[MGSA-L] Greece May Be In Economic Shambles, But Young Entrepreneurs Are Finding Success

June Samaras june.samaras at gmail.com
Sat Oct 26 20:47:04 PDT 2013


http://www.worldcrunch.com/business-finance/greece-may-be-in-economic-shambles-but-young-entrepreneurs-are-finding-success/greece-youth-unemployment-entrepreneurs-recession/c2s13518/#.UmyLjHC-ocU
Greece May Be In Economic Shambles, But Young Entrepreneurs Are Finding
Success
Adéa Guillot (2013-10-25)
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[image: Article illustrative image] [image: Partner logo]Economic crisis,
technological growth

*ATHENS* — Over the past three years, the European country most affected by
the global economic crisis is without doubt Greece. Today, almost six
in 10 young
people are unemployed<http://www.worldcrunch.com/opinion-analysis/how-germany-beats-the-youth-unemployment-trap/training-pact-opinion-unemployment-youth-jobless-labor-education/c7s11646/>,
58.8% of those under 24. Many have also moved abroad since the country has
struggled to recover from the recession. The “troika” (the International
Monetary Fund, European Central
Bank<http://www.worldcrunch.com/business-finance/greece-may-be-in-economic-shambles-but-young-entrepreneurs-are-finding-success/greece-youth-unemployment-entrepreneurs-recession/c2s13518/#>
and
the European Commission in Brussels) returned to review the country’s
progress in Athens earlier this month, keeping the pressure on for Greece.

“If we leave<http://www.worldcrunch.com/crisis-sends-greek-emigrants-some-second-time-little-greece-ny/eyes-on-the-u.s./crisis-sends-greek-emigrants-some-for-a-second-time-to-little-greece-of-ny/c5s5045/>,
what will be left of Greece when it comes out of this crisis?” asks Georges
Spanoudakis. The 29-year-old heads up Pinnatta, a flourishing startup
created barely three years ago. “I used to run an enterprise in the Silicon
Valley, when I realized that there was a huge market for electronic
greeting cards. At the time, the industry was valued at 8 billion euros,
and experts estimate that it will reach 36 billion in the next three years.”

Spanoudakis therefore decided to return to his country and, with six
collaborators, developed a smartphone application
<http://pinnatta.com/new/> that
allows users to instantaneously send personalized greeting cards
accompanied by custom messages.

“After only four months, Russian, Chinese and American investors chipped in
$350,000,” he says. “In August 2012, a new application for funds allowed us
to raise another $300,000 from American investors. To date, we have
received $1.5 million.”

And what about the brand new offices in an old abandoned factory of trendy
Athens, with an outdoor game zone and relaxation corner? “Obviously, I’ve
been inspired by businesses I’ve seen in California,” the young man
explains. The 16 technician team members are in Greece, but marketing and
finance are managed from the small town of Sunnyvale.

“When we raised our first capital, our investors were worried about the
economic, political and fiscal instability here,” Spanoudakis says.
“Setting up in the States seemed a good solution, but it was even more
interesting to recruit good engineers here. They are cheaper, and there is less
competition to steal them
away<http://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/brain-drain-talent-magnets-and-the-global-battle-for-the-best-and-brightest/c3s4776/>,”
he admits unashamedly.

*Businesses helping businesses*

In a similar vein, an initiative called
Corallia<http://www.corallia.org/en.html> that
promotes the development of Greek technical “clusters” hopes to reassure
and encourage investors to put
money<http://www.worldcrunch.com/business-finance/greece-may-be-in-economic-shambles-but-young-entrepreneurs-are-finding-success/greece-youth-unemployment-entrepreneurs-recession/c2s13518/#>
in
Greek startups, despite the fact that the country is in its sixth year of
recession.

The cluster, or competitive hub, is still a new concept in Greece, and its
based on the model of
Sophia-Antipolis<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_Antipolis>
 (Alpes-Maritimes <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpes-Maritimes>) in
France, and on the Silicon Valley in the U.S. “It’s a perfect tool for
putting companies into contact with each other, so that they exchange,
collaborate and become mutually beneficial contacts in a sector and
therefore more competitive in the global market,” explains Vassilis Makios,
director of Corallia.

