Nice2Meet: Interview with Maria Calafatis, Co-Founder of The Cube Athens

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“It’s supposed to be Hard. If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it Great” Interview with Maria Calafatis Co-Founder at The Cube Athens.

On my previous post, I’ve shared my journey with Seats2Meet and the co-working space industry in Greece. In this post, I will be sharing with you an interview that I’ve had the pleasure to conduct with Maria Calafatis, Co-Founder at The Cube Athens, the first and the largest co-working space in Greece. I’ve had the pleasure to discuss with Maria Calafatis about the situation in the co-working space industry in Greece, and how the COVID – 19 situation influences the industry.

About Maria Calafatis

Maria is the Co-Founder at The Cube Athens Workspace.

Athens’ largest co-working community, which hosts some of Greece’s best experts in technology.

The Cube is also home to most of Athens’ technology events, hackathons, innovation sessions, and training events.

Through coding and business boot camps, The Cube is creating the next generation of top tier coders and business makers.

Member of the Startup Weekend – Global Facilitation Team and has been involved with Startup Weekend since 2009, helping organize, facilitate and bring new Greek cities to the SW family, after Athens, Volos, Patra, Larissa, Thessaloniki, Heraklion, and the latest addon StartupWeekendGreeceCovid19RemoteGlobalEdition, where all SW Greek cities joined forces as one to represent Greece to fight COVID-19 Virtually.

SW junkey, xa, having facilitated over 20 events around the world in cities such as Vlasic, Torino, Copenhagen, Limerick, Saarbrucken, Moldova, … and Plymouth this Fall.

Her first business was founded at a Startup Weekend.

Maria was invited to join as a fellow to the RSA community in 2016 which provides a platform for the world’s leading thinkers, sharing their ideas online, while their Action and Research Centre search for new and innovative ways to solve society’s greatest challenges.

She loves challenges and connecting with people with the same mindset as her own and turning nothing into something huge & impactful.

Her Motto: “It’s supposed to be Hard. If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it Great”

Athens, September 1st,2020

Ricardo: Could you please define what co-working means to you?

Maria: I would say that the most critical factor is the community.  It is about understanding the needs, the talent within the community you provide for but most importantly, building bridges among startups and entrepreneurs and ensuring that it is a vibrant environment people want to be part of. It is a relaxed meeting spot where things happen, where the magic happens, where people get connected, exchange ideas, feel at home. There are projects, ideas, and startups evolving faster and more comfortably, as opposed that if you were working alone in your pyjamas in your flats.

Ricardo: What are the opportunities that coworkers get in your space?

Maria: The opportunities they get is the features that they get in the space such as good internet connection, there is coffee ready in the kitchen, the calendar is filled with events, access to fully-equipped meeting rooms, so those are the everyday essentials and services but as I mentioned previously is the fact that coworkers have the outreach and that they belong to a community, where it can be anywhere from people who are just starting even to meeting very successful local and international startup or speaker, which is something again that you wouldn’t be involved and wouldn’t have access to if you would be behind four walls, whether that is a private office away from a co-working space or your house again.

Ricardo: To what extent locals in Greece are interested in using co-working spaces?

Maria: I think Greece in general, we were the first one who opened a co-working space in Athens ten years ago then called collab; the idea was pitched at a hackathon. Things were very new and mature in Greece, even then when we went to the tax office with all the paperwork to establish, people did not know what co-working meant, what is a startup, what is innovation. Thus, they were terrified about it, and they were not very open-minded. We also acknowledged that in Greece and the mentality within the country is that they want to change but with baby steps, no matter what that change is. They do not want the change to arrive quick and disruptive; they need baby steps, they need to understand the process thoroughly, to see that is happening, and once they see that is happening and succeeding, it is easier to get involved and to be part of it. In the past ten years, the startup community has been growing and matured, and of course, COVID – 19, has brought a lot of change. We see this also with big established companies, the managers and the bosses are more open-minded into flexible working hours and flexible work because with the lockdown, we were forced to work from home for three months, and things had worked and now they realised that things do work and now it makes more sense to be flexible with your team members, than requiring from everybody being in a physical space, which because with everything that is happening because of COVID, people are trying to be more cautious and when it’s a big team or company, people are working in a rotation mode and let’s not forget, it also cuts costs for the company instead of taking over a whole building and having to pay for 50 or 500 seats, and suddenly if you have people working remotely, and you give them an X amount of money per months on benefits, and let them choose where they would like to work from we also know that this creates a lot of creativity, thus it makes sense instead of having everybody coming in. We see this often. The fact that COVID – 19 has cut down a lot of utility expenses on any big company.

