In this second part of last week article on last year winners of the Cyprus Entrepreneurship Competition 2020, we will talk about the CyEC acceleration program and the key takeaways as seen by Petros Djakouris, team member and co-founder of the startup company called BeHive, which specializes in helping students and young professionals develop their personal brand in order to find jobs and career opportunities in China.

BeHive secured the second place in last year CyEC2020, after completing the 2 months acceleration program that helped the startup transform from an offline community into a digital 1 stop platform. Despite the challenges presented due to Covid19, and team members being in different parts of the world, BeHive managed to take full advantage of the opportunities presented to them through the CyEC 2020. Petros Djakouris, the company’s CEO, described the acceleration program of the competition as a steppingstone in their business development by getting to know better the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Cyprus.

According to him, what prompted the decision to participate, is their prior experience and collaboration with the C4E. Having said that Petros, felt that this will be a well-organized program with the highest standard that will help them "learn and take BeHive to the next level" by meeting, through the competition, "some of the best educators and investors in Cyprus". In his opinion the C4E is at the forefront of the startup scene in Cyprus with the large mentoring network that offers great networking opportunities, through which, BeHive got valuable feedback with practical and realistic outlook on the solution the team was working on.

In his interview for the C4E, Petros highlighted the importance of the skills gained from the workshops such as marketing skills, strategic thinking, structuring and perfecting the marketing pitch and gaining "different perspective of how to get things done". According to him the best aspect of the program was the high level of professionalism, the personal relationship and the level of assistance and accommodation by the team’s assigned mentors.

Petro’s two part advice to everyone who has an inquisitive and entrepreneurial mindset is:
(1) to find a mentor or a role model to follow in their footsteps, this will give people an idea of what kind of person they want to be or what kind of a business they want to run, and to
(2) "start executing out" but always to be "genuine in your attempt to solve a problem in the society or for someone".

So if you want to experience Petros and Maria’s journey or if you believe your idea has the potential to become the next Malloc or BeHive, don’t wait, submit your idea with your team today to enter the Cyprus Entrepreneurship Competition 2021.

Submission of Executive Summaries: Monday 20 September 2021

To learn more about BeHive and the people behind it, visit: Behive Go - BeHive.