Speaking to the latest graduates from Greek universities, Niki Trigoni stressed that academic degrees should not constrain their career options. She herself is at the crossroads of academia and business as a computer science professor at Oxford and CTO of Navenio. From her long academic career, it is her tendency to explore and go into technology transfer that has allowed her to pinpoint scalability and market potential for real world applications. Academics and entrepreneurs have a lot of commonalities in Trigoni’s view. These include innovation and thinking outside the box, applying for funding and recruiting the right people. They also differ, however. Conducting lab experiments and writing papers are quite different to developing and launching real products, while ensuring good ROI at the same time. Such considerations now inform Trigoni’s academic approach with questions like "What is the real-world application of this research problem?" Greece's total market cap for tech companies is about €4 billion while valuations of companies by Greek and diaspora Greeks is over €40 Billion. A way to bridge this gap is by leveraging platforms like Innovative Greeks to create a face map of all Greeks in tech. For Niko Bonatsos, Managing Director at General Catalyst, contributions can come in all forms: mentorship, introductions through super-connectors, and funding opportunities. When zeroing in on why Europe lags in the tech space, Goulimis identified smaller injections from venture capitalism, a more “risk averse” culture than the US and a stronger leaning towards individualism. Reflecting on Tryfonas' help in launching Arrikto, the challenge was not solely convincing two young Greeks to abandon their comfortable jobs and salaries in Athens to pursue an amazing idea. It was also finding the actual product-market fit, once in the US. Perseverance and the right connections on the ground in San Francisco, enabled through global connections amongst Greeks, were key to build up their team and grow their company. COVID -19 has made the point, not just for individuals’ remote work but also for entire companies, to create a base in Greece and make use of its excellent human capital. Such thinking is reflected in Trigoni's opening a new branch in Greece and Tryfonas’ investment in people in Greece as well.
Greeks managing exceptional companies Summary Hosted by Dinos Kokkalis, Co-Chairman of SEV’s Innovation committee and Chairman of Intrasoft, five giants of the entertainment, defence, investing, finance and software industries gave their views and expert insights on how to lead a robust operation. They also identified its non-negotiable components, what they see as the contemporary drivers and impediments to innovation and what Greece can do in order to encourage cutting-edge ideas at home.
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Dinos Kokkalis: Scaling does not mean that new ventures should disavow their startup identities and embrace large company dogma once they’re positioned for growth. Victoria Stavridou-Coleman: I am so excited about this whole effort behind Innovative Greeks because these great examples of entrepreneurship give people hope, opportunity and aspiration. Dean Dakolias: Companies are still burdened in Greece with unsustainable debt.. the system needs to be more geared toward resolving, moving those assets through the system, creating liquidity, and also giving companies the opportunity to really grow and evolve [...].
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