Ricardo: Since you mentioned COVID – 19, do you believe that people and companies will be inclined to use more co-working spaces?

Maria: I do! At the Cube, we had freelancers and digital nomads, and it is a model that has been running for years now. In Greece, it has not yet been reached, but because COVID – 19 is a global challenge, I do think, and I do see that this is a worldwide movement that will happen. Somebody might catch up with it later than others, but it is only a matter of time, and again it makes sense. The freelancers and the digital nomads that have been coming, a lot of them are not based in Greece, and the company might be in the U.K. or the U.S., but they can work remotely, and they choose to travel the world or to go back to their base, we have a lot of Greek ex-pats that are also coming to Greece in Christmas, summer, and Easter, they come one or two weeks earlier, they spent ten days working and then the second week they spent time with their families. Therefore, is a model that is working, just getting the V.P.’s, managers, and CEOs, especially when it’s a startup environment; the mentality is already there because it comes with nature. However, when it is an old-style or old school company that has not got into that yet, but again with COVID – 19, it has brought a lot of change. If you do not brush up your skills and if the company does not move up, it will be a company that will not survive for too long and will be affected by it.

Another thing that we see is that even startups in Greece can have anywhere between 50 -300 employees physically working in Greece, and they are also hiring a lot. Due to the brain drain that is going on in Greece, with many Greeks leaving the country due to the economic crisis, this is also great to attract Greeks back. If they can work remotely, they can work from wherever they are currently and slowly attracted to their hometown. Thus, it makes sense.

Ricardo: How has your business been impacted due to COVID – 19?

Maria: The business changed very suddenly, it was and its still very uncertain times. I remember in the last week of March, we heard about the COVID – 19 on social media, and we could see and understand that things were difficult, but the situation was under control, and it was not difficult in Greece. But then I remember, we were sitting here and our community that consisted of digital nomads, and one of them was checking online and saw that Athens airport was about to close in the next three hours. As a result, all the digital nomads were looking at that time to book tickets and getting to the airport as fast as possible. I remember going picking up my son from school at 12 o clock, and then by three o clock, the mayor was on T.V. announcing that schools are closed as of today until further notice. Therefore, we saw that things were moving very quickly, and at the 8-o clock news, they also announced that the country would go into full lockdown. Our space and operation that has been running for the past ten years have never shut down. Even on August 15th, which is a popular holiday in Greece, our team is big enough, and we take shifts so that space and activities always runs. Even if we would close for Christmas or New Year’s Eve, we have never been forcibly closed. It was saddened for us to forcibly close for three months, as we were not ready, and we had a calendar filled with events.  Our business is about the community and catering to its needs. We have never canceled anything; instead, we might reschedule, so we needed to think quickly, how we are going to act, and what we were going to do. Therefore, we did what everybody else did, and we left work on Friday night, we went home, we took our laptops with us and the essentials so we can start working from home. However, it is not working from home, it is different than I’m working from home, and it’s different when you choose to do so, and it’s different when you are forced to work from home. Suddenly, operations were shut entirely, and on March 26th, we were completely shut, everybody was.

