This article was written during Aryana’s internship at Starttech Ventures.
If you were to ask the average Gen-Z or millennial individual about their views on capitalism, you would likely hear that capitalism is the “root of all evil.” The hashtag #Capitalismsucks has over 25,000 posts on TikTok alone, and one can only imagine the volume of similar sentiments on X (formerly Twitter). The profit motive, or the drive to make earnings from business activity, is ultimately, the driving force of capitalism, creating a competitive environment. However, entrepreneurs within this system are not always solely driven by the profit motive – entrepreneurs provide the creative force capitalism (free enterprise) needs to work.
We live in an age where echo chambers are more prevalent than ever, reinforcing the belief that entrepreneurs in a capitalist world are solely driven by self-interest and profit. A survey conducted by Business Insider last December of more than 1800 Americans revealed that 28% of the respondents aged 18-26 somewhat or strongly preferred the economic system of socialism over capitalism, the most of any generation.
However, such perceptions overlook the evolving persona of the contemporary entrepreneur. Today’s entrepreneurs are not merely profit-driven; they are diverse, embodying a blend of innovative spirit, social consciousness, and a global perspective. They are potential actors for positive change, addressing various issues that people face daily. Far from being unethical or self-serving, modern entrepreneurs often seek to make a positive impact on society, demonstrating that the role of entrepreneurship in capitalism can be both ethical and beneficial.
In the past few years, Greece has been experiencing a vibrant surge in entrepreneurship, with an increasing number of ventures emerging across diverse sectors, accelerated by increased support from the government, economic necessity, and an increase in investment interest locally and internationally.
The pandemic years forced Greece out of its comfort zone, driving significant positive changes in digital transformation within the public sector. Last year, Angeliki Pittarokoili from Endeavor Greece mentioned for EU-Startups that:
“Covid-19 had a huge impact on the Greek market – and not everything was bad. It pushed the digital transformation of the Greek public sector forward, ameliorating bureaucracy, and allowed Greece to showcase great crisis management skills abroad and become a country of reference. “Rebranding Greece was crucial after the well-known economic crisis, and it is interesting how another crisis allowed reintroducing of the country to the world”
Starttech Ventures, one of the world’s pioneering professional Venture Builders, continues to foster entrepreneurial journeys. For example, meet Tassos Morfis, the founder of Qurio.
Initially inspired to become a documentary filmmaker, Morfis pursued engineering at his parents’ insistence, studying production management. However, fate had other plans. In 2012, he was invited to write for a media startup in Greece, which propelled him into the media industry. He went on to work for major outlets such as Channel 4 and CNN, covering the Greek crisis.
Morfis noticed that much of the content being created was underutilized and saw a business opportunity in this. He founded Athens Live, a journalism company providing English-language reporting from Greece. Despite financial struggles, he successfully crowdfunded the venture, building a vibrant global community of supporters. However, sustainability became an issue due to the challenge of maintaining relevance to the audience.
This experience led him to co-found Qurio, focusing on how news media rely on their communities for sustainability through multiple revenue streams. Whilst initially starting out as a basic technological tool for publishers to connect with and engage their audience. with advancements in AI, he developed a comprehensive AI-powered product to help journalists enhance their content and campaigns.
The first product launched in 2023, and a new version was released recently. Currently in private beta, Morfis is collaborating with design partners to test its effectiveness in achieving key performance indicators. If successful, there are plans to launch it commercially in September.
That’s the ironic thing about entrepreneurship: for most people, it isn’t a career path they intentionally plan to pursue.
“Entrepreneurship isn’t something like a dogma of a certain way of living, it’s something that just happens,” said Morfis.
“I think the reason I became an entrepreneur is because I didn’t have any backup from my family,” said Morfis. “My parents disagree completely with what I pursue in life, and they werevery disappointed when I dropped out of engineering school and not working at some car manufacturer,” he continued. His parents cut him off from any support.
“For me, it was something that was quite obvious to do in order to survive and make things work,” he said. However, Morfis also highlighted the current transformative nature of the media industry, and how the combination of technology and information allows for a new wave of mass opportunities.
