Talk by Mr. Aristos Doxiades given at the 1st Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum - "Bootstrapping our Ecosystem", organized by the Centre for Entrepreneurship, University of Cyprus. Date: 9 December 2015 Video of the Talk is available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/laxUz6EYxvE Aristos Doxiadis is General Partner at Openfund, an early-stage technology fund based in Athens. He is a pioneer of private equity in Greece, with 20 years of experience in many industries, from banking software to table grapes. Openfund is a leader in the startup ecosystem, having invested in the most dynamic recent ventures coming out of Greece. Recently he has been researching and writing on the institutional and cultural determinants of the Greek economy. Aristos’ earlier experience includes working on anti-poverty programs for the EU Commission, planning industrial policy for the Greek government, and managing consulting and auditing companies.

1. Strategies for small
entrepreneurial
ecosystems
ARISTOS DOXIADIS, OPENFUND

2. What is missing
Many different skills (not enough people)
Funders, beyond a certain size
Big enough local market

3. Generic expansion models
Directly global
Partnership
Roll-out
Contract work (non-VC fundable)

4. What constrains international expansion
Partnership models: Offline sales effort
◦ Large end users (enterprise sales)
◦ Resellers
Roll-out models: Local business development:
◦ Supplier network
◦ User community
◦ Physical assets
◦ Localization of product

5. Revenue models
Directly global:
◦ Free, consumer facing: very high funding requirements
◦ SaaS for SMBs: yes
Partnership:
◦ Enterprise sales: long sales cycles
◦ Deep technology: yes, but limited exit options
Roll-out:
◦ Local market innovations: yes
Contract work: doable, but not scalable

6. Organization of expansion
At home:
◦ Product development
◦ Customer service
◦ Inside sales
At a major center:
◦ Global sales
◦ Investor relations (BoD)
◦ Marketing
Local operations?

7. Ecosystem:
potential sources of domestic expertise
General ability (good founders everywhere)
Local industry (tourism, offshore banking)
Similar cultures/ institutions
Survival instincts (make do with less)
Research labs and universities (esp. in small rich countries)

8. Ecosystem: External linkages
Funds
Clients
Strategic partners
Diaspora is important

9. Openfund strategy
Pre-seed: €100k-200k
Seed: €300k-400k (total 500k)
Focus on next funding round
◦ Milestones: product/ traction
◦ Contacts
Follow-on: €250k (total 750k)
theopenfund.com