On vtrip’s 14th birthday: My big, sincere and warm ‘Thank you’

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Exactly fourteen years ago, on Tuesday September 5th 2000, Virtual Trip Ltd was founded in Heraklion, Crete.

The founders were Periklis Akritidis, Miltos Vassilakis, Nikos Ventouras, Charalambos Gikas, Dimitris Tsingos and criticalpublics.com, a company founded by Costis Dallas and Alexandros Kouris.

Virtual Trip was a student start-up in the ICT sector, based in Heraklion, Crete at the Science & Technology Park of Crete. We all knew that success was anything but certain.

On the occasion of our 10th birthday, I’d like to extend a big, sincere and warm “Thank you” to my Virtual Trip founding partners. Without them, our entrepreneurial ecosystem would never have existed. So, Costi & Alexandre, Perikli, Milto, Niko & Hari, thank you very much for taking the risk and starting Virtual Trip. Over all, thank you for setting the culture of technical excellence, “aim high” and extroversion, which have been the success ingredients for our venture.

Virtual Trip has been the seed that spawned a portfolio of high-tech companies starting out of Greece that have succeeded in the international markets ― even in the times of the unprecedented crisis our country faced over the last years.

Successful ventures such as AbZorba Games, eFront e-Learning and TalentLMS, as well as new promising startups like Psycholate, StackMasters and Elorus stand as proof that this tough journey has been well travelled.

As far as I am concerned, the main lesson learnt from these ten years is very simple: “It’s all about the people”. Only people can make the difference. That’s why our objective remains to get people excited with high-technology, both in producing and in using/consuming it.

We’re still in the beginning, the best is yet to come 🙂

Thank you very much,

Dimitris Tsingos

Dimitris Tsingos Dimitris Tsingos - Co- Founder & CEO Epignosis, Founder & President Starttech Ventures

Dimitris Tsingos is a Greek entrepreneur and venture builder, Co-Founder and President of Starttech Ventures, a firm focused on building high velocity B2B SaaS startups with a North American commercial focus. He holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Crete and an MBA International from Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB). He is the Co-Founder, President and CEO of Epignosis, a global eLearning technology company, and Co-Founder and President of Yodeck, a leading provider of cloud-based digital signage solutions. Dimitris is known for his commitment to capital efficiency, lean startup principles, and cultivating founder-driven, product-led companies. Together with his colleagues from Starttech Ventures, they have also launched the Practical AI Community in Greece. A former President of YES for Europe – the European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs, he is also the founder of Together for Europe, a civic initiative promoting European federal integration. Most recently, he launched a foundation to support education, research, and cooperativism. Beyond tech, entrepreneurship, and civic engagement, Dimitris' family co-owns an organic winery in Distomo, Boeotia, reviving the region’s viticultural heritage.