A young economist with crazy dreams
Vasilis has the scars to prove he's serious. Two startup attempts. One never left the hypothesis stage. The other, ANEMOA Initiative, was a real build, a real market mismatch, a real lesson. Shipping is the next peak to conquer. The industry that sits at the intersection of geopolitics, finance, and raw ambition, and exactly where he wants to be.
Techstars Startup Weekend
Placed 3rd at Techstars Startup Weekend Thessaloniki with Navy Funder, a maritime finance concept designed to connect investors with shipowners and make early-stage maritime funding feel more accessible.
ANEMOA Initiative
Built a private scholarship platform matching businesses with high-potential students, reaching 200+ candidates and 10 corporate targets before pausing when market-side demand shifted.
Silicon Valley & Boston
Joined meetings at Plug and Play, OpenAI and QA Ware, alongside seminars at Stanford, Harvard, MIT and Tufts. The lasting lesson: failure can be a credential.
Hungry enough to dare, loyal enough to matter.
Solo operator. Zero budget. 25 targets cold-approached, 6 deals closed, 5,000+ audience reached through in-kind partnerships. Conversion rate: 24% in under 2 months.
Skills-based private scholarship platform. Built end-to-end in 8 weeks: sponsor outreach, 200+ candidate pool, scoring framework, brand identity. Paused after structured market validation. Deliberate. Data-driven. Cost zero.
Four years on the floor of Greece's largest international trade exhibition. First point of contact for exhibitors, Chamber of Commerce delegations, and Arab business counterparts. Real deals, real pressure, real relationships.
Seven modules: Shipping Business, Economics of Sea Transport, Ship Operations & Management, Shipping Finance, Dry Bulk & Tanker Chartering, Legal Principles in Shipping.