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On this day, in 2012, Daphne, Andreas and I met for the first time and joined forces to bring the world’s cultural heritage under one roof. Ever since on the 12th of October, we celebrate Clio Muse Tous’ birthday. Today we turn six. Shouldn’t be eight, you might wonder. Well, keep reading to find out our story.
Eight years ago, the three of us were total strangers landing on a seminar for youth entrepreneurship. Our love for culture connected us and is the glue that holds us together ever since. For the next 2 years, we would interview museums in Greece and abroad, attend any seminar on cultural heritage, design mockups, run pilots and questionnaires to our potential customers. The funny thing is that most museums we met along the way, wanted to become our clients but as we weren’t a legal entity we didn’t have the right to make contracts. So, Clio Muse Tours was officially re-born 2 years later. This time with legal rights and obligations.
What astonishes me above all is that from that day on, nearly every October comes bearing gifts: from awards, clients, strategic collaboration and, venture capitalists offers to new team members and larger headquarters. It is as if the universe is trying to validate our persistence to found and scale up this company no matter what. Some decisions were easy to make but others were harsh enough and if it wasn’t for our whole team supporting one another, we would have probably lost many opportunities.
In February 2020, when our sales were increased by 200% compared to last year’s, COVID-19 forced us to hit the breaks. However, unlike other entrepreneurs who couldn’t handle this crisis, Clio Muse Tours is still here with already new partnerships and projects in its portfolio. And I can’t thank enough our team for what they’ve done so far.
An equally big thank you goