Marco Veremis: A “beacon” for future entrepreneurs

I must have watched 4 or 5, 90min videos from Panorama of entrepreneurship, an annual Greek conference about entrepreneurship.

Video after video, I kept on stumbling upon the same coordinator.

His name was Marco Veremis.

We met on a sunny morning in a beautiful café. He was so cool, I felt like drinking coffee with an old friend of mine.

Having paid so much attention to his talks, I had become so familiar to his voice; I could recognize him just from hearing one syllable coming out of his mouth.

So what was the thing that attracted me in the first place, besides him having an obvious huge social proof?

The guy was using the right words and has the proper mindset that reminded me of famous founders like Brian Chesky, Paul Graham or Jack Dorsey.

Unfortunately in Greece, only a handful of people in their 40s have this structured way of thinking when it comes to business, while the Valley has both that and the age advantage.

So Marco is the closest thing I can get to a big & successful business.

He is a co-founder at Upstream, a huge Greek company doing business in the mobile commerce industry. They are serving 1.2 billion people to effortlessly receive and pay for the most relevant and affordable digital subscription services on their mobile devices.

Nowadays he has the role of chairman of the board for Upstream and he is a board member for Persado, IOBE (a foundation for economic and industrial research), diaNEOsis and Intelliboxes. Also, he is an angel investor and advisor to one of the most successful Greek startups, Workable. Lastly, he spends his time trying to meet with new tech companies and mentor them in order to create a new generation of Greek entrepreneurs.

Control over what you do

Although he was marketing strategist in London and not an entrepreneur, he eventually came back to Greece because he aspired to create a business that he would be responsible for.

Being an entrepreneur comes with a cost. You are not the boss of every one, it’s the direct opposite, everyone else is the boss of you. Your customers, your employees, your business partners, are all your clients and you have to find the best way to serve them.

You are not the boss of every one, it’s the direct opposite, everyone else is the boss of you.

But what you get out of it, is total control over what you do. You have the freedom of taking chances and serving only the people you want to serve, while being just an employee doesn’t give you that privilege.

Feed your imagination

As we get older, everyday things become all too familiar and your imagination gets stagnant.

There is a remedy to that, read fiction stuff.

It will allow your mind to wander and discover new routes that were not so evident before. It will make you challenge the status quo and think outside of the box.

Did you think bitcoins would have been invented without a spark of wild imagination?

Or colonizing mars sounds like an everyday thing to you?

Kids have that way of thinking, because they read fantasy stories and have a great imagination.

If we combine, the experience of a grown up, the problem solving abilities of an entrepreneur and a wild unlimited imagination of a child what do we get?

Nepotism vs Meritocracy

I’ve heard this excuse a thousand times. He must come from money since he is so successful.

Apparently, 70% of wealthy families lose their wealth by the second generation, and a stunning 90% by the third, according to the Williams Group wealth consultancy.

Do you still fall for that excuse?

Let me tell you that even Warren Buffet, one of the top 5 wealthiest people in the world, has expressed an interest in promoting self-sufficiency and strong work ethics for his family. He is planning to donate most of his wealth to charity.

Promoting meritocracy at its finest.

Marco is a strong advocate of that and he is actively trying to give incentives to the employees of companies he is mentoring, by giving stocks to them. This way an employee becomes an entrepreneur, his performance will be measured by the most accurate, impartial and brutal index, the market. Not some manager who might have a bad day while reviewing you.

Talk less, do more

Nowadays, we have channels that are so easy to exploit like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. As a result, most people spend their time, creating the perfect post, rather than creating valuable products.

This gets even more complicated when your business is being funded and all the investors see is you giving many PR interviews, while at the same time your targets are not yet hit.

There is a better strategy; let success do the talking.

It’s not all about entrepreneurship

This might sound controversial but not all people are cut out to become entrepreneurs. This is not a bad thing, as there so many ways we can provide value to our society.

Moreover, entrepreneurs have to be jacks of all trades, while specialists can do a much better job at specific technical tasks.

You can’t be great at product development, marketing and finances all at the same time.

But if you were the best marketing advisor I could ask for?

What about the best accountant that could consult me?

Then you would be indispensable to me.

…

The thing I liked most about Marco, is his relaxed attitude. He doesn’t enjoy publicity much and he prefers to have a beautiful and quiet life, while educating the rest of us into becoming better people and creating better products.