Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams and communities. Come share ideas, form teams, and launch startups.
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Venue: AKTO Art & Design College [map]
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Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams and communities. Come share ideas, form teams, and launch startups. Whether entrepreneurs start companies, find a cofounder, meet someone new, or learn a skill far outside their usual 9-to-5 routine, everyone is guaranteed to leave the event better prepared to navigate the chaotic but fun world of startups.
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FAQ + Why Attend
SW NEXT
What happens after Startup Weekend? SWNext
Together with Steve Blank & Udacity, we've created a 3-week program to keep you going after the weekend.Teams will focus on the customer development process from the man who created it himself!
Are you ready for what's next?
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Schedule
Friday
Feb 15
Registration Starts
Welcome & Speakers
Pitches Start
Attendees vote for the top ideas
Dinner & Networking
Teams start forming and discussing ideas
Start to formalize teams and take an inventory of skills. Be honest, and direct about what resources and skills are needed for the weekend. You may stay and work as late as the venue will allow
Saturday
Feb 16
Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
Teams formed and setting up workspace for the weekend
Lunch
Coaches help teams one-on-one. They are here to help!
Startups & Creatives meet for beers
Dinner
Finished for the day. You may stay and work as late as the venue will allow
Sunday
Feb 17
Arrive, simple breakfast & coffee
Call for help (this is self motivated, so don’t be shy)
Coaches arrive… ASK QUESTIONS
Lunch
Gut check. Start prepping for presentations
Dinner
FINAL PRESENTATIONS
Judging & awards
Wrapup
Go home!
Judges
Fotis Draganidis
General Manager Microsoft Innovation Center
| LinkedIn
Fotis was born in Thessaloniki, Greece on 1977. He studied Electrical and Computer Engineering in Democritus University and later on received an MBA and a PhD from the Electrical and Computer Engineering School of the National Technical University of Athens.
On a professional level, Fotis has been working in Microsoft Greece since 2000 in different roles (marketing/technology evangelism/sales) and currently he holds the responsibilities of the General Manager of Microsoft Innovation Center in Athens and the Education Lead for Microsoft Greece, with a keen interest to promote technology, innovation, entrepreneurship and education in the country. He has been a speaker in more than 200 events regarding technology, innovation & education and started his first blog at 2002.
Fotis has been also working as a European Union expert in R&D projects, holds a mentor role in different international Startup Accelerators/Funds and is a member of the National Council for Competitiveness and Development.
Markus Brinkmann was born in 1983 in Munich, Germany. He graduated in 2007 from Heidelberg’s University of Applied Sciences obtaining a Diploma in Business Psychology.
Markus was one of the first degree holders of this very new and special branch of study.
During his studies he gained knowledge about human resource development, consumer behavior, consumer research and advertising psychology.
Following his graduation, he worked in a market research institution in Munich assisting in the design of different kinds of tests like product, usability and price analysis etc. Markus has been responsible for Travelplanet24’s marketing strategy and activities since he first joined the company in 2008. He extended and improved the existing search engine marketing campaigns to one of the biggest and best performing ones which was crucial for the growth of the company and to get a top position in the Greek online travel market. Since margins in the online travel business are very low he identified the need of performance
marketing channels as a basic part of the company’s marketing plan. Metasearch, affiliation, search engine marketing and optimization were established since then in order to promote Travelplanet24’s brand in the Greek market as well as the international brand ‘TRIPSTA’ that
is used by the company in its markets abroad.
Shira Abel
CEO of Hanter and Bard
| LinkedIn
Shira Abel is the CEO of Hunter & Bard - a turnkey marketing agency for startups, small companies, and intrapreneurs. She is a thought leader in Israel in the startup marketing space and works with companies to build and implement smart marketing strategies that accomplish company goals. She also works with companies to build the marketing into the product. Ms. Abel has experience speaking worldwide at conferences, such as SMX and #140, about marketing for startups and social media marketing, and mentors at several startup accelerators, such as the Microsoft Azure Accelerator, the Google Campus Accelerator, Founder Institute, and UpWest Labs. She also teaches Marketing for Startups at Starthub, the accelerator at Tel Aviv / Jaffa Academic College. MBA from Kellogg School of Management.