The city was on full lockdown, and over that weekend, we were discussing the next steps, always aiming to be close to the community. We are in very uncertain times; nobody knows what is happening, but we cannot just disappear until the state announces that we can go back. Therefore,   we came up with a new brand called ‘virtual meet up a guest at home,’ where what we did is that we reached out to our friends in the community, brought in every day at 7:00 a different guest speaker. He/ she would pick a topic; we would give him 30 minutes to present and then open for 30 minutes Q& A. You can find all our videos under our Facebook page, The Cube Athens, under section videos under the brand of ‘virtual meet up guest at home.’ It was a great benefit because we also started reaching out and talking to possible speakers they were not even based in Greece or Athens, which meant and means that with the push of a button, with a great tool like ZOOM, people were connecting globally not only enough and spent in Greece but also globally which is a win-win for us. During the lockdown, we also ran about a 1 ½ month, hackathon with the same brand we pitched our idea (to open The Cube)  10 years ago and set up the first co-working space here in Athens, the Co-Lab. At the hackathon, we managed to attract about 300 participants from all over Greece not only from Athens, with people joining from the U.K., U.S., Dubai, Singapore, India, which is amazing again so we very quickly understood that things were moving very fast and there we were used to doing or activity physically and let’s not forget that doing things physically takes a lot more time in preparation especially when you need to bring out a speaker or you need to deal with sponsorships or you need to do with expenses and getting the person out. Herewith the push of a button, every day at 7:00 we were on air. To give you an illustration, I reach out to you you’re in Ecuador I said: Ricardo hi, I’d love you to join the guest at home in two weeks from now 10 days 2 weeks which gives us just enough time to promote and announce on social media. Then, you would say yeah Maria that’s my date I’ve got a free slot there, send me the topic send me a short description of your presentation a short bio and we’ll set which was great fun, of course, we and the community would miss each other because you can’t beat this it’s only different being online every day than being able to shake a hand meet somebody over a coffee meet the rest of the community and host events here. After 3 ½ months of lockdown, we came back to space,  we continued running guest at home and whenever the speaker was based in Athens,  we would invite the community to visit our space, and meet the guest speaker in person or you can continue watching us online. However, I think that people were still very cautious, thereby people would not come in because people would avoid taking public transport for one that was the biggest challenge. Therefore, everybody was going around even to get to work with their car and people were trying to avoid going to the city center unless it was necessary and because they knew that we were online it makes sense we could be on zoom or Facebook live and we even see it now I mean with the community and with our members even on the floors below there still working on a rotation mode a lot of the companies and a lot of the startups have announced that until the end of the year it is that flexibility because it’s still a lot of uncertainty we don’t know what to expect and there are rumors over a second lockdown any time after October or November. Moreover, we are waiting for schools to open mid-September and they are waiting to see what will happen with those cases wise. With tourism was doing so well before to resent and with the case is that of course we tourism the numbers I have skyrocketed on the other hand Greece is a country that lives out of tourism and it was a very tough choice to exclude tourism this year and depend on local tourism so as the economy to survive. I don’t think we will be going into full lockdown again because the economy will collapse it won’t survive so the discussion that whatever lockdown they’ll go into next it will go depending on the cases and depending on the area and they’ll try and control that area out.

I am facilitating a hackathon this November in Plymouth and am supposed to be there last spring. However, as everything was canceled, we will do it virtually for now and then I had asked me to come next spring physically. Again, we are going through uncertain times, however, the good thing here is that it is a global challenge, and that brought us closer, to find ways as we are now and to collaborate and build relationships. Being online is a great tool that helps you connect that way there are a lot of benefits. I am not stressed and worried about the business per se, because with every crisis there is an opportunity, and you need to seek that opportunity and for sure being digital has got amazing benefits to it too. But again, as I mentioned it is a different experience being virtual. I see that the ex-pat community is not as worried about it because it also doesn’t forget their communities that are constantly on the move so they see a lot not only in Greece but when you’re a freelance or digital normal and you travel this is a lifestyle that you have. You are exposed to the law so you’re tougher both mentally and physically compared to if you’re an individual that has always stayed in his hometown and this is your comfort zone this is your this is what you know you know when you’re happy with that. We also have a couple of members that were here before the lockdown, they ended up here when everything was shut down, so they were forced to stay in Athens and they’re now looking into Athens and stay longer. This is because they see it as an opportunity, I mean there are a couple of members in the space that were rented out accommodation long-term and they are looking into staying here longer. Besides,  Greece is not such a bad place to be under lockdown, because the weather is very good the culture is amazing there is a lot of dudes is a lot to see so it makes sense. This morning I have spoken to three of our collaborators and we are now looking into already in September scheduling the first workshops to see how that goes and how the community will respond to that. When scheduling events, we are allowed to have up to 50 people in the space, so we are going to aim for that and see how it goes. You cannot stop your activity completely we were forced for three months now that we are not forced to go into lockdown, we will play with the idea and see what the community is comfortable with. Being an entrepreneur is about the roller coaster, the uncertainty and we strive for that and we love it, and I am sure it will bring a lot of opportunities. Another thing we’ve seen is a lot of one of the services that we provided at The Cube is hiring, and we’ve also seen a lot of international companies they see and they seek talent and it makes more sense to hire three developers in Greece and have them work remote or having it work from Greece then highly one in the USA.

