Orange Grove is a typical example of crowd creation. From its inception, actually on board of a KLM flight from Amsterdam to Athens in February 2013, until the official launch on 25 September of the same year, Orange Grove has benefited from the input of many, many friends. The enthusiasm and collaborative attitude of almost everybody that we talked to, has far exceeded our hopes. Here’s a list with many of those names – even though it is inevitably incomplete.

The first people we discussed the idea with were longtime friends of the Embassy Sofia Komna and Miltiadis Gkouzouris. We also invited Theodore Klouvas then president of the Hellenic Students Society in the Netherlands. Miltiadis volunteered to write a business plan with a cost-estimate, Sofia looked into the legal aspects and Theodore ensured we did not lose sight of the target group.

The next step was a thorough discussion with a group of alumni of Dutch universities living in Athens, later on followed by meetings with Greek students in Holland. These very stimulating discussions helped us a lot to get our focus clear.

We set ourselves a deadline of May 1 for the go/no-go decision on what at that time was still called the ‘Hollenic House’ (Miltos Gkouzouris later advised us to drop that name, because in Greek it reminded him of the sound of the Greek word for ‘stagnation’).

When Minister of Foreign Affairs Frans Timmermans came to Athens on April 2, we carefully raised the idea with him. He exploded… with enthusiasm, because it is an initiative that is very much in line with his endeavors to show what cooperation in Europe can bring and to counter negative stereotypes. He emphasized that, in times of scarce resources, it was very important to do this in partnership with the private sector. Two months later Eurogroup President and Dutch Minister of Finance Jeroen Dijsselbloem also encouraged the Embassy team to push on with the project.

In the final week of April, a visit to the Netherlands made us pass the point of no-return. Chairman of the Board of the University of Amsterdam Louise Gunning responded very enthusiastically to our first thoughts and pledged her full support. An equally encouraging reaction came from chairman Dirk-Jan van den Berg of the Delft University of Technology. Also, the Municipality of Amsterdam, which has entered into a cooperation with the City of Athens, said it was ready to help where it can.

During that same visit we spoke to Heineken CEO Jean-Francois van Boxmeer. At the initiative of Athenian Brewery CEO Zooullis Mina, he had visited Greece recently. His view: ‘Greece has been good for Heineken in the past 50 years, at this difficult time we should do something back for Greece’. He immediately saw the relevance of this project addressing youth unemployment and brain drain. His pledge to cover 50% of our financing needs for the first three years, meant we really got started. That same day we spoke to the HQs of Philips and Randstad, and with Bernard Wientjes, the president of the Dutch employer’s organization VNO-NCW.

These initial contacts were followed up with the CEOs of the leading Dutch companies in Greece. Without exception they confirmed their support for Orange Grove, through financial or in-kind contributions, or in the form of participation in mentoring, coaching and master classes. Being Greeks working for Dutch companies, they also gave us invaluable advice on how to set Orange Grove up.

Interamerican by way of George Kotsalos was one of the first companies to concretize its financial contribution, which was later doubled when the board of parent company Achmea visited Athens to be informed about the situation in Greece. The management of Philips Hellas was very active in looking at the best ways to contribute to Orange Grove. Philips does not only provide substantial funding, it also helps to keep energy costs low with state of the art LED lighting, its coffee machines and other appliances.

Another extremely inspiring episode was when we met with the founder of one of Greece’s most successful brands: Paul Efmorfidis of Coco-mat. Paul was working on various initiatives to get positive things moving in Greece, and to show abroad what Greece has to offer. When we told him about Orange Grove, it took him one second to decide that Coco-mat wanted to be part of the project. Coco-mat’s extremely professional staff shared its knowledge and inspiration, but also helped to fit out Orange Grove with tailor made furniture. And Coco-mat hotels host guests that come for our programme.

By May this year, the moment had come to put words into action. After all, we did not have anything yet: there was no space, no legal structure, no program, no staff, nothing. The first step was to choose an opening date. Although it would have been much easier to pick a date in 2014, we felt that we had to act now. So we decided to start in September 2013: speed of delivery over perfection. Richard Branson is quoted to have said: ‘A real entrepreneur starts before he actually feels he’s ready for it’. While this is a pretty atypical approach for an Embassy, the Embassy team led by Robert-Jan Sieben made a Herculean effort to set things into motion.

Landlords Petros D. Bitsos and Petros B. Bitsos were approached about renting the ground floor of Vassileos Konstantinou 5-7. They saw the merits of the project and were very generous in their assistance to the project.

TU Delft educated architect Joost Frijda http://gr.linkedin.com/pub/joost-frijda/0/8aa/582 of gfra www.gfra.gr/, who has worked in Greece since 1996, volunteered to monitor the construction process. In his spare time, he made a comprehensive design for Orange Grove which blew our minds, so we decided to follow Joost’s plans (link) based on the concepts of mobility and connectivity. Although time was short (contracts were signed mid-July), Joost and his team managed to make all deadlines, and stick to the –very tight- budget.

In June Theodore Klouvas (from Rhodes, Dutch mother, TU Delft) and Theofilos Papasternos (from Athens, Dutch girlfriend, Erasmus University Rotterdam) joined the core team, doubling our capacity.

Robin Slakhorst and Thierry Bouffioux, of the Rotterdam based crowdfunding platform Symbid came to Athens for a long weekend and shared their expertise on nurturing successful startups with the Orange Grove team. Symbid also sees potential in the Athens start up community and will take part in the Orange Grove programme. Symbid, currently also expanding in the US and France, is even exploring possibilities to launch a Greek branch of its equity based crowdfunding platform. The Orange Grove team, helped by Markos Komondouros of Vector Partners, also had intensive discussions with a number of Greek venture capitalists. They will share knowledge with the young entrepreneurs in Orange Grove and will sit on the fence to look for fundable startups.