Nikos Antoniou
Investment Manager of the Piraeus VC-PE Group
Nikos Antoniou is an Investment Manager of the Piraeus VC-PE Group. He joined Piraeus Bank Group in April 2010 and as an Investment Manager has been responsible for searching, evaluating and executing various venture-capital types of investment opportunities. Nikos has been involved (manager/advisor) in a series of technology related type of investments ranging from angel (i.e. openfund investments) to later stage.
Previously, for 2 years Nikos was an Associate Director of Investment Banking at ALPHA BANK. During June 2000- February 2008, he was an Account Officer of Investment Banking at PROTON BANK. During his investment banking years, Nikos advised several companies in initial public offerings, secondary equity offerings, mergers and acquisitions and tender offers. He was managing due diligence and Offering Memoranda preparation processes, along with performing company valuations, participating in roadshows and interacting with local capital market authorities on corporate actions. At the start of his career, Nikos worked for approx. 2 years at Prudential Securities in Atlanta, USA.
Nikos holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, USA and an MBA from Auburn University, Auburn, USA
Thanos Kosmidis
Strategic Commercial Planning Deputy Director at OTE Group
| LinkedIn
Thanos has been working in the telecommunications industry since 2002, in the USA and Greece. His career spans both the technical and business sides, focusing on mobile services, technology planning, and commercial strategy.
His educational background is in software, telecommunications and business, holding degrees from Imperial College (UK) & Carnegie Mellon University (USA).
Specialties include: business analysis, business planning, revenue modeling, sales & distribution channels, market analysis, business strategy & competitive strategy.
Mentors
Lydia Morazzani
Business Operations Manager Microsoft Innovation Center
| LinkedIn
Lydia Morazzani has a BA in Economics and International Relations from Brown University and an MBA from Athens Laboratory of Business Administration (ALBA). She has worked as a Sr. Associate in the Structured Finance department at Moody’s Investors Service in New York and London and as a Research Analyst at McKinsey & Co in Athens. She joined Microsoft in 2006 as EMEA Programs Manager where she was responsible for the regional promotion of online and offline technical content to the IT Professional audience. She is currently holds the positions of Business Operations Manager of the Microsoft Innovation Center and Product Marketing Manager for Microsoft Hellas.
Dimitris Gkanatsios
Technical Evangelist Windows Phone
| TwitterLinkedIn
Dimitris has been working as a Technical Evangelist for Windows Phone and Academic Developer Evangelist for almost 5 years at Microsoft Greece. He is a PhD candidate at University of Piraeus, in the field of tablet/mobile interfaces and e-learning and is also the lead Windows 8 and Windows Phone Developer of Anlock, having developed applications that have been featured numerous times in the respective stores. Finally, he is a Microsoft Certified Trained and Microsoft Certified Professional Developer.
Maria Nasioti
Designer at BugSense
| TwitterLinkedIn
I'm what you might call a Design Slayer and I love hunting down zombies with my crop tool.
I find great interest in Mobile & Web design, HTML5 & CSS3.
Currently I'm passionate with Windows User Experience Design Principles and User Experience on Visualizations Methods.
Roza Monou
Director of Marketing & Communications @ Metavallon
| TwitterLinkedIn
Roza is a marketing and communications professional with extensive experience in research, PR, advertising and marketing with an emphasis on new media. She began her career in the private sector where she held several executive positions, bringing into fruition projects such as BreathtakingAthens.com.
During her work in the public sector, she’s had the chance to undertake and manage several challenging projects such as introducing social media communications and open-data policies in Government and founding Startupgreece.gov.gr in 2011.
Currently, she is involved in various web and new media projects and proudly serves as Director of Marketing & Communications at Metavallon, a young non-profit organization aiming to provide a supportive structure for first-time entrepreneurs in Greece.
John Vlachoyiannis
manager of ZeroFund and CTO of BugSense
| TwitterLinkedIn
Jon has been programming from the age of eight, has worked for companies, leaders in their respective fields, ranging from photorealism algorithms to digital signage to geocoding applications to facebook applications and has designed and organized projects for multinational companies like P&G, deep in his heart though, he is an opensource geek and inventor.
