Your new smartphone app, the ‘near’ application, will let users connect with people within a 1.5 kilometre radius (5 kilometres in larger cities). What inspired you to create this? Was there a situation that made you think an app like this would be useful? Near started as a social discovery tool. A few weeks ago, I took the big step and decided to do a 90 degree turn, now ‘Near’ is like a more interesting snapchat! Near is an amazing gif-story-telling app that allows you to capture and share your own gif stories that last 24 hours in the public feed, for everyone to see! You can also explore daily stories with people from all around the world, as well as your friends. With a simple tap, you can discover daily experiences, and explore the beauty and complexity of the world, through the eyes of each countries natives! My moto is: “Everyone has a story to share!” Social Media and smartphones are a way of life for many people – especially young people. What do you think is next in this area? I think that in 2016 we are pretty far advanced with social things This is why we see giants like Facebook, transforming to a multi-tool, providing search engine features, live video features and more! You have to think really big and wide to compete! Every market is getting busy so I see a hidden opportunity in an area that is exploding? Watch this space! How would you describe ‘success’? Success is when you have a really great product, a great team and a healthy
business! Spending each day developing your product and motivating your team. I spend hours thinking about our start up? Dedication makes a big difference in the ‘game’! Any business start-up is hard work, but setting something up alone must be even more so. What sort of ours did you have to put in whilst developing your app? The early days of development were really challenging. I had to create a prototype and design the whole UI/UX carefully. I wanted everything to have a purpose, colours, shapes, images! I read many articles and tutorials from the best designers out there. I also bought the ‘old-school’ book, “Logos and Trademarks of the World” I learn every day and I thrive on this! Sleeping at 3 a.m. and waking up at 8 a.m. for almost 4 months so I can seize every minute! It’s a great journey! The adrenaline rush when you’re launching is simply just priceless! What are your plans for the future? Do you have any other ideas or apps in the pipeline?
It’s not about ‘bragging’, it’s all “about encouraging every single
I’m really proud to announce that Near has been chosen to represent Greece at SXSW 2016. The Hellenic Initiative, International Accelerator and the US embassy of Athens, are helping new companies with Greek founders to expand out of Greece and meet a lot of important personalities there. About my future plans, I think that the
viewer…People need positivity and energy from the youth to light up their routine!
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future is bright! I don’t plan on stopping, anytime soon! My vision for Near, does not stop here! I have some great ideas that will change the definition of the term ‘Social Network’! Stay tuned! What advice would you give to aspiring young entrepreneurs? The key is to invest in yourself! Personally, I really love reading interviews of successful entrepreneurs on how they created the habits that made them successful. My trick is that I follow, on Facebook/Twitter, A LOT of pages focused on businesses, success, startups! In this way my daily feed is full of interesting articles! You can’t go wrong with this one! Creating a healthy and laser focused state of mind at young age is very important!
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