10 years #HelpingPeopleGrowIdeas in Southern Greece

10 years VentureGarden Party: On Monday 11/20/2023, at the beginning of Thanksgiving week, VentureGarden celebrated 10 years

In the beginning of the Thanksgiving week, Alba’s entrepreneurship center AHEAD organized a party to celebrate 10 years of VentureGarden in Southern Greece. The terrace party at BIOS welcomed people with, dreams, ambitions and stories to share. A reunion of the VentureGardeners community, an event full of warm wishes and emotions, but also a night full of music, fun and new acquaintances. Apart from VentureGardeners, it was great for us to also welcome donors, sponsors, partners and supporters. They all had the opportunity to get to know each other, and exchange experiences and aspirations. At the party we had so much fun, we laughed and danced. Everybody was such in a great mood, full of energy and the atmosphere was very cozy. However, the highlight of the party was the community of VentureGardeners. A close-knit group of people with different backstories, but with the connecting link of entrepreneurial ambition.

The spirit of Thanksgiving was also there! During the festive night we were given the opportunity to extend our gratitude to VentureGarden’s founding national donor, The Hellenic Initiative, the global organization of the Hellenic Diaspora. Michael Printzos, Country Head, Greece at The Hellenic Initiative, stated that “This year we celebrate ten years of business excellence with VentureGarden. Ten years cultivating ideas that turned into successful businesses. Ten years creating important networks that contributed to the empowerment and emergence of a new generation of entrepreneurs, just when our country needed it more than ever. As The Hellenic Initiative, we feel particularly proud of our collaboration with Alba over the years."

Furthermore, we also thanked the supporters of VentureGarden Athens and VentureGarden Heraklion. EMA SA and Logstail have contributed to the further growth of VentureGarden Athens, while Phastos Networks and Fairlo backed VentureGarden Heraklion.

Georgios Koutalieris, Marketing Director at EMA SA, highlighted that “we stand by Alba to support this effort. Not only financially, but also with our human resources".

Katerina Mitchell, Director of Communications at Phaistos Networks, highlighted the success of VentureGarden Heraklion and mentioned that “various new initiatives may be viewed with hesitation in the Greek periphery, however people are excited about start-ups. The Greek regions really need it".

Christos Ntrigkogias, VentureGardener turned supporter and Founder & CEO at Logstail, sent a positive message marking that “We are happy when we are up; we are happy when we are down; but we are even happier when we are further down since going up is the only option.”

It was also great to have with us our partners from Bizrupt, the organization that delivers VentureGarden Heraklion. A unique partnership that has allowed VentureGarden to grow beyond Athens in Southern Greece and set the framework for further geographic growth.

Most importantly though, we cordially thanked the 748 VentureGardeners for the trust they show to our team.

Looking back, 10 years ago, Alba, the American College of Thessaloniki and The Hellenic Initiative met to co-create a program that is known today as Venturegarden. Throughout these ten years of Helping People Grow Ideas, relationships and friendships were developed, dreams came true and many success stories were written, making us proud and triggering us to continue evolving. More specifically, in its 10 years of activity, VentureGarden in Southern Greece successfully lists 748 participants. They contributed 519 entrepreneurial ideas, started up 150 businesses, created 404 jobs and raised 5.61 million euros in investments. We proudly celebrate each one of them individually, and their cumulative impact on both the national and local economies.

Looking ahead to the next ten years, our vision is to develop the network of VentureGarden, to set up more cities thus giving more people the tools to grow their creative ideas. As Dean K. Axarloglou mentioned, “delivering VentureGarden demonstrates Alba's commitment to its mission of supporting entrepreneurship, and at the same time contributing to the development of Greece and its new growth model.”