This former professor of the renowned technical University of Patras
laments the hemorrhaging of
talent<http://www.worldcrunch.com/business-finance/germany-is-draining-the-rest-of-europe-039-s-talent-why-that-039-s-a-good-thing/german-economy-crisis-start-up-entrepreneurs/c2s11755/>
that
he has witnessed. “Over time, I’ve seen more than 600 students who have
found success abroad, and now I want to create the conditions and economic
environment to allow them to stay here and produce
money<http://www.worldcrunch.com/business-finance/greece-may-be-in-economic-shambles-but-young-entrepreneurs-are-finding-success/greece-youth-unemployment-entrepreneurs-recession/c2s13518/#>
and
jobs for their own country,” Makios says.

European funds finance half of Corallia’s annual budget of 10 million euro.
“Now we are experiencing real success, notably in the nano and
microelectronic cluster,” the company’s financial director, Jorge
Sanchez-Pasaspiliou, notes with delight. “For example, Samsung has bought
Nanoradio, a Patras startup, the giant Citrix bought out Bytemobile, and
the Siva group has invested in Antcor.”

Antcor is a business founded in 2004 that creates wifi processors for
tablets<http://www.worldcrunch.com/business-finance/greece-may-be-in-economic-shambles-but-young-entrepreneurs-are-finding-success/greece-youth-unemployment-entrepreneurs-recession/c2s13518/#>
and
mobiles. These products are moved on to microchip producers. In 2012, it
recorded a growth rate approaching 70%. In this year alone, its staff has
grown from 15 to 20 employees.

“We are not suffering from the crisis that is affecting the rest of the
country<http://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/postcard-from-the-edge-inside-the-dramatic-collapse-of-greece-039-s-healthcare-system/thessaloniki-medical-drugs-hospitals-god/c3s10308/>
because
our clientele isn’t local, it’s global,” says Costas Meimetis, Antcor’s
president and cofounder. “What’s more, we’re avoiding the widespread issue
of poor cash flow<http://www.worldcrunch.com/business-finance/greece-may-be-in-economic-shambles-but-young-entrepreneurs-are-finding-success/greece-youth-unemployment-entrepreneurs-recession/c2s13518/#>
linked
to the banking sector’s collapse in 2008, as our investors are also
international.”

*Taxibeat going international*

Another example of extensively covered success is the smartphone app
Taxibeat <https://taxibeat.com/>. This service allows the consumer to
quickly find a taxi, pick their specific preferences (type of car, services
on board) and then review their experience. Launched in 2011 in Athens,
Taxibeat has since expanded to France, Mexico and Brazil, and should soon
be introduced in Peru and Colombia. “The service works particularly well in
countries that have a security or quality problem, because the client can
now choose their taxi from a trustworthy source,” explains Spyros Dovas,
manager at Taxibeat.

Dovos, a laid-back businessman in his forties, was tempted to emigrate in
2010 when Greece plunged into the economic crisis, but now he’s glad he
stayed. “It’s really rewarding to participate in a venture that pays off,”
he says. “It proves that the youth of Greece have a capacity for
innovation, are well-educated, and when they put themselves out there they
turn out to be shrewd businessmen and very competitive in their operations.”

All of these startups belong to the information technology or general
electronics sectors — and are now being pursued by American, Russian or
Israeli investors.

“Europe has allocated significant funds to support this growing sector in
Greece. The benefit of information technology is that we can start a
business without much capital,” says Aristos Doxiadis, economist and
partner at Open Fund, a company whose objective is to finance emerging IT
companies and is itself funded by a 7 million euro grant from the European
Investment Fund. “We get involved by buying shares in the capital —
anywhere between 100,000 and 500,000. After that we are interested in the
businesses’ development,” Doxiadis explains. He also underlines the
necessity of educating other sectors of the economy about this type of
program. “Lots of entrepreneurs outside of IT are still completely without
financing, and they should become more determined.”

Penny Vomva is just that. This 33-year-old trendsetter opened her own
studio and shop called Rien in June 2010 without a loan or a single outside
investor. Now, still without any outside financing, she is launching an
online store and has opened a second boutique on the island of Mykonos.

“If it worked during the worst times of the crisis, the only way is up,”
the enthusiastic young woman says. The business may not be as widely known
as IT startups are, but it clearly illustrates the will of thousands of
young Greeks under threat of unemployment to create their own jobs — and a
future for themselves.

 =============
June Samaras
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : june.samaras at gmail.com
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