Dafni Evangelou, a very talented Greek-Dutch graphic designer working in the Hague, designed Orange Grove’s logotype. She came up with a great design: not too ’fruity’ and expressing action and collaboration (or ‘mobility and connectivity’ for that matter).

By the end of June, the idea was mature enough to share it in a more formal way with our bosses in the Hague. In a meeting with the Management Board of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Hague the idea was warmly welcomed. In the same period the idea was discussed in more detail with the Greek authorities in Athens and the European Commission.

Another sponsor came on board: AirFranceKLM country manager Yann Gilbert secured 50 tickets ATH-AMS a year for Orange Grove. He also brought us into contact with world famous branding expert Peter Economides, who is a KLM ambassador and is a great ally of Orange Grove. He is not only presenting our main opening event on September 25, he has also helped us a lot with his advice on how to promote our initiative. ABN AMRO’s George Arcadis benefitted from the presence of a number of board members of the bank in June, and made sure his bank could also make a solid contribution. Kostas Maggioros of FrieslandCampina soon followed with a generous grant and a full commitment to participate in selecting, coaching and mentoring.

Athens based Filmmaker Rena Tsageou, in close cooperation of David Röling, one of the creative minds in the Embassy, made the first Orange Grove promotional video in July, featuring entrepreneurial spirits Nasia Manta and Aris Michailidis, both young Greeks that studied in the Netherlands and are now back in Greece.

Of course for us it was a big question mark how the local startup community would react. Would Orange Grove be a welcome initiative? Would it be seen as a competitor, as an odd outsider or as a future partner? Our slight unease evaporated immediately when we met with the board of the Hellenic Startup Association led by Dimitris Tsigos They were immensely supportive, gave us all types of advice and stand ready to assist. Board member Panos Zamanis is now a member of the Selection Board of Orange Grove and his company sponsors our opening reception. The same extremely collaborative attitude we encountered when we met with Dimitris Kalavros, Konstantinos Politis and Ioannis Kalavros of Found.ation , who run a great incubator and the meeting place ‘The Hub’ in the Piraeus Street area. These people focus on opportunities, not on constraints, and we are very pleased to join forces with them. Martijn Arets was the Dutch Young Entrepreneur of 2011. He was in Greece for a TEDx event in Kalamata, and stopped by in Athens to share his thoughts on supporting young entrepreneurial spirits.

After the first interviews with the Dutch press, people started to call to say that they wanted to be involved. That’s how we got into contact with Martijn Kamerman, grandson of George Tsounas from Galaxidi, one of the founders of BE Networks in Brussels. He helps Orange Grove with computer hardware, and is considering to start a Greek branch of his company, operating from Orange Grove. Similarly, Ron van Wissen, a Dutchman advising the CEO of Wind Hellas, dropped us a message. That’s how Orange Grove found its communications partner. Podimatas Audiovisual is offering great support for our opening event and other events to follow.

In July and August, once the idea of the Orange Grove got its first publicity in Greece, a large number of people contacted the Embassy, expressing their willingness to help us in one way or the other. This offer took many different forms and in all cases there was one important common element: enthusiasm! The support we got took all kinds of forms: sharing networks, helping us with the promotion of Orange Grove, participating in selection procedures, becoming part of the mentoring program, contributing to the educational program by giving workshops and in all cases sharing hands-on experience in the area of entrepreneurship and business.

In September, we were well under way, but there was still a funding gap remaining. Fortunately, the Bodossaki Foundation decided to give Orange Grove a generous grant. They may be followed by the Leventis Foundation.

A number of Athens based lawyers and accountants will be present in Orange Grove to support our start-ups. Costas Vamvakas managing director of VK Premium, offered extensive support in the selection procedure of the staff of Orange Grove and the start-ups. Yiannis Kanellopoulos, representative in Greece of the Amsterdam-based Software Improvement Group www.sig.eu introduced us to many new people and will be one of Orange Grove’s mentors. Co-lab and its daily manager Spiros Kapetanakis exchanges valuable views with us on how to run a flexible workspace and will continue cooperation with Orange Grove.

From the first moment we knew that apart from the two Dutch universities we cooperate with, we would need a reliable and experienced Greek partner. The Athens University for Economics and Business, and in this framework the ELTRUN e-business laboratory, have supported us in the promotion of Orange Grove, the preparation of the educational program and our selection procedures. Over the summer, Natasha Apostolidi worked very hard to shape up the education and mentorship program, greatly helped by Dr. Paul Althuis and Esther Blom of TU Delft, Prof. Miriam van Praag and Erik Boer of ACE (Amsterdam Centre of Entrepreneurship) and Prof. George Doukidis of the Athens University of Economics and Business.

We also met with Klaas Speller and Olga Paraskevopoulou of Appsterdam (which is setting up a Greek section at the moment), Dimitris Papaioannou of Startups and Founders, who will give one of our workshops, in which he will share his experiences, Glovo volunteers, Pilotfish the Hellenic Associations of Young Entrepreneurs (ESYNE), Michalis Stangos of ID-GC, Niki Siropoulou and Katerina Kyprianou of TEDx Academy Athens, Georgia Karountzou and many other people, who in one way or another have approached us in the last few months, all providing us with their expertise, advise and full support! We thank them all.

As of September 15, Anna-Maria Poullis and Stergiani Polyzou, have joined Orange Grove. From now on, these two very energetic women will be in charge of the daily management of the work space and the program.