Innovation Hero — Deborah Lygonis
For International Women’s Day 2021 I am writing about one female innovation hero per day for the week of 8th to 12th of March. Some of them you might have heard of, some of them not but they are all super inspiring in their own way and in their own domain.
Innovation Hero Day 4 — Deborah Lygonis
Day 4 of my list of awesome female innovators / entrepreneurs and call me biased but I have to add my sister Deborah to the list.
She is a serial entrepreneur, she is a professional board member, she is an angel investor, she is an excellent business coach and business developer, she knows the ins-and-outs of startup finances, she has started and run a space incubator (!!), she’s been a jury member of startup competitions for 20 years and she helps anyone and everyone with a smile and good advice.
She has founded four companies in game tech, one which is part of many of the big titles out there today. That’s Craft Animations that make virtual cameras for 3D environments, and is used by large game studios and also Hollywood film studios to make more realistic animations. She now runs a game studio that has developed Friendbase which is a global avatar based social game for young teenagers with the mission to make the world a friendlier place.
And then there are companies in Foodtech, Healthtech, Blockchain and not to mention all the projects she has helped others start and run, as an advisor, board member and / or investor.
She is always curious, excited about new projects and loves seeing tech being used for good causes.
One of her later supported projects is Gardenize that is just about to take off on a crazy scale up journey, keep your eyes open for that one!
She has also spent a lot of time helping female entrepreneurs in the Middle East and North Africa region, people who face completely different hardships than the ones we are used to here in our safe environment.
The reason she has to be on my list though is that I cannot think of anyone who embodies grit as much as Deborah. The amount of time and effort she has spent on her own and other peoples startups, working through thick and thin, and NEVER giving up, is just downright awe-inspiring.
And she has one more thing, that one special trait that puts her on this list of five awesome female innovators and entrepreneurs this week, and that is, just like the three others before here, that she is a really nice human being. A truly nice person.
She has one of the biggest hearts in the business, and won’t work with anything that doesn’t intend to create something good for the planet.
We have had many discussions about business projects that we have walked away from, projects and companies that might have been “good business” but just weren’t “business for good”, and it’s not just talk, she actually means it and acts on it, even if it has resulted in missing out on lucrative business deals, because some things just aren’t worth it.
There’s this story about the last test that NASA astronauts need to pass before being accepted, and that’s after having passing the space physical, having at least 1,000 hours piloting jet aircraft, and then all the mental stress tests of course. After all of that there is one more test to pass.
You are let into a room with all current astronauts sitting around a big table. They ask you to sit down and then you all just talk. You hang out with the other “real” astronauts and you just talk. You talk about family and fun and hobbies and everything under the sun and then, after a while, it winds down, and they walk you to the door. And, after you leave, they all talk about one thing: Did they like you?
It turns out that one of the most important traits you need to have when being crammed into a tiny metal tube for weeks on end together with three four other people is simply likeability.
Are you likeable? are you a nice person?
I know that Deborah would pass the astronaut test.
She is one of my biggest inspirations in my own endeavors as an entrepreneur, she always keeps a level head and is constructive and forward oriented, even when things are really tough and the going is rough.
I can’t think of anyone better to have as an advisor or board member in my company.
I could keep adding positive things here all day, but I’ll stop here and simply state the fact that she so deserves a place amongst my five female innovation heroes for International Women’s Week 2021.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
