Choosing the right first partners and investors for your company as a first time founder can be one of the most challenging, yet important, parts of the company’s journey.
What are the essentials for a start-up company to get off the ground? Funding, hiring, mentoring, first customer pledge. How prepared are founders to evaluate the available options in order to determine which one fits best with their needs and vision?
Our goal is that at the end of the evening you will:
- have a better understating of opportunities and challenges of early-stage acceleration programs in Greece.
- be more open and willing to collaborate creatively with large companies and incumbents.
- have a clear picture of the available funding options that fit the profile of your company.
- have more clarity on what to ask and expect from potential investors and partners (term sheet, valuation, follow ons and value creation)
- decide if your business is at the right stage to join acceleration programs
Agenda
19:00 - 19:30 - Registration
19:30 - 19:35 - Welcoming note. Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou, Co-Founder & Partner @ Found.ation
19:35 - 19:40 - Introduction from Laszlo Gulyas, Corresponding Officer at EIT Digital - leading European open innovation organisation that brings together a partnership of over 130 top European corporations, SMEs, start-ups, universities and research institutes. EIT Digital invests in strategic areas to accelerate market uptake of research-based digital technologies and to bring entrepreneurial talent and leadership to Europe.
19:40 - 20:40 - Accelerators & Investors Panel
- Alexandros Roustas, Managing Director @ IQbility
Alexandros runs IQbility programs and manages relationships with mentors, partners and investors. IQbility is a corporate business incubator offering angel funding, high quality mentorship, business networks and supporting services to high potential startups. It is part of Quest Group, a Greek Group of Companies with activities in Information Technology, Electronic Transactions in Greece, Southeastern Mediterranean and Europe.
George is a Partner at VentureFriends. Prior to that, he has been an angel investor for the last 5 years investing in Greek and foreign tech companies, including Taxibeat. He has a rich finance/deal structuring experience stemming from his 4 year tenure with Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London where he was involved in numerous transactions with total EV valuation of c. €17bn across multiple geographies. George holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.
- Eleni Stefanidou, Communications Manager @ People’s Trust
Eleni is the Communications Manager of The People's Trust, an NGO whose mission is to relieve unemployment in Greece through entrepreneurship. The People's Trust empowers tomorrow’s entrepreneurs with the tools, skills and access to financing they need to turn their ideas into thriving businesses.
Eleni is the Communications Manager of The People's Trust, an NGO whose mission is to relieve unemployment in Greece through entrepreneurship. The People's Trust empowers tomorrow’s entrepreneurs with the tools, skills and access to financing they need to turn their ideas into thriving businesses.
in conversation with
Dimitris Kalavros-Gousiou, Co-Founder & Partner @ Found.ation
Co-Founder and Partner at Found.ation, the leading startup enabling platform for tech-oriented products & services in SE Europe.