Ricardo: Therefore, you are also trying to connect Greek professionals with professionals from abroad

Maria: What I am saying is that a Greek has a lot of talent, and the payroll is a lot more flexible than it would be somewhere like the U.S. Another thing we see is Greeks from the board who have already established abroad also trying to help and give back to their country and bring some connection with their roots, by opening a second branch or they’re trying to start offside projects in Greece and Athens and they’re looking for somebody to facilitate that for them. Thereby, by knowing us,  that we are the oldest ones in the market so they will come to people like us to help them run and facilitate all of that for them and we touch base with them like once a week what’s the project we look for the candidates we will do the hiring, all the bureaucracy behind it and then once a week once a month we touch base with them and see what the project is what are the ends of the week of the month and how do we achieve them. This way we also bring the talent from abroad back to Greece and there is a lot of startups like Skroutz. gr who is attracting positions for the brain drain and attracting Greeks that have left to abroad.

Taking the case of the U.K, due to Brexit,  a lot of Greeks have left the U.K and now they seek a reason to come back to Greece because startups under the environment around startups and around and entrepreneur, is completely different than an old mindset mentality 10 or 15 or 30 year ago mentality boss that is very stuck in his mentality and doesn’t want to bring innovation and creativity into space. We see that happening a lot and then we also see a lot of quite a few international companies who have come to Greece and are adapting and starting their branch here. Therefore, a lot is happening with uncertainty there is also a lot of things that will happen and arise. Greece is also a country that has been through a lot. If you think about it, we have been through three crises in the last six years. Namely, we have had an economic and refugee crisis and now we have a coronavirus crisis.  Therefore, the mentality and the culture of a Greek and the young generation have toughened up. Compared to 10 – 15 years ago, everybody wanted to work for the Greek state and with the economic crisis when they saw that even their things won’t be stable, they saw it that was not a stable job for life anymore. Moreover,  with so much unemployment, they realized that you either need to go out there and make it or break it or you need to leave and that is how we thrive in a period of crisis. We’ve started The Cube Athens, at the heart of the economic crisis, but because of the difficulties and challenges that the country was facing and young people due to unemployment, they needed a space like this where innovation, creativity, and startups were welcome. We’re running a lot of events and welcoming people and advising and mentoring it started boosting because when you are pushed to your limits, and you are in a tough position, that’s where you think the best. We saw this happening and where I am getting at is that after three crises, the future graduates will be a generation that will not expect everything to be handed to them on a platter. It will be a generation that because they have been through three crises, ‘ve also seen a lot of opportunities, and that opportunity with that crisis we will see a lot of creativity and a lot of opportunities arising. I am looking forward to that too you know it is not all that.

Ricardo: Do you think that coworkers in Greece and general locals in Greece, are eager to come to co-working spaces, share openly their knowledge and expertise among them?

Maria: At the open co-working area like the gentleman sitting at the outside Christos, he is Greek and used to work in Volos, a city outside of Athens, and he could work remotely. As Christos has family, friends, and a flat here in Athens, he decided to move here, because even if Volos was quiet, it is a small city. He has that kind of mentality even during COVID – 19. However, this also has to do with you as a person, culture, and character, and how you have been brought up.

When we have Greeks traveling from abroad, yes, they will use co-working space. But again, I think COVID – 19 has will bring a lot of change when it comes to sharing knowledge and know-how in a place like this yes because therefore people come here. After all, people want to be connected. The mentality of ‘let us sit around the table’, let’s bring yours and my know-how to the table and see how we can do something cool together,  you didn’t see that happening 10 years ago. If I expected help or a contact introduction from you, your first comment would be what is in it for me. That has significantly changed with the younger generation and the generation that is coming into it now. Still, truly depends if you talk to 50 or 67 years old, it would be more difficult to introduce that kind of mentality, compared to a 30- or 40-years old individual, who is open-minded to it. It has to do with how your personality and how open-minded you are as a person and how involved you are in general. If you are someone who is involved with co-working spaces like The Cube, Stone Soup, or Foundation, the big players of the city, this is what it is about. We are not competing between us because each one of us has an identity and we cater to our community. We will meet once a year or for a common event, where the whole community comes together whether it is a social event, hackathon, or community event for Athens. You will always see us mingling together.

Ricardo: I’ve visited SPACES in Monastiraki to see how they operate, and I’ve had to wear a face mask, which I’ve found somewhat uncomfortable, because you can’t breathe, but again it is compulsory as they’ve instructed. Given the current situation, I would like to ask you, how do you think you can improve the customer experience at The Cube Athens, given the current situation and the measures you need to enforce?

