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You either get an epic story or an epic outcome.
I’m Christos – an Oxford PhD and ex-ETH Zurich scientist turned deep-tech founder in Switzerland. My day job is to build and scale next-generation energy storage ventures across Europe and China. Alongside this, I dedicate my work to helping younger generations and ambitious minds translate their expertise into capital, scalable ventures and ownership. Through real-world experience in energy storage, commercialisation and startup building, I guide experts from the lab to launch, from career confusion to clarity and from employee mindset to ownership and entrepreneurial execution.
I envision to build a parallel system to traditional education that focuses on ownership, real-world value creation, financial literacy and leadership through entrepreneurship. Instead of teaching “how to become employable,” I envision a system we teach how to become valuable and build what matters, a world where talent doesn’t wait decades to realize its value – but is trained from childhood to build, lead and own.
My parents, a self-made nurse and a self-made blue-collar worker taught me the values of resilience, determination and resourcefulness. They worked with their hands. I work with ideas. But what unites us is the same drive: to build something better, against the odds.
Before I ever stepped into a lab, I was on the court. I wasn’t the best student growing up – I was chasing a different dream. I played volleyball at the national level for Greece, both indoor and beach, and even became a Balkan and European Beach Volleyball Champion. Most of my friends and teammates thought that was my path – that I’d become a professional athlete, and that was it. But deep down, I knew I had something to prove – not just to them, but to myself.
Education became my way of creating options — not to chase titles, but to gain leverage. I studied Materials Science at the University of Patras, my homecity, and completed my thesis at the Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences (ICE-HT), part of the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH). That’s where I published my first peer-reviewed article and began presenting my work at national and international conferences — a defining moment that opened the door to a global academic journey.
I went on to pursue a PhD at the University of Oxford, where I contributed to high-impact, funded projects and earned competitive grants, including Marie Curie Fellowship placements and graduate scholarships from St Edmund Hall, my university college at the time. Afterwards, I moved to Switzerland for a postdoctoral position at ETH Zurich and eventually led research teams at the University of Zurich, where I also taught as a lecturer.
But despite the accolades and academic success, I found myself feeling deeply undervalued and underpaid — stuck in a system that counted papers, not value. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the cracks became impossible to ignore.
At the same time, I watched my parents — after a lifetime of hard work — still struggle financially, with little to show for the sacrifices they made. That hit me hard. It forced me to ask bigger questions — not just about my own future, but about how I could use my knowledge and drive to build something that mattered. Something that could create value, not just for me, but for the people around me and beyond.
I realized I wasn’t building something I owned — I was renting my potential out to institutions that couldn’t see the full picture. So, I made the leap. I left academia behind to pursue what I always knew I was capable of: building, leading, and owning something of my own.
The decision to leave academia didn’t come with a safety net. It was the middle of COVID, and my savings weren’t enough to go all-in from day one. So, I asked myself a simple question: how can I become more competitive in the marketplace — not just as a scientist, but as a builder?
I committed to reinventing myself. I learned German and French — the official languages of Switzerland — and began researching every company in the country remotely related to my field. I sent unsolicited applications, but with one clear condition: I wouldn’t just work for a salary — I wanted to work for equity. I was determined to stop renting my time and start owning outcomes.
Eventually, luck met preparation. I connected with a startup at its earliest stages — and I knew this was my chance to build something from the ground up. I threw myself in. I brought my years of cultivated academic and industrial network, secured prestigious partners, built a team, and led the entire R&D strategy.
The lessons came fast and unforgiving. I learned that building isn't just about brilliant ideas — it's about resilience when those ideas crash against reality. I learned that equity without execution is worthless, that networks are only as strong as the value you bring to them, and that timing can make or break even the most promising ventures.
But most importantly, I learned that failure isn't the opposite of success — it's the raw material for it. Each setback taught me something I couldn't have learned any other way. I absorbed every lesson, catalogued every mistake, and start over with a clearer vision.
Today, that knowledge has become a holding company. We've expanded across multiple countries in Europe, each market teaching us new ways to adapt.
The fragments of what I've learned have become something that didn't exist before. The game has changed, but the hunger remains the same.
Whether this becomes the epic outcome I've always chased, or just another chapter in a longer story — that remains to be written. But I've learned that the outcome matters less than the pursuit itself. The real victory isn't in the destination; it's in refusing to stop moving toward it.