He won the "New Scientist" award for his next generation virtual machine (gNVM) at the 1rst eRA conference, gained 3rd place in a national web innovation contest held in Greece with his non-profit KarmaEffect.org, got a metal and distinction from NATO on electronic warfare and has the first advertising platform for opensource projects running on Google AppEngine (among other things). You can also find him teaching Python to the United Nations in order to identify nuclear explosions or organizing Instagram exhibitions across Europe.
Davitidis Vangelis
Editor at SUBPRESS
| TwitterLinkedIn
Vagelis Davitidis has studied Science, which helped him realize that in order to achieve his dream to change the world he needs to issue a youth magazine. This is how Submarine-(Ypovrixio) was born 14 years ago. Since then he has done nothing else than evolving a magazine into a vivid youth media network promoting DIY agenda and deconstructing mainstream lifestyle. “Let’s go from let’s see what happens to let’s make it happen. If you don’t like this bloody movie, it’s time to direct your own.”
Okay, meanwhile he has travelled to 24 countries mostly in Latin America and Africa. His core belief is that in Greece we need to redefine what is progressive. His highlight moments were talking about life with Velimir Ombradovic, joining a shaman ceremony in Peruvian Amazon basin and refusing a hand shake with Kostas Karamanlis.
Since three weeks he hold the position of Director of Innovation at BBDO Athens.
Koutsogeorgos Stathis
RadioJar
| Facebook
Stathis is a senior manager, information system and product architect. Participated in numerous projects in areas of natural language processing, mobile and web value added services since 1997. Completed his studies at University of Patras in 1999, from the department of Electrical Engineers & computer science.
Currently creating innovation at Radiojar (a social platform for web radio stations).
Evangelou Fotis
Managing Director at Nuevvo Webware Ltd. / CTO at JoomlaWorks Ltd.
| TwitterFacebook
Fotis fell in love with web development back in 1999, when HTML 4, Microsoft's Frontpage and Yahoo! Geocities were cool. Fast forward a few years later (and lots of freelancing), he released his first "web software" for the Joomla! CMS platform in 2006: a plugin that would make video embedding into Joomla! articles a piece of cake. After 50.000 downloads the first week alone, it was clear what the future lied ahead. Nowadays, the web software that Fotis and his teams at Nuevvo & JoomlaWorks are developing, has been officially downloaded more than 6 million times and is powering hundreds of thousands of websites worldwide. An active member of the Joomla! Community and open source advocate, he has given numerous presentations about Joomla! & open source software all over Europe and since 2011 organizes the official annual event for Joomla! in Greece (JoomlaDay Greece).
Sylligardakis Nektarios
Team Leader Eresus
| TwitterFacebookLinkedIn
With a background in teaching electronics he is into information architecture and development. With postgraduate studies in ‘Counseling Psychology in Schools’ he highlights the importance of human relations and how some little changes can make a big difference.
A drupal lover, passionate with conceptual web and happy to spend as much time and effort as needed to discuss concepts, solutions, ideas,
Giannakeas George
Marketing Manager at Warply
| TwitterFacebookLinkedInGoogle+
George currently plans and executes a marketing and communication strategy to introduce www.warp.ly a mobile marketing startup to the global market.
Digital in heart with mobile in mind George has designed and executed marketing plans in travel, e-commerce, fashion and the health care industry, consulting companies on how they can build an effective digital strategy using the integration of content, search, social, video, and mobile platforms to create an online presence focused on conversions. He is currently investigating how mobile is disrupting most established business models, focusing on mobile advertising, loyalty schemes, payments and m-commerce.
George is also an adjunct professor at the Panteion University of Social Sciences where he has designed and taught a course that focuses on inbound and mobile marketing while at the same time aims at introducing students to entrepreneurship and startup culture, as a natural consequence of this course he co-organized Startup Weekend University
Lefteris Eleftheriades
Creative Director at Tribal DDB
| FacebookLinkedIn
Born in south of France in 1978, moved to Athens and then up to Brussels till the end of his high school years. He studied Chemical Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA).
