of suffering and extreme hard work, my dad finally has his own successful constructing company,” he said.

Ozgurcag describes being patriotic toward his country, but feeling as if there’s not much space to innovate.

“I love my country but I feel like a lot of brain power is being wasted there,” he said. “New York City is a central hub of the world.”

Ozgurcag is a transfer student with an associate degree from Suffolk Community College.

 He was originally pursuing a degree at the Zicklin School of Business, but changed his major to digital communications and culture at the Weissman School of Arts and Science.

With an already growing business, he thinks of expanding beyond a traditional degree.

“I’m a huge supporter of local businesses, I would much rather start at a start-up and build that to scale rather than going to a huge firm and dealing with things super systematic,” he said. 

“I want to learn a lot of things in a short amount of time because I don’t want to narrow myself down.”

Growing Incremedia led to major self-discovery for Ozgurcag. It was more than just a process of growing a business, it was growing into himself. 

Along the way, he faced conflicts in completing work for clients.“For my second signed client, he was basically asking me to do more work than what was in the contract, more responsibility was placed on you than actually expected,” he said.

Ozgurcag realized that his work carried more weight than he realized. Incremedia is only run by him, and his value was substantial.

“Since he was my only second client, I offered to do a website for him for free,” he stated. 

“The most difficult part was trying to realize my worth, and although I did a couple of good projects for free, I realized I can’t just keep doing these projects for free, because it’s taking up my time resources, energy and knowledge.”

As for future plans, Ozgurcag will continue along the route of entrepreneurship, but is enlisting in the help of those who want to showcase their creative pursuits.

He’s currently looking for ways for others to get involved in his businesses and also will outsource work.

Ozgurcag refers to his life now with his family as fulfilling the “American dream” and his business is a reminder that dedication and effort can take one to new heights. 

“There’s no chance of me to not be successful because there’s no way I can do that to my family, and first of all I can’t do that to myself,” he said.