George Chatzigeorgiou: The “developer” that dominated the e-commerce
There are some points in your life that could easily be characterized by the word…
“Serendipity”
It was a late Wednesday afternoon about a month ago, that I had arranged a meeting with George.
I didn’t know much about him other than he is one of the 3 founders of “Skroutz”.
Probably the biggest e-commerce website in Greece and yet they don’t sell any products. Skroutz is the portal that lists products from all categories (electronics, clothing, appliances, you name it) and then they redirect you to the relevant e-shop’s website. The fancy word for that kind of business is “aggregator”.
Thankfully, one of my very good friends, Roza, had arranged to make the introduction. George doesn’t do many interviews or any PR stuff, he just believes that’s it’s better to let your “products”, your success and the people you have helped, do the talking for you.
So let’s get back to the night I met George.
I visited the Skroutz headquarters for the meeting, and the thing that struck me the most were the desks. It is a totally open space.
There are no closed rooms or offices, except 2 meeting rooms. This means that if you want to talk to George, for example, he’s right there in front of you and you can go over and talk to him.
At first, it seemed strange but then I started to realize the way of thinking of this man and this company.
Everyone is supposed to be “open”.
As per George’s words, “you live where you work”. This means you have to be doing things just as if you were at home.
George is so dedicated to this company and its people that he even has a tattoo on his arm of the Skroutz logo. I am not joking!
We went to a meeting room that was called “Poker room”, where the table was a poker table, and he was so relaxed that from the very first moment he told me, he’s open to any questions and he wants to help me out however he can.
We talked about the early days of Skroutz and how they started it as a hobby but soon realized, it would be a full-time job.
George is not a businessman in strict terms and he’s really proud of that. Deep inside he’s an engineer and he believes that entrepreneurship, the business side of it is a “necessary evil” for the problem you are trying to solve.
But shall we begin with the success tips?
What is your success metric?
George believes in people way more than he believes in money.
There was one time that he was at a fundraising meeting and one of the possible investors asked him:
Why do you need so many people?
He instantly felt like there’s was no real point in discussing any further.
George defines success by “how many people you can employ”, not how much money you can make.
This may sound more humanitarian than capitalistic, but in essence you are trying to team up with the best out there and help them improve.
Money plays an essential role, nobody can doubt that. But if you can attract the best kind of talent and retain it, then success is guaranteed and the money is simply a natural consequence.
Which brings us to the second value bomb.
Retention > Acquisition
There’s an amazing statistic Skroutz can boast. There have been just around 15 people that have left the company. The company has existed for 12 years and they are employing around 150 people.
This means that if you’re working for the company, you most probably don’t want to leave.
George has great respect for the people working over there and he thinks they are some of the best engineers in the country. I had the chance to talk to some of the people working there and they are truly amazing. Not to mention they think of their coworkers as even better.
So what is the takeaway?
Try to put your trust in people and try to attract and retain the best in your life or your company. It’s always about people.
People are buying products that other people build. If you are in the middle, you have to satisfy both parties.
Start respecting the builders, and the customers will start respecting you.
Product > Marketing
While trying to grow in the Turkish market, Skroutz had to blow a huge amount of money in marketing. They were doing press stuff and a lot of ads in order to generate brand awareness.
At some point, they knew that this “marketing frenzy” spending had to come to an end.
George believes in the product as the main reason for increasing your chances of success. You can do all the marketing in the world but it will never compare to a really good product.
They thought that hiring more skilled engineers would be a better strategy for using their money, rather than ads.
“Entrepreneurship is about building stuff”
They were in “it” for the long run. This urgency for growth actually made him stressed and he felt like he was underperforming. So, he thought they would be fine as long as their product kept improving.
Do the hard stuff…
This comes straight from the Elon Musk “playbook”. George mentioned a cover of the “MIT Technology Review” magazine, with Buzz Aldrin, a former astronaut.
We are wired to do the easy stuff and we leave the hard stuff for later, and we do that as a species. Unfortunately, the hard problems of our planet like renewable energy sources, global warming or exploring the possibility of colonizing other planets, are not so attractive “revenue” wise.
We need the stuff that is solving our problems right here and now.
We can’t really deal with problems of the future, yet a handful of people are taking a leap of faith and try to do the “impossible”.
Try to be one of those guys. Don’t jeopardize your family while doing it, but always strive to work towards the hard stuff that everyone is putting off for later.
The solutions to these problems are in for the long run and you will have the “first mover advantage” (FMA).
George and the other 2 cofounders believe in their people and one of their goals is to try and give away stocks of the company to its employees.
They believe that these are the people, the employees, that are responsible for building it and they should have an appropriate share of the company’s profits.
I really wish this “philosophy” catches on to other Greek entrepreneurs. If this happens, we will be unstoppable.
So if you want to be part of this big family, what are you waiting for?
Follow their careers page and apply!