“If you create something with other people that is a business and it’s making profits and you share the profits with your employees, grow the company, you improve the lives of employees and improve the lives of thousands of customers,” he said. “I think the impact is immense, and tremendous.”
“The bottom line is, entrepreneurship is a way out for people to change things because for politics it’s very hard to change things. There are way larger forces we have to manage. You can really change people’s lives, and that’s the most exciting thing.” he said.
However, the path into entrepreneurship a great deal of the time is not a smooth journey, but rather, a road with obstacles.
Studying computer technology in St. Petersburg, Dani Pavlu began his career as a developer. Freelancing early in his career, he later took on a full-time job, eventually becoming a director of technology. In the interest of pursuing his own venture, he delved into the startup world, completing a course on entrepreneurship.
Then, about 10 years ago, Pavlu founded his own company, MailBurn, then secured venture funding, built a product, and hired a team. However, the business did not succeed, leading you to shut it down three years later in 2017.
When asked about the failure of the company, Pavlu attributes his and his co-founders lack of experience. “I didn’t spend the money smart enough, I didn’t make the sales smart enough and all those things by itself don’t matter, but when you have 10 of them not working out, the whole thing starts to fall apart. We ran out of money, energy, and positive thinking,” he said.
He acknowledged that while the experience shaped him professionally and made him stronger, it could have been more beneficial. It took him a couple of years to fully grow from it.
If there’s one quality that defines an entrepreneur’s journey, it’s resilience. Pavlu’s journey did not come to an end when MailBurn shut down. Undeterred, he moved to Berlin, Germany, where he re-entered the corporate world, gaining valuable experience in European startups and managing large teams.
He began speaking at public conferences and developed educational courses, and his expertise led to consulting opportunities, advising startups on marketing, product design, and revenue growth.
Now, Pavlu is currently advising clients, leveraging his 15 years of experience, which includes both successes and failures. He helps emerging companies navigate the challenging growth phase from $1 million to $10 million in revenue, drawing on his past experience of having achieved this multiple times. As a catalyst for change, he enables clients to make fewer mistakes by providing paid consultations, and his guidance covers areas such as SEO, pre-acquisition, and paid acquisition strategies, like Google Ads. Additionally, he helps identify patterns and best practices from working with numerous startups, structuring this knowledgeto benefit his clients and help them avoid common pitfalls.
“So that’s a way I’m working as a positive catalyst. I help other companies become more successful and they have their own mission and vision to change something in the world, like invoicing or educational systems or taking notes during meetings and it just helps them achieve it.” he said.
Like Morfis, Pavlu exemplifies how entrepreneurship extends beyond personal gain who remind us that the true essence of entrepreneurship lies in resilience, innovation, and contributing to the broader community.
“If you’re an entrepreneur yourself, you build something to improve the world, basically,” he said.
“Of course, it’s commercial and it’s like, capital is we all earn money, and entrepreneurs usually go for the big money in the end, but most of them are vision-driven and mission-driven. So you want to change something that is broken,” he continued.
He cited his former business MailBurn as an example at the time of its founding, email was quite unstructured with too many simultaneous conversations. At the time, there was a lack of platforms and work tools, hence inspiring his idea to create a platform with better structure, design, and automation. Despite its failure, it was his positive change he wanted to bring to the world.
Ultimately, while many in the Gen-Z and millennial generations view capitalism with skepticism, it’s important to acknowledge the evolving role of entrepreneurs within this system. Today’s entrepreneurs, like Tasos Morfis and Dani Pavlu, are not merely profit-driven but are also motivated by a desire to make a positive impact on society. Morfis’ journey from aspiring filmmaker to media innovator with Athens Live and Qurio, and Pavlu’s path from developer to seasoned consultant, demonstrate the resilience, innovation, and social consciousness that define modern entrepreneurship.
Despite the challenges they faced, Morfis and Pavlu remained steadfast in their missions, showing that the true essence of entrepreneurship lies in its capacity to inspire, innovate, and uplift.
As both continue to navigate their entrepreneurial journeys, their stories are a reminder to us that with resilience and vision, entrepreneurs can indeed be catalysts for positive change in the world, and any of these days, it could also be you.