Maria: Since you have been with us for two days, as you could see, we keep at least 2m distance, the clean lady is here every day and thus everything is being disinfected. There are sanitizers throughout the space, reception. Instead of only ‘hi welcome’, now you would say, ‘hi welcome, and here’s a sanitizer’ and you will find sanitizers in the bathrooms and kitchen areas. We are not forced to work with masks, and we do not want to force our customers or maybe a better community to do so. In our community, we’ve had a meeting or two, where our guests walked in with masks and sat across from us for a whole hour or two-hour meeting and didn’t take the mask or gloves off, which is completely the guest’s choice. It is not enforced by law, but we have been cautious, and we are trying to respect all the measurements that we can. Simultaneously, as you have mentioned, we do not want to be too strict and drive away from the community, but we do not want to be too flexible, scare the community and drive them away. The building is very big, we have 1800 sq. thus when it comes to business, we have the appropriate space and accommodation to do so and to keep so that is not a problem. Event-wise, we can host events of up to 50 people and we are going to be the first ones in September. Events will be planned and scheduled, which you can find on our website the cube. gr under the events or to MeetUp.com/TheCubeAthens where everything will be announced on a daily or weekly basis. Our guest at home virtual meet up, will be up and running as of the 13th of the month also. We are very keen and eager to start running events and activities in our space to get back to normal as people say. However, I do not think we will be getting back to normal, because normal will not be like what we have used to before the pandemic. There will be a lot of change, but you know, change is good because you need it. The same way we change ourselves and up-skill all our skills and once, even at home without formal clothing or our stills and everything, whether it is a new haircut, nail color, or house decoration. I think it is the same thing, I think that people do not need to fear change, but instead embrace and welcome it and find ways to be innovative and enjoy it. Entrepreneurs will be more at ease in adapting than somebody who is used to waking up in the morning and doing things in a certain way because this is how it’s normally done, and I’ve been programmed to do it that way. People tend to not have a lot of fun when you have been programmed, and you just do the same thing repeatedly. One thing I love about this space and my job is that I never know what my day will look like, we have a lot of people coming in, at our space, and many business and collaboration opportunities, and the one brings the other. Again, there are no limits, and you get a variety of people you meet and events that you can run, and collaborations you can be part of. That does not give you a minute of the day to be bored or dulled, instead, it allows you to grow, innovate and bring more things to the table and just make it happen and this is the best part of being here and running a space like The Cube.

Ricardo: Considering the current health / economic situation in Greece, what is the future in the co-working space industry, and what is your role in the future development of the industry?

Maria: I think that we are going to see more companies using co-working spaces for their members, their employees as I mentioned in the beginning. Because of COVID – 19, the measures and the fact that they cannot have many people in a space. Two months ago, we’ve had somebody who was running a company with approximately 500 members, and he was telling us that by law, a company that big, can’t have more than 200 people working physically in the space, because they need to keep a distance. Therefore, out of the 500 employees, they can only have 200 in, and each week they change the 200, it is a rotation mode, and the rest are working from home. That guy came in and he said that it does not suit him working from home due to many distractions at home. He said that he is not creative at home and that he wants to wake up in the morning, have a shower, get dressed, and leave the house as people were forced to be locked in their houses for three months. For some people though working from home might work and I saw that myself. I do not like working, but I was forced to do it. The first week was absolute chaos, because work from home, deal with work, family, and run a hackathon. I remember that the first weeks there were days that I did not eat breakfast or shower and I was just there, trying to please everything and make sure that everything gets done, family and work, everything. It was chaotic! Then, I’ve needed to go back to my routine, waking up in the morning, have a shower and breakfast, have a work schedule, I need to have breaks, I need to do my cooking, I need time with my family and myself. When I have started planning that, it was working a lot better. Again, I mean for myself as an individual, I think it helps to keep family and home completely separate because when you go home, you are going to an environment where you want to be with your family to distress and to close the door of the work environment and vice-versa. When you bring everything together, it may sometimes cause chaos and challenges and it does not work for everyone.  I like the fact that I need to wake up in the morning and that I can close the door and leave that I’ve dealt with and that now this is my creative time, this is now where I need to focus but it depends on each person. As a co-founder and community manager, I love working in the open space with the communities, but sometimes you also get pulled away from your project or your work because you need to deal with the customer, the project, the phone, the printer, and with whatever else comes with a new guest. Maybe, what I would consider is working remotely a day or two per week where again maybe work from home, but I again my creativity comes from working with people because I love people. I am not creative when I am working completely isolated. Maybe working from a different space whether it is a co-working space, a library, or a cafe probably variety. I believe it is like working out, you need variety. If you are always in the same thing repeatedly you get tired of it. Therefore, a combination of working remotely and physically in space and I think that goes for a lot of people. If you have had the flexibility of allowing people to let them work from when they want and how they want and even the schedule. A lot of people are not morning people they may work better in the afternoon or the evening and we should not exclude that. Again, it has to do with each individual and as far as space is concerned, as I mentioned we are running the first events. Now in September, there are rumors of a second lockdown but again, nothing is official and until it does or if it does, we are keeping it positive and full speed ahead, we want the activity and the spaces. As you can see is busy, we have people coming through space and we hope we can have and welcome more people. On the floors below, we have the offices, which are mainly the teams and the startups that have their headquarters with us, while here where we are sitting is more the open space, where you can find freelancers, digital nomads, visitors, walk-ins. This is the community, the space floor where everything happens, and it is very vibrant. This is where people come for their coffee lunch break. There is only one printer in the building and it’s here on purpose, cause we want people moving throughout the space, and that’s why we’ve done things like the following: we would offer coffee, but I will place it on the sixth floor (the open space) and not on the rest floors. Namely, if people on the rest floors want coffee, they will need to come to the sixth floor to grab the coffee.