At the age of 21, he founded LE Design, an interactive studio based in Athens. In 2000 he joined Sony Music Greece. His responsibilities included the realization of the corporate site along with all of the artists sites, cooperation with the regional offices in London, new mobile businesses and A&R.
After that and while the Advertising Agencies started sculpturing their digital profiles, he realized projects for OgilvyOne and Tribal DDB as a digital production house. For his work he has been awarded with Gold and Silver Ermis Awards.
Since 2011 he joined Tribal DDB Athens as a Creative Director and Creative Technologist focusing on producing ideas and making them happen.
Alexandros Trimis
CEO & Cofounder at dopios
| LinkedIn
Alex is an entrepreneur at heart, with the mindset of an engineer and the creativity of a kindergardener. He loves ideas that challenge our way of thinking and push us to discover new ways of seeing and interacting with our surroundings. His goal is to create and improve human experiences. In business terms he is considered a Product Storyteller, Designer and Manager as well as a Business Strategist and start-up enthusiast.
His passion for learning, design and creative problem solving has moved him in different fields such as Internet, Software applications, Arts, Structural Engineering, Consumer Products, Consulting from where he gained rich and interconnected skills and experiences.
Alex also has a stellar educational background including many honors and awards and a proven interest and excellence in entrepreneurial engagements.
Specialties: Product Design, Product Strategy, Product Management, User Experience, Usability Design, Usability Testing, Information Architecture, People Management, Creative Problem Solving, Business Analysis and Strategy
Michael Dimitropoulos
Investment Manager of the Piraeus VC-PE Group
| LinkedIn
Michael Dimitropoulos is Investment Manager of the Piraeus VC-PE Group with technology focus. He previously served as Head of Research of the Piraeus VC-PE Group.
Michael joined Piraeus Bank Group in June 2001. He was Director of Research & Global Investment Strategy at Hellenic Investment Company (the Bank’s listed closed-end fund subsidiary) until September 2005, and subsequently worked as a Senior Investment Officer in the Bank’s Wealth Management division, before joining the VC-PE Group in September 2009. Previously, he worked as Investment Associate at Global Finance (private equity), Head of Research at Eurocorp Group and Chief Analyst at National Securities (NBG Group).
Michael holds a degree in Business Engineering and a Master in European Business from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management (Belgium), where he also worked as a full-time teaching assistant in Finance and in Microeconomics.
Niki Sotiropoulou
Head of Social Media at digital ecosystems
| TwitterFacebookLinkedIn
Niki's day job is Head of Social Media at Digital Ecosystems and is in charge of Adobe Social Digital Advertising Platform.
By night she likes creating various projects like "let it beh", teaching Social Media at AKTO College, and saving the planet from evil.
Faye Orfanou
EU Structural Funds MA Officer
| LinkedIn
Faye Orfanou was until recently - and for almost 3 years - Special Secretary for EU Funds in the Ministry of Education (www.edulll.gr) and worked perseveringly for the improvement of Entrepreneurship Education, mainly through support of the EU financed University Units of Innovation and Entrepreneurship («ΜΟΚΕ»)
Before that position, she had been a commercial and IT lawyer for several years, working for a Greek and international clientele and dealing mainly with the foundation and operation of companies, financing contracts and commercial agreements, banking and capital markets regulatory issues as well as with software development and e-commerce contracts.
In a career shift in 2007, she worked for a short time as Executive Assistant of the Managing Director of the major Italian Energy Company, ENEL in Athens (www.enel.com).
Currently, she is a lawyer, working for the Ministry of Development in the NSRDF strategy unit and at the same time she is a member of the Team for Institutional and Government Affairs of the Federation of Hellenic Associations of Young Entrepreneurs (OESYNE), working for issues such as access to finance, patents policy and insolvency.
