Five Questions with Chris Joannou

About Chris Joannou

Chris is the founder of DreamPushers; the APAC Director for Startup Grind, the world’s largest startup community; and the Head of International Marketing for Draper Startup House, a global hotel chain for entrepreneurs). He has a background in corporate innovation, B2B business development, brand strategy, and design.

Five questions with Chris

1. How did you get to where you are today?

Hard work. There have certainly been no short cuts. I would also say that in retrospect every of every one of those tough times I have faced did give me the learning for future success.

2. What advice would you have for someone looking to get into your space? Alternatively, what advice should they ignore?

At the moment I work primarily as a consultant to help global startup communities such as Draper Startup House, Startup Grind and Startupbootcamp scale or make more money. I think its a matter of building a community around your own business, which I think is good practice anyway.
You can simply start by getting active in your own local ecosystem, making it known that you want to play a role and consistently adding value until it can no longer go unnoticed.

3. What have you learned about building a great company culture?

It starts with defining a bold mission and defining your values. Write them down and add them to your site. These values act as a guide as to who you are serving and let people know whether your company is a good fit for them. Do not try and serve everyone.

4. What excites you about the future of technology?

The idea that we can recapture some of our time and work less. That we can reverse the damage of we have done to our planet and live in harmony! Something like Utopia or a Beatles song!

5. One habit that has the most impact on your life

Wish I could say meditation but probably drinking copious amounts of caffeine. Not a great habit but the verdict is still out.

Bonus: One important truth that few people agree with you on?

Entrepreneurs should think community first. It doesn’t get any leaner than a blog and helpful information for your audience to see if there is enough interest before thinking about an MVP.

Extra bonus: One cool thing / The latest thing you’re into

Empowering artists. It is the next iteration of DREAMPUSHERS. I think they are underrepresented and they do a lot of client work because they simply cannot make enough money doing what they love and I hope to solve that. I think it is also something that fits nicely into what I am working on – it is empowering a community of entrepreneurs and they can stay with us when they travel.