Damianos Vavanos

Damianos Vavanos is a Social Entrepreneur in action and determined to make a change in the world we live in. In other words, he is a dreamer and a doer. My favorite DD Tribe!

Although he has a really busy schedule while running three coding schools for refugees and unemployed people, he squeezed into his program Ideadedo interview and gave us a tiny slice of his reality. Enjoy it!

Damianos Vavanos Interview

“Do or Do Not. There is no try” – Master Yoda

Questions & Answers

Damianos said:

What’s your favorite social media network, and why?

D.V: I used to really hate using social media and I still share all aspects of my personal life on it. At this time I really like Instagram, I also believe that it will become the most used social media platform soon…so I pay a lot of attention.

How many hours per day do you use the internet?

D.V.: I’m online about 16 hours a day. The rest I sleep 🙂

How many hours per day do you use social media?

D.V.: For personal use, about 1.5 hours and I would say another hour for business purposes.

What is your job? What do you do for a living?

D.V.: I’m the co-founder and managing director of Social Hackers Academy.

What do you find appealing in social media?

D.V.: As a former marketer, I like to see other marketer’s campaigns including their visuals, copy and engagement. I always seek for best practices.

Personally, I like to see events and follow my friends who I haven’t seen in a while!

Name one thing that you dislike in social media.

D.V.: Selfies!

How has social media influenced the way you do business?

D.V.: I used to run a digital marketing business so…a lot. I think social media gave us the opportunity to market against the big multi-national companies. It has democratized marketing.

Is there something that you would like to learn more about it, regarding social media or digital marketing?

D.V.: I would like to understand copywriting better.

Which people you believe are the most influential in the social media?

D.V.: Blond women…

When was the last time you learned something new through the use of social media?

D.V.: I learn something new almost daily…so probably yesterday.

What do you do during your free time? Do you forget to check your mobile?

D.V.: Not really. I’m working on stop checking my notifications.

Can you name 3 books that you absolutely adore?

• The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
• How to fail at almost everything and still win big by Scott Adams
• Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche

What advise would you give to yourself when you were 16 years old?

D.V.: Find mentors and follow what they do.

What is your favorite quote?

D.V.: “Do or Do Not. There is no try” by Master Yoda /// Hack The Planet

So, what’s your life story in a summary?

D.V.: From a very young age, I liked to do things differently. In university, I chose to participate in classes across many fields of studies, but not the ones I was supposed to participate in.

Spent some years traveling and at some point I realized my passion for entrepreneurship. Recently I discovered Social Entrepreneurship and I feel that I’ve finally found my life’s true calling.

Get into Your Shoes

Now it is your turn to ask me one interview question. What question do you have for me?

D.V.: How can I make Google my client?

“Well, my friend, this is the one million dollar question! Frankly, many have tried to set a win-win business model with Google Giant… Many tried but few succeed. To the best of my knowledge, you must have a killer idea and then create a startup around this idea. As a side project, it would be a great business move to upload your app to their app store.

Within the first two years of running your startup, you should promote, expose and show results in public for the progressive success of your idea+startup. When I say promote, I mean globally promotion under the handling of a professional PR Agency. Of course, winning international awards can put you in the center of their interest!

Fear not the quest for originality! Most of the times, it matters more to show proven success than have a 100% original idea. Google tends to buy similar or next to similar startups or apps for reasons beyond our scope to discuss in this interview. At the moment, ideas focused on digital health, space, AI, IoT, IoMT, smart cities, smart hospitals, and education are really hot.

Find the idea, build the app, set a startup, build a community of returning and loyal users, use social media, master growth hacking, build a strong communication channel, use advanced content marketing strategy, add advertisement revenue, show yourself in high-end events, apply for university mentor programs, become an award hunter, publish a book or research, collaborate with the right businesses,  featured the best on your app, and once you get enough followers, sell. But sell big. See this example, here>>

Think as an entrepreneur but act as a businessman… After all, it all comes to that: it’s about business as usual.

If you are willing to sell an idea to Google, I would love to help you. The excitement of a hard challenge is the best adrenaline rush in the world. The question is if you dare to do it.”