egg – enter•grow•go: The evaluation of the proposals for the 1st cycle of the Programme has been completed

After an intensive evaluation process, which lasted for a total of four weeks and demonstrated the high professionalism of young aspiring entrepreneurs, 22 business proposals qualified for the 1st annual cycle of the Programme and the teams that submitted them will set up their headquarters in the egg building within May, in order to immediately start trying to turn their business idea into action. “In such a difficult conjuncture for Greece, it is encouraging that young people sent us high-quality business proposals for inclusion in the egg programme. This is a very hopeful message, as far as the prospects of entrepreneurship in Greece are concerned”, said Mr. Vangelis Kavvalos, General Manager – Small Business Banking of Eurobank, while Mr. Stavros Ioannou, General Manager for Group Operations, Technology & Organization of Eurobank added that: “The young people’s response to our invitation to apply for the egg project was impressive, and makes us feel even more responsible for living up to the expectations of the young entrepreneur teams that will qualify for egg and continue our overall effort of promoting entrepreneurship as a major way out of the crisis.” On his part, Vassilios Makios, General Director of Corallia, pointed out that: “The proposals we received were rather remarkable, and the quality of all teams was very high. I would like to congratulate, from the bottom of my heart, all the teams that participated, and to urge and encourage more young people to make a dynamic entry in the entrepreneurial arena.” The evaluation process was carried out with the participation of 50 distinguished executives, deeply knowledgeable in entrepreneurial issues, in order to ensure that the 191 proposals that were submitted would be judged in an impartial and transparent manner. The qualifying teams’ profile The plans submitted by the 22 qualifying teams came from a wide range of business sectors: four from Information & Communication Technologies and Applications, three from Construction Materials, Construction and |Real Estate Management, three from Tourism, Hospitality and Catering, two from Agriculture, Fish Farming and Stock Raising, two from the Creative and Cultural Industry, two from Energy and Renewable Energy Sources, two from Transportation and Logistics, one from Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical products and Medical devices, one from E-Business and Social Networking Services, one from Health Services and one from Food and Beverages. It is also worth noting that among the 22 qualifying teams: – 40% of their members are female;

– 80% are graduates and 20% are students;
– 50% belongs in the age group 23-27, 24% are from 33-35 years, and 22% are 28-32 years, while 4% is below 22 years of age.

In the next few weeks, the 22 teams will launch the procedures for forming a company, transferring the registered seat or establishing a branch of an existing company, in accordance with the Proclamation of the Programme, and will establish their headquarters in the building that is located at 190, Syggrou Avenue, Athens.

For an entire year they will have at their disposal a complete range of business incubation, acceleration and co-working infrastructures and services. This includes a series of support actions and tools, such as mentoring by distinguished and acclaimed persons from the entire range of business and scientific sectors, building infrastructures comprising fully functional and properly equipped office clusters, as well as one-stop-shop services, concerning all key start-up and operation issues faced by each participating team (such as accounting and company management services, human resource management services, corporate identity and communication services, copyright and legal protection services, IT technical support services, as well as financial advice and networking with investment funds). In addition, they will receive business training through a pre-set, three-month intensive training programme (business bootcamp), which is of a hands-on nature and aims at equipping the participants with the necessary learning tools for their further career as young entrepreneurs.

Finally, it should be noted that a series of leading enterprises and organizations from the Greek and international markets participate in the egg programme as sponsors and supporters, offering free-of-charge, high-quality services and infrastructures of crucial importance to the participating entrepreneurial teams. The Sponsors team comprises Advocate Burson-Marsteller, ALBA, Cisco, OTE, Microsoft, PWC and XEROX, while the Supporters team comprises the CEO Clubs, Critical Path, the Hellenic Management Association (HMA), KEMEL, the Entrepreneurship Club, MP Legal, Polycom|Imageflow, Tribe, the Federation of Hellenic Food Industries (SEVT), the Federation of Hellenic Information Technology Enterprises (SEPE) and TUV Hellas.