Within a few metro stops, Athens concentrates a surprising number of teams. By the way, this map is missing many “Greek” startups. The reason is that many Greek founders place their HQs in San Francisco or London, while keeping product and engineering in Athens for the talent and value-for-money. The model works: world-class scientists and builders ship from here, while the business side sits in the hotspots.  

The future looks bright, but the issue remains the same. We need more startups. We need more employees becoming builders. The question isn’t whether Athens can build. It’s whether we’re thinking big enough to aim for global scale and hard problems.