The US giant’s arrival in Cyprus is a reflection of Plug and Play’s aims to create bridges between stakeholders, Seena Amidi, the Managing Partner at Plug and Play Tech Center has underlined.
Amidi was on the island to speak at the Launch Event of Plug and Play Cyprus, which took place at the Presidential Palace, and was addressed and attended by government officials, investors, established members of the local tech scene and startup founders, among other members of the local tech scene.
Presenting Plug and Play’s vision for Cyprus, which he underlined was shared with the the country’s government and other stakeholders, Amidi delved into the company’s history, noting that his family had been forced to leave Iran in 1979, joining other family members in the US.
“My grandfather had a rug store on the corner, offering tea and help to other members of our community who were just arriving in the US,” he said.
The next step on the road to what became Plug and Play was when Amidi’s father, Plug and Play Founder and CEO Saeed Amidi, built his connection with what has become known as the Lucky Building.
It was from this base that that he built on the Chamber of Commerce’s data on what international companies required by beginning to offer just that to the companies that set up within the building. This was alongside business ventures in what became Spain’s largest water company followed along with Amidi Senior becoming the first person to sell Apple computers internationally, beginning in Italy, he added.
“At the time, the (Silicon) Valley was a lot of immigrants working together, helping eachother,” Amidi noted.
He continued that, with the participation of his grandfather, a decision was taken for six investments to be made very year with choices initially made during meeting in the conference room at the rug store. These six investments became 12 a year and now number in the hundreds, Amidi added.
“In 2006 my father bought more buildings and filled them with startups,” he continued, noting that his father had, in this way, essentially created Silicon Valley in a box, with everything in one location.
“He realised that the Logitech CEO, for example, had come in two days in a row to meet a startup, so thought ‘why not create a ecosystem with corporations and startups,’” Amidi explained.
At the time, the main problem for new companies was revenue, then it became where to operate within the market, he observed, “Now the biggest issue with AI is what you can do with it. What Plug and Play does really well is helping startups find their market fit.”
He said that the company activities include helping build bridges between the various members of the ecosystem quickly, moving ahead with the ‘yes’ answers and moving past the ones that said ‘no.’
“California was ‘the centre of the universe’,” he went on to note, pointing at that at one point in time, “90% of startup funding involved companies located on the same road. Now, less than 50% of the funding is in Calfornia.”
International investors now play a bigger role and Plug and Play began looking for new and less competitive markets for investments.
“We realised that maybe California is not the centre of the universe afterall and so started going international with offices in Singapore and Stuttgart,” he explained.
Moving to Europe himself to start the international expansion, Amidi pointed out that he had quickly relaised that qach country had a different culture to adapt to, with some even having different cultures within the same country.
He underlined the importance of adapting, of helping startups overcome hurdles and, very importantly, going to where the talent is.
“Everyone who starts a company is a little crazy, they have to be. But they also need to keep stray and work,” Amidi underlined, going on to note that he had already encountered a lot of entrepreneurs and companies in Cyprus and was looking forward to Plug and Play helping them work towards their goals faster.
He also highlighted the need for stakeholders, including the government to work together for the ecosystem to thrivPly and Play had three offices when it started out in Europe in 2018 and now had over 20, Amidi said that the company expected to do well in and further expand in Cyprus too.
“Our goal as Plug and Play is to play a small part in lowering hurdles and building a bridge to all locations, towarding raising the next round, which is the biggest hurdle for startups,” he concluded, noting that the company would, among other things, help startups prove, from the start, that they were capable of being international.
