Who is Halide Yılmaz?
Halide Yılmaz is a METU Computer Engineering graduate and one of the co-founders of HatsonTech and Caseon AI, building companies in AI and software.
Hello, I’m Halide Yılmaz. I’m a METU Computer Engineering graduate and today one of the co-founders of HatsonTech and Caseon AI. In this post I wanted to briefly introduce myself and the road so far.
In brief
- Education: METU (Middle East Technical University), Computer Engineering.
- Companies: HatsonTech (Hatson Teknoloji Ltd. Şti.) and Caseon AI (Caseon Teknoloji A.Ş.), co-founder.
- Interests: Machine learning, natural language processing, model evaluation, data quality and AI governance.
- Based in: Ankara.
From METU to engineering
My story began in METU’s Computer Engineering department. While learning algorithms, data structures and system design, one question stayed with me: how can I turn this into something that makes someone’s work easier in real life?
After graduating I worked as an engineer on software and AI projects. Over time my interest shifted towards machine learning and natural language processing. Those years gave me a lasting habit: build a solid foundation first, then add to it.
Our first company
In 2024, İsmail Tarık Şenkal and I founded our first company, in AI. In early 2025 we took part in large-scale model training work through TÜBİTAK events, TRUBA and EUMaster4HPC.
The same year, our legal-software project took us into METU Technopark, and in 2026 the project received investment. In July 2026 we sold the project to another company. That journey taught me the most about designing a product’s architecture, building a team and running a company day to day.
HatsonTech and Caseon AI
In August 2026 we founded our main company, HatsonTech, in Ankara. At HatsonTech we run projects for organisations on AI agents, source-citing RAG assistants, language-model fine-tuning, computer vision, data engineering, and web and mobile software. Before a project starts, we like to write down with the customer what counts as success, and to measure the result on real examples.
Also in 2026, we founded Caseon AI as a separate company for contract analysis. At Caseon we are building software that helps lawyers with due diligence and contract review. Every answer the system gives is shown with the document paragraph it relies on, and the final check always stays with the lawyer.
Since 2024, together with our earlier work, we have been building technology products in environment, law, software and AI. Today I spend my time on the growth, products and teams of these two companies.
A few things I care about
- Solid engineering. A well-designed system makes every feature built on top of it easier and longer-lasting.
- Measurement. Before calling a model “good”, I try to be clear about what it is good at, and by which measure.
- The team. Every piece of work mentioned here is the effort of the people I work with.
- Writing as I learn. This blog is partly notes to myself. If I get something wrong, I’m glad to be corrected.
We describe how our companies started in How did HatsonTech come about?. If you’d like to talk about a project or a partnership, you can reach me by email.
