Maryam Rezaei
Chrissoula Manolakaki
Panos Chreppas
Stamatis Tsagias
Asimeni TountaSpyros Arsenis
National Bank of Greece is a partner you really want to have by your side whether you have an idea or young startup or even an enterprise!
Being under the wings of this investment bank, one of the top 3 largest Greek banks, it gives you access to many national and international companies and organizations worldwide. Such as 8 Universities, Amazon, Grand Thornton, Deloitte, Microsoft, Endeavor Greece and many more.
On top of that you get promoted and known through its partnerships with top media channels.
So how can you communicate with National Bank of Greece? Only through its yearly competition and through some of their partner’s innovation competitions. So even though it might sound harder than just picking up the phone or emailing them, it is actually much more efficient and fair since in their first round of competition, the entrepreneurs submit their ideas/startups anonymously which are evaluated by 20 professors from 8 public Universities!
And there is no age limit for their completion, as there have been ideas submitted by individuals exceeding the age of 65! So as long as you are 18, situated in the European Union and have an idea you can submit it in Greek and through its 20 experienced professors of the collaborating Universities get short listed to the second phase! The second phase of the competition is a shortlist of 20 ideas/startups where they will present their thorough business plans. Out of them only 10 participants get awarded with the 1 prize winning 20.000€ and the 10th 1.500€.
Besides the award money they get promoted through the banks media partners where they get an amazing coverage and visibility.
After a year these top 10 winners have the privilege and access to submit their running startups for the banks seed funding of almost 340.000€ per round.
Ofcourse besides their completion money and media coverage they provide many mentoring solutions from top organizations/companies and even incubators in the US.
Talking with the head of NBG’s Seed Business, Spyros Arsenis, He tell us that in every stage the criteria which the ideas/startups are chosen is different. “In the first stage the look if the entrepreneur can express himself and their idea, in second phase having their business plan and if it is viable and in the third phase the presentation and their communication skills plays the highest role in getting awarded.
These criteria are only for the competition, as for their funding program which a few get selected from the award winners, again go through thorough examination of the business plan and idea! And in this case he says that the team plays the most important role! As many great ideas/startups have a team with great technical knowledge and almost no business and vice versa. Both business and technical skills are needed in order to get funded.
According to Spyros Arsenis, the skills you must have as an entrepreneur are having super business and technical skills, team as co-founders.
And his tips for young entrepreneurs: Find a team, and idea, learn your statistics in the market you are in, start small and be realistic! And last but not least, prepare your presentations and be to the point!
http://www.nbg.gr/nbgseeds
