‘If you want to evolve, you have to be as open to new ideas’

“If there is one resource America has in abundance, it is optimism,” writes journalist Eric Weiner in his book “The Geography of Genius.” This optimism is particularly abundant on the West Coast of the United States and more specifically in Silicon Valley, the place where the most successful technology companies on the planet are lined up. For ambitious entrepreneurs, a visit to Silicon Valley is a journey of affirmation and self-confidence. Here, a good idea, surrounded by a capable team and a little luck, can transform you into a global colossus.

Of course, in Silicon Valley, optimism always coexists with a harsh reality: Most start-ups fail, the pace is exhausting, and the distance between a good idea and a viable company remains enormous. Despite all this, the region continues to act as a magnet for those who believe they can change the world.

It was with this very spirit that representatives of 18 Greek artificial intelligence start-ups, along with over 40 founders, traveled to California from May 18 to 22. They were: Altrovia, Dikaio.ai, Hermetica, HouseMaster, HumanBound, HumanLike, Matilda-Edu, Mantic, Navos.ai, Nudge Care, Orom.ai, Qwest, Sally, Sporo Health, Synthesa, Tacit Intelligence, Uplodio, Voice Logica. Note these names, because among them are likely some notable future success stories. For three days, the founders of these companies, with an average age of 30, found themselves at the epicenter of AI developments, there to feel the pulse of Silicon Valley and hopefully, get a confidence boost.

As John Josephakis, global VP of sales and Bbusiness development for HPC/supercomputing at Nvidia says, “Greece’s AI moment is now!”

On the bus carrying the group of entrepreneurs, Dimitris Maris, an educator and founder of the artificial intelligence education platform Matilda-Edu, observes the city with wide eyes. It’s his first time in California. “Traveling outside of Greece, you see people in different environments and contexts with different thinking – and you realize that the world out there is not a threat, but a strength. Ideas grow when they encounter other ideas, and that only happens when we open ourselves up to people who are different from us,” he tells Kathimerini.

If you want to evolve, you have to be as open to adopting new ideas as you are to revising old ones, say Filippos Letsas and Thanos Petkakis, co-founders of Navos AI, a platform aimed at CEOs, business owners, and investors. “Few places push you to do that as effectively as the San Francisco tech ecosystem.”

In the foyer of Nvidia and in the heavily guarded offices of OpenAI, where the company logo was absent from the exterior, the young Greek entrepreneurs were constantly exchanging comments. Some were trying to book a last-minute meeting with investors, others were simply trying to process the experience of suddenly finding themselves at the center of a technological transition that is unfolding at breakneck speed.

On the streets of San Francisco, Waymo’s self-driving taxis glide silently through the masses of homeless and drug addicts, and you wonder if this is a promise or a warning. And in company boardrooms, people are discussing artificial general intelligence and brain implants as if they are something absolutely inevitable. For most Greek founders, the biggest surprise of the trip wasn’t any specific technology, but the sense that the future there is permanently treated as a problem seeking the best possible solution. Currently, the solution has two letters: AI. In San Francisco, all the billboards, without exception, promoted AI products and services.

Costa Gkovedaros, co-founder and COO of Nudge Care, an AI platform that connects to clinical data systems and turns blood and diagnostic tests into actionable data for doctors and patients, says he was thoroughly satisfied with the experience. “The trip was not only inspiring, but also useful: We saw firsthand things that will soon be everywhere, from the autonomous cars that are already on the roads to the new human-computer interfaces,” he says.

“On our trip to San Francisco, I felt for the first time that the conversation around artificial intelligence has completely changed compared to the one we have in Europe,” says Marietta Lazana, founder of Housemaster, an innovative AI platform specializing in the real estate market. “The focus is no longer on how we will use AI, but on what society will look like when the majority of human thought and action is transferred to systems with capabilities that may far exceed those of humans.”

Georgia Lytra, on the other hand, co-founder of Altrovia, an AI start-up that develops tools to optimize the design and implementation of clinical trials, emphasizes the importance of meetings with venture capitalists and founders who have already built and sold companies. “We were not only impressed by the innovation or scale of the companies, but above all by the culture of open dialogue, transparency and creative questioning that characterizes the microclimate of Silicon Valley. Ambition is treated as a responsibility and ideas are exchanged with enthusiasm and honesty, without fear of asking difficult questions or challenging data and perceptions,” she adds.

The importance of passing on the optimism, knowledge and experiences that the founders gained from Silicon Valley is highlighted by Christos Petalotis, of Mantic, a start-up that wants to solve the problem of the climate crisis and forest fires. “The trip allowed us to see up close how the tech giants are shaping the future of artificial intelligence. Everything is moving at a fast pace around technology and this climate pushes you to exceed your limits and bring out your best self. We must transfer this very culture to Greece, so that the country becomes a true tech start-up hub.”

However, some immediately took advantage of their presence at the center of the technological innovation. George Iniotakis is a co-founder of Hermetica. Together with Loukas Mertzanis and Theocharis Vasilakis, they are creating an infrastructure that will allow private equity fund managers to identify risks in their portfolios. “On the trip, I met many people I admired on the Internet for what they had achieved as founders, and I realized that they are ordinary people like me and therefore I can achieve as much as they did,” the 26-year-old entrepreneur tells Kathimerini. “In fact, a few hours before our return flight, we managed to close our biggest deal to date with a fund that manages over $150 billion.”

To carry out the multi-member mission, the Greek government cooperated with Endeavor Greece, OpenAI and the Public Power Corporation (PPC). “The collaboration of the Greek government with OpenAI and Endeavor Greece created a program unprecedented for Greek data: It gave Greek founders access to cutting-edge technology, global networks and, above all, to the people who are at the forefront of artificial intelligence,” says Vassilis Koutsoumpas, digital policy & AI adviser to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The young entrepreneurs visited the offices of technology giants, such as Nvidia and OpenAI, listened to investors at Sequoia Capital, and sat at desks in Stanford University. Successful Greeks of the diaspora living in Palo Alto were there to assist them with advice and encouragement. “This is the first program of its kind in Greece,” Eliso Kotsieva, entrepreneur experience director at Endeavor Greece and the organizational brains of the program, tells Kathimerini. “It is designed to place Greece on the map as a place where artificial intelligence is created and not simply consumed.”

“For PPC, participation in this initiative is linked to a broader transformation around energy, digital infrastructure and technology, at a time when these fields are increasingly converging,” said Alexandros Paterakis, the group’s deputy CEO and head of digital services.