Onur is the founder of LearnButWhy, a platform rethinking education for a rapidly changing world.
His work focuses on helping educators move beyond industrial teaching models toward personalized, developmentally grounded learning - and building the tools and communities to make that shift real.
Building on both sides of the shift
Onur has a background in electrical engineering and business. He's worked across finance, private equity, education and the arts.
He builds digital systems at scale. He founded a fintech company that he successfully scaled and eventually exited in 2023. He's built businesses both ways: leading teams of 100+ people in traditional operations, and AI-automated systems that scale without much human intervention.
He understands what conventional success looks like - and where it falls short. The traditional system that produced "high performers" was built for compliance, not for developing the adaptive, creative problem-solvers our world now demands.
For over 25 years, education has been his constant pursuit: exploring how people actually learn, not how systems say they should. He's worked with children, served on nonprofit boards, directed a Montessori school, and partnered with educators across alternative learning models.
Supporting transformation
Onur believes that teachers don't need more pressure to comply. They need space to reimagine their role, peer communities for support and tools that actually work.
He sees education as a complex adaptive system. What looks like chaos now - students opting out, teachers leaving, parents seeking alternatives - isn't breakdown. It's the system preparing to reorganize. When rigid structures can no longer contain the pressure for change, transformation becomes possible.
This moment is an opportunity. The apparent dysfunction signals that the system is ready to shift to something better.
LearnButWhy exists to support that shift.
At LearnButWhy, he's developing:
- Training programs to accompany and support a mindset shift in educators and educational institutions
- Professional learning communities for educators leading transformation
- A blueprint for future-ready learning environments
- AI guidance and tools designed to extend human wisdom and serve our learning needs
Beyond LearnButWhy, Onur is a movement improviser, father of three middle-schoolers and a student of psychoanalysis and science fiction.
Connect:
@onurtekinturhan on Linkedin
@onurlearns on Twitter/X
