Thanos Spiliopoulos

Making a social enterprise for the homeless sustainable and a success story!

I had heard of Thanos and what he did and I had put him in my “WOW” list with the rest of the people doing WOW thing! For some amazing reason sometime later these people appear in my life almost like fate! So attending an event, Thanos was one of the speakers and he presented their video and what they did! I must say that even though I tried hard not to shed tears, well I was unsuccessful! So what does he do? Thanos and his team have established a social enterprise called, ITHACA; a mobile laundry for the homeless! Seriously how often do you find a University business major student get involved in making a social impact change? I don't know many myself!

We met at their offices and was pretty shocked by his entrepreneurial skills and his business oriented character! What do I mean? Well usually when you hear about social enterprise, an NGO with such a big and important cause, you paint a picture of sadness and passion simultaneously in every corner… meaning an office of many things that due to a heavy load of work, it is usually unorganized and it's people giving as much as they can nonstop therefore wear-out themselves and as a result at some point not being able to continue their cause! Well not ITHACA and especially NOT its founder! Thanos Spiliopoulos is an entrepreneur who has taken the sentimentalism out of the equation and taken ITHACA, an NGO, to another level! He has great foresight and deals with what they are doing as a service needed and not a charity! He has found a way to make their social enterprise sustainable! For instance, they are providing their services strictly two days a week and at specific hours! This way they can handle their emotions better and make it about the service and not about feelings! His vision is to make ITHACA viable and sustainable economically by having a big fleet of mobile laundry vans and a service that will work with or without him!

Thanos Spiliopoulos is a young entrepreneur of great future. He is charming, smart, change oriented and adapts easily, loves to travel and has travelled a great deal, kind and with great manners... I would definitely invest in him!