Ricardo: … and then you can connect with people!

Maria: Exactly! We have come up with tricks like this, to get them through. This is the only floor in the building with a veranda and we give on purpose this floor to the community, so everybody must go through it. All the floors have meeting rooms, but all members have access to this meeting room that we are sitting in and the meeting room across. The meeting rooms on this floor, are a lot nicer because there is daylight, they are bigger, comfortable, and fully equipped and nothing is missing. Downstairs are equipped but someone might move the projector from one meeting room to the other, they might run out of paper or they might not have markers. Still, they will need to come to the sixth floor and ask us to provide them with what is missing or get it themselves. Moreover, they will ask other members of the community about things like passwords and thus, they will need to talk to each other. Of course, due to COVID – 19, we do not do this often because of social distancing i.e. people do not want to give a handshake and we respected it. However before, we would tell them: “since you are in the community, welcome to the community, this is The Cube, everybody speaks perfect English, and everybody speaks to each other and are very friendly. If you want the password, you will need to talk to find it out from the members of the community”. Another example is the plugins, people will ask each other and say that Maria keeps them on this box, or this is the password. Small things to ensure that spaces are always active and vibrant, and things are happening. This is something you have seen yourself. You have been with us for two days, I worked at the same place as you are working. My desk gives me enough visibility of the floor so that I know and assist if anyone wants coffee or somebody is coming in or if there is anyone that needs help with the printer and co-working. I have full access to the community, and I like working with them. I do not need to be locked in a private office because it does not represent me and my position towards the community. My position is about being there for the community, being open-mindedly involved with them, caring for them, providing them with anything that they need, and this is something I love because I gain a lot. Even I was here over the weekend because we have had a working going on, which had nothing to do with entrepreneurship and startups, but it was about a first aid course by doctors catering to younger doctors. Those type of kind of events and meetups might be happening, I will be there to help them with anything they need while I am also working on my tasks. Things that we have learned, and we are constantly learning from being in a space like this and catering for space like this are amazing, and its great fun!

Ricardo: Indeed, it is great fun and I like that yesterday we just connected by giving you something to print now look here we are here. Again, thank you very much for taking up your time to meet me and answering my questions!

Maria: It was a great pleasure, Ricardo!

About The Cube Athens

Founded in 2013 by Maria Cafatis & Stavros Messinis, The Cube is a community of people who love innovation, are open to new ideas and, actively work for positive change.

More than a startup co-working space, accelerator or incubator, The Cube is defined as the « community melting-pot  » where, Cube members are encouraged to embrace learning, share expertise, exchange experiences and, celebrate success together.

Located at the heart of Athens in Aiolou Street in a seven floor building, The Cube provides offices, meeting rooms, seminar rooms, a workshop area and event spaces. The Cube hosts many Greek and international startups, digital nomads, designers, developers and change makers.