Going Global: 3 Greek Founders on Mistakes, Lessons, and Wins Abroad

Emilia Molimopakis, co-founder and CEO of AI-powered mental health assessment company thymia, was excited to pitch her products to a large company in Southeast Asia, both because of the commercial opportunity and the potential to help patients in a new market. 

She knew all her facts and numbers, but she addressed herself “to the more junior person because they were speaking fluent English and the other person had an expression on their face I couldn't read.” 

“I thought I'd done a really good job,” she recalls, but “it was as though that meeting didn't happen.”

It was only later that she was back in London and did more research on the country’s business culture that she realized her mistakes. In a more hierarchical culture she needed to address only the most senior person in the room even if they didn’t speak English; she also needed to bring very specific gifts and hand them out in a very specific order. But she was determined to try again. 

“I had another meeting with the same people. I knew what to do,” she says. “Immediately the response, the reaction, the facial expressions, everything was completely different.” She closed the deal and landed the customer. 

The specifics of Emilia’s attempt to sell into Southeast Asia may sound unique. But according to several Greek founders the fact that she struggled to expand internationally at first is highly relatable. Falling on your face and learning from it is guaranteed when entering new countries, they insist. But if you adjust your product, your team, and your go-to-market approach, you’ll be better equipped to navigate the complexities of international expansion.

Localize your product 

Panos Karagiannis had spent years working in the Boston area, but when it came time to start  his AI agent startup Moveo.AI he and his co-founders decided to set up shop in Athens. They had a strong network there and faced limited competition, which allowed them to hire great talent and quickly close impressive local customers. 

But Greece is a small market so, in order to grow, they knew they’d need to look internationally. They searched for a large market with limited competition and landed in Brazil. Like Emilia, Panos is candid that he made plenty of mistakes moving into a new country. 

While Emilia initially struggled to adjust to the local business culture, Panos and his team tripped up when they failed to adjust their product itself to the local market. “When we tried to copy what worked in Greece in Brazil and we failed completely,” he admits. 

Even the basics of running a business, like pricing and payments, were different on a new continent. Moveo didn’t make inroads until they translated their platform into Portuguese and began accepting payments in the local currency. “Initially we transferred pricing exactly as it was in Greece, but in retrospect we should have adapted better to market dynamics,” Panos adds. 

Having overcome these hurdles and established its presence in South America, Moveo is now eyeing the US market and applying the lessons learned in Brazil. Companies in different sectors will approach international expansion differently, according to Panos, but opening in any new market requires local knowledge, flexibility, and perseverance. 

The message is clear: there’s no ready-made playbook for expansion. What worked for one market won’t necessarily work for another. That’s why Panos’ team started with deep market research. “Talk to experts, do some interviews, maybe pay for some of those interviews, and see if that market is actually ready to adopt a solution like yours,” he advises. They also took the time to assess the local economy and map out the competition: “Build your battlecards so that you know how you are going to win against X or Y.”

Even with preparation, things didn’t always go according to plan. “Be prepared that it’s probably going to be a million times harder than what you imagined,” Panos warns, “but that is okay because it's very gratifying. I think the most important thing in that journey is that I did not quit.” 

Localize your team 

Athanase Kollias is half Greek, half French, so it makes sense that the biomechanics equipment company he founded, KINVENT, would be bi-national from the start with headquarters in Montpelier and a technical team in Greece. But while Athanase is comfortable in both cultures, he emphasises the importance of building his team’s ability to communicate across cultural boundaries. 

“Make people travel from one side to the other. Bring people to France. Send people to Greece. It's important for people to talk,” he stresses. This also involves yearly company on-sites as well as projects that bridge borders. 

KINVENT employees need to communicate with each other across differences of language and culture. But it is even more essential that they communicate well with customers. That requires a shared language. “Don't hire people that don't have the language skills,” Athanase emphasizes. 

It also demands the right local partners. “People don't buy the same way in different countries. You have to find people on the spot that will help you transmit the message. It's about understanding the local regulations and habits.” he says.  

KINVENT either hires locally or works with local distributors. Athanase is also working with a US advisory board to help the company crack the US market. 

The final and most essential ingredient in building teams that can work and sell across cultures is “boots on the ground.” True understanding cannot be built remotely. 

To illustrate, Athanase tells the story of his company’s efforts to conquer the distant French territory of Réunion Island. Known for its sun and sand, Réunion was a big, unexplored market for KINVENT. The company ran a competition where the best performing salesperson would win the chance to sell there and take their partner along for the weekend. 

“He worked for three days and then for three days he surfed. And in three days he did what he did in France in three weeks,” Athanase reports. “Shaking hands is the most powerful way of communicating.” Physically spending time in a place talking to locals is the only way to make real headway. 

“Go abroad. It’s fun.” 

All three founders are transparent that expanding internationally can be tough (and not just because of the jet lag - all three travel constantly). But if you adapt your style, your product, and your team to new markets, it can be not just a success, but a strategic advantage for your company. 

“People typically tend to look at international expansion as an afterthought or as a nice-to-have. In many cases if you build international capability into your technology from the start, it's a very, very strong asset to have,” Emilia stresses.

That’s particularly true of an AI-driven product like hers that benefits from access to a larger and more diverse pool of training data which then begets better models that can serve more diverse markets - it’s a data and innovation flywheel effect. But she believes it’s the case for many companies: “Most people focus on just one market, but actually this can give you a competitive advantage.” 

Athanase is even more concise in explaining why founders should be more open to international expansion despite its challenges: “Go abroad. It’s great because it's fun.”