Hellas Direct Co-founder: Our team consists of problem-solvers and great professionals

Emilios Markou, Co-founder and Executive Director of next-generation, full-stack insurance company Hellas Direct elaborates on why the company's choice to employ people who are smart and passionate, with a drive to change the world, has helped it succeed.

What were the key factors that contributed to your startup’s success, and how did you identify and capitalise on them?

The entrepreneurial journey is a lonely one and requires a lot of personal sacrifices. Having the right people around you to share the wins and losses along the way is a key factor, and we knew that from the very beginning. As we say, it takes a village to set up a business and we’ve been quite lucky to have an amazing team of people by our side.

Believing in our people and empowering them to do what they think is right was by far the largest contributor to our growth. This gave us scalability, flexibility and a passion for innovation that we would have never achieved otherwise. In terms of the business model, we are fully vertically integrated. We are efficient across the value chain with a clear value proposition: a better product at a better price with better service. We are distribution agnostic and we have created agile, bitesize and on-demand products, which are easily embedded in mobility and home ecosystems, generating platform economics across insurance, services and lead generation. And then, things are simple: work, work and work! The good thing is that when you love what you do, are passionate about your work and have a vision, the time spent working is time well spent.

How did you build and develop your team, and what key skills and expertise did you prioritise when hiring?

We always find people who are smart and passionate, with a drive to change the world. We invest in our people, we train them well and empower them and we then get out of their way. Our team consists of problem-solvers and great professionals with different skills and at different stages of their career. Teamwork, empathy and great communication between the right people can lead to success.

Looking back, what were some of the biggest challenges you faced as a startup founder – especially those around funding – and how did you overcome them?

My co-founder and business partner Alexis Pantazis and I made a difficult decision to set up a full-stack insurance company at the beginning of what ended up being the deepest financial crisis in the Western world. We imagined that there would be many challenges and we encountered even more. For our first €8.5 million round, we reached out to 2,500 investors, met with 300 of them in 14 different countries, and ended up with 11 of them backing us. That rejection rate was 99.56%! But then, securing our first round of funding was a defining moment: a challenge that took close to one and a half years to overcome ended up becoming a strong moat for us and a barrier to entry for potential new challengers.

What advice would you give to founders just starting out, and what qualities do you believe they need to succeed?

Building and scaling an organisation for the long term is what we perceive as success on a business level and we advise people who are starting out to aim high. At the same time, we believe in failing fast. If things don’t work in a certain direction, just move forward, taking advantage of whatever learning you can from a failure. Being decisive, believing in disruption and having a vision of what you want to achieve are all very important. At the same time, you have to be open to new ideas and potential new ways to go further. Find a way to preserve your culture, safeguard your values and keep hiring the best people you can find.

What change would you like to see to the Cyprus startup ecosystem that could increase the number of success stories?

Significant progress has been made over the past decade as far as the startup ecosystem in Cyprus is concerned. In spite of this progress, however, there is still a lot to be done so that the country and the ecosystem tap fully into its economic potential. Reaching out to investors is one of the biggest difficulties that early-stage startups and pre-startup teams face. So, the financing and investing environment needs to be smoother to help entrepreneurs pursue their goals.

What is it? A next-generation, full-stack insurance company. | Founded: 2012 | Headquarters: Nicosia, Cyprus

Number of employees: 200 | Funding secured: €56 million.

This interview first appeared in the April edition of GOLD magazine. Click here to view it.