When it comes to startups, and especially in places afflicted with the Silicon Valley mindset, the role of a venture capitalist is to see his portfolio companies all the way through to a big exit. A “cashing out” of their investment, so to speak, either through acquisition, a successful public IPO, or a few other exit strategies.
In StartTech Ventures we believe in building sustainable profitable businesses that are in it for the long term. We’re old fashioned like that.
That doesn’t mean we’d say no to a good exit story. In fact as far as exit stories go, we’ve had one of the biggest ones in the Greek startup landscape, with the acquisition of AbZorba Games by the Austrian gaming titan Novomatic Group back in February.
It was an overnight success that took several years of hard work from CEO and co-founder Andrew Hughes, CTO and co-Founder Manos Moschous and our very own StartTech Ventures nurturing and incubation support. In the process Abzorba Games managed to dominate the iTunes and Android stores gaming charts, and attract the attention of several international partners such as Tango and, ultimately, Novomatic.
The reason that we’re bringing this up (besides bragging), is that on Tuesday, January 12th, Manos will be giving a talk in which he’ll discuss founding AbZorba Games, securing angel investment, getting “Live Black Jack 21” to be a huge international success, and, last but not least, hitting the jack pot with their casino games (no pun intended) and getting acquired by the Novomatic group of companies.
The event will take place at INNOVATHENS (Pireos 100, Technopolis), at 18:00 on Tuesday, January 12th, and is held under the auspices of HAMAC (Hellenic Association of Mobile Application Companies).
You can read more about the event on StartupGrind’s Facebook page and book your tickets (while you still can) here!
If you want to learn about creating a successful startup from someone who’s actually been out there and done it, you could not find a better person than Manos. Heck, we were along with AbZorba Games for the whole ride, and we’ll still be at the talk.
See you there!
