Our Story
The initiative started, in the last days of 2012, when some students of TUC started some meetups inside the university called ‘TUC Venture’ discussing subjects around innovation & entrepreneurship.
Youth Entrepreneurship Club, has registered as a legal entity in 2015. The founding team were three students in Chania being inspired from the academic foundations abroad, believed that greek universities can change and show the way to creation, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Their mission was to highlight new opportunities for young people that could act on the social environment of economical crisis in Greece, with aim to reverse the negativity, pessimism and immigration. The obstacles were many, but with faith and vision the team started to grow up, to persuade and being developed.
In 2016, the organisation started to run acts in the region of Crete.
In 2017 takes national and european dimensions, with acts in cities and academic foundations in the region of Greece. As well as participating in Erasmus+ , which means bringing young people from abroad in Greece and trying to broaden their horizons and develop organisation’s network.
Till 2017 the organisation counts more than 100 volunteers, through its 30 actions has direct impact to 3,000 people and reflection to more than 100,000.
In 2017, the organization took national and European dimensions, with actions taking place in cities and academic foundations across regions of Greece, as well as participating in Erasmus+ projects, such as bringing young people from abroad to Greece and trying to broaden their horizons whilst developing the organization’s network. The massive annual event of the organization, Startup Europe Week Crete, took place in three Cretan perfectures – Chania, Rethymno, and Heraklion.
In 2018, YEC’s impact kept growing. The first YEC Hubs were born in Thessaloniki, Rethymno, and Heraklion, aiming to develop the entrepreneurial spirit within local communities and build a strong network of entrepreneurship and innovation enthusiasts. Startup Europe Week Crete (SEW Crete) took place in four Cretan cities -Chania, Rethymno, Heraklion, and Agios Nikolaos.
In 2019, two more YEC Hubs were established in Tripolis and Rhodes. YEC’s impact kept growing, reaching a peak, by having monthly local actions taking place in 6 Greek cities and having the SEW Crete taking place in four Cities of Crete (Chania, Rethymno, Heraklion, and Lasith).
2020 was a year that changed everything, including the operations of the Youth Entrepreneurship Club. The digital era of the organization had just started. All YEC’s and YEC Hubs’ actions turned online and its big annual event had a completely new form and direction. Startup Greece Week, a 100% online initiative took place for 7 consecutive days with 21 workshops, 14 sessions, and a startup contest, organized by the 6 established YEC Hubs (Chania, Rethymno, Heraklion, Thessaloniki, Tripolis, and Rhodes) and 4 more teams from the Greek cities of Kalamata, Xanthi, Ioannina, and Patras. After the event’s huge success, two more YEC Hubs were established in Kalamata, and Corfu and local activities by YEC Hubs continued online.
Since our formation, we have supported innovation and communities, by uniting them through sport activities and cross border cooperation through EU Funded Projects
