Windmill enters egg

Approximately 3’ minutes reading time

Back in March, I decided to attend an open day organised by egg. It is a business incubator, operating in Athens with a mission to encourage, support and promote entrepreneurship, primarily targeting Greeks, living in Greece.

I am happy to announce that Windmill has been accepted to join egg!

Ever since the inception of Windmill, I have been adamant on what path I prefer¹ following. I want to bootstrap Windmill into a sustainable business. That is, with the exception of a business loan, receive no outside investment in return of equity or follow a traditional “startup” path to grow the business.

In the midst of building Windmill on the iPhone, I decided to apply² to egg. I meticulously went through the website, watched talks given by the egg staff and business partners in an effort to understand its culture and attitude towards starting a business.

I was drawn to egg primarily for evangelising sensibility in starting a business as well as for appearing genuine in helping Greeks looking to build a future in Greece. Still, I wanted to make sure this was a good fit for Windmill going forward.

Here is what egg offers and how I believe it can help.

• Office space. Even though I have created a dedicated office space at home, the isolation has been tough to endure. I am looking to benefit from the discussions, interactions and a sense of belonging to everyone else there. For reference, every year about 25 businesses operate within egg.
• Mentorship. As part of your tenure, you are assigned a mentor. At this stage, it is not clear who this mentor will be or their expertise. Still, having someone dedicated where you can refer to in an effort to bootstrap your business can prove really useful.
• Business Bootcamp. You receive about 100 hours of training in Marketing, Business and Finance. This structured education will no doubt help solidify some of my limited understanding.
• Opportunities. Being part of a business incubator is bound to create opportunities in business, marketing, potential partnerships etc. I will certainly be keeping my eyes peeled.
• Support. Last but not least, you do get access to accounting and legal services as well as help with incorporating. No doubt I could be doing all this outside of egg, still I have enough on my plate already so I would rather not have to figure it out on my own.
• Once you have incorporated, there could be an option to get a business loan in favourable terms. This will come in handy, primarily for hiring as well as marketing and advertising services.

Back in 2017, when I decided to leave London and give Windmill a fair chance, I wanted to spend about a year to see if it made any business sense pursuing it.

I never would have imagined the possibility of running a business in Greece, yet here I am.

Windmill has come a long way and receiving an offer to join egg is yet another validating step.

I have a good feeling about this.