Greek Business Εvent Successfully Concludes in Boston

Nikos Moraitakis, Co-Founder and CEO of Workable, spoke at Workable’s Boston headquarters to a full house of 200 entrepreneurs, investors, and academics. The event
was organized recently by The Hellenic Innovation Network with the support of the Consulate of Greece in Boston and MIT Enterprise Forum Greece.

The evening opened with remarks from the Guest of Honor, Kostas Fragogiannis, Greek Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy, whose participation highlights the growing
momentum for Greek economic diplomacy initiatives.

“There is a sea breeze in Greece nowadays, a positive wind that blows around the country in the direction of a significant change in our attitude toward growth and foreign direct investment in the country,” Fragogiannis remarked.

Addressing young entrepreneurs during his chat, Mr. Moraitakis discussed his journey from
building the initial team in Athens, where there are now 200 employees, to expanding in Boston, where there are now 60 employees (in addition to 15 in London, Australia & San Francisco).

He was attracted to Boston for its pool of talent, availability of funding and its proximity to Athens. Boston, among the largest cities for venture capital investment, is a hub of innovation, with the highest concentration of Millenials in the country and several of the country’s leading research universities, hospitals, and institutes. Regarding hurdles to building a startup in Athens, Mr. Moraitakis reminded the audience that entrepreneurship involves challenges wherever you are.

He recommended focusing on growth and not letting stumbling blocks get in the way. When
asked about crossing cultures between the two offices, Mr. Moraitakis said, “Sure, our Boston office feels Greek. We’re like a family.”

Vassilis Papakonstantinou, Chairman of MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, introduced three winners of its startup competition who came from Greece to pitch their startups:

BeeNova is an AI-infused narrative platform that provides kids with life-long learning
skills to reach their full potential.

Solmeya offers feed compounds helping humanity solve the upcoming shortage of feed
due to overpopulation and arable land scarcity.

Twiddle develops AI-powered film scoring services both for the B2C sector via a mobile
app, and for the B2B industry through SAAS.

The fireside chat was moderated by Marina Hatsopoulos, Chairperson of the Board of Levitronix Technologies, who said, “Greece is full of well-educated developers and engineers who aren’t afraid to think out of the box.” Another special guest was Kyriacos Kokkinos, National Chief Scientist for Research & Innovation for the Republic of Cyprus. Panagiotis Karampinis spoke on behalf of Endeavor Greece, which sponsored the event.

Workable, the world’s leading hiring platform, provides in-house recruiters more ways to find more qualified candidates and helps them work together to identify and hire the best.

Since 2012, more than 20,000 companies have used Workable to hire one million candidates.

Endeavor Greece is a non-profit organization which works to catalyze long-term economic
growth and job creation by selecting, mentoring and accelerating the best high-impact
entrepreneurs in Greece.

The Hellenic Innovation Network was started by MIT Enterprise Forum Greece, with the support of the Consulate General of Greece in Boston. The group, composed of entrepreneurs, academics, executives and other professionals based in the United States, organizes semi-annual events to educate the community and provide the opportunity for Greek startups to pitch and network, with the goal of creating a bridge to the U.S. technology entrepreneurial ecosystem.