Matthew O' Donnell
Sales Specialist
| TwitterFacebookLinkedInGoogle+
From the Pentagon to the private sector, from Colorado to Cologne, Matthew O'Donnell has lived and worked across the U.S.A. and Europe in several different industries. An American, he has called Germany, where he is active in the startup scene, home, for seven of the last nine years. He led international sales for a German company that raised €3,500,000 in venture capital funding in 2011. He holds his BS in Legal Studies from the U.S. Air Force Academy and a MBA from the University of Mannheim where he wrote his thesis with BASF Venture Capital. Formerly a full-time military officer, Matthew managed planning for a NATO technology testing event held in Norway in 2008 and 2009. Matthew's interests and specialties are in: sales and business development, international strategy, business modeling, product adaptation, market intelligence and market research. He is excited to be back in Greece.
Georgina Malavazou
Art Director at Rascal
| TwitterLinkedIn
Georgina studied Web Design in Athens, Interactive Media Design in Liverpool and Fashion Design in New York. She has specialized in Sensory Design and New Media Arts and has contributed to various interactive installation exhibitions.
Her thing is to combine digital media with real life experiences. When not frantically working in digital advertising, she designs LP covers for indie groups and draws her handmade monster boxes. And...she is the pink power ranger.
Bitros Andreas
Business Developer of Scientia Consulting Group
Andreas is a management consultant, entrepreneur enthusiast, geek and systems thinker. His background is in Management & Business Administration and he also holds a master's level degree in e-business and Systems Thinking. His academic and professional research "Holy grail" is the analysis of the external environment of companies that operate on the Internet. During the last five years he has been working with big enterprises and startups, in Internet related ventures, in order to assist them in better understanding unexploited opportunities on the Internet ecosystem.
Dimitris Kossyfas
Industry Manager at Google
| LinkedInGoogle+
Dimitris Kossyfas leads the sales team for the Travel, Retail and Automotive verticals at Google Greece. He provides strategic services regarding online advertising to leading companies in these sectors and has been with Google for the past 2.5 years.
Prior to joining Google's Athens office, Dimitris spent 5 years in London working in consulting for Accenture. He holds a Master's degree from Imperial College and an MBA from INSEAD. Outside work, he is passionate about photography, music and radio producing.
Ilias Sousis
Head of Agencies & Youtube Partnerships at Google
| LinkedInGoogle+
Ilias Sousis is Head of Agencies and YouTube for Google, covering Greece, Cyprus & Malta. Previously, he served as Senior Business Development Manager for the markets of Southern Europe and Africa, based in Google’s European Headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.
In the past, he worked in the field of advertising, while he also founded his own company in clothing.
He studied Economics & Business at the Athens University of Economics and Business and he holds a MBA from INSEAD.
Maria Founta
Product Marketing Manager at Google
| LinkedIn
Maria Founta is leading Google’s marketing operations in Greece, Cyprus & Malta, launching and promoting Google’s Business and Consumer products and establishing strategic partnerships with advertising agencies, market players and innovative start-ups. Prior to this role Maria managed some of Google’s Emerging Market sales teams that support advertisers and agencies in Europe, helping them to maximise their return on investment on Google’s search and
advertising network.
Before joining Google, Maria worked as a development engineer for Rhetorical Systems Ltd, a world-leading Text-to-Speech (TTS) systems developer in Scotland.
Maria holds a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, and recently graduated from Google’s Marketing Academy at INSEAD Business School in France. She has lived and studied in Greece, Africa, Scotland and Ireland, and is currently based in Athens, where she lives with her husband and daughter.
Filimon Papapolyzos
Head of Brand & Communications TEDxAthens
| LinkedInGoogle+
Filimon Papapolyzos is a Program Coordinator at Google. He is also the Head of Brand & Communications at TEDxAthens, one of the largest TEDx events in the region. Prior to Google, Filimon worked at Coca-Cola HBC and DDB Worldwide both in London and Athens. He graduated in May 2008 from the University of Kent with a degree of Business Administration.
Fotis Alexandrou
Developer at PeoplePerHour
| TwitterLinkedIn
Fotis is a Software Engineer and works as a Developer at PeoplePerHour.com, an online marketplace for freelance work and services. He has a strong passion for all things web, computer science, and enjoys studying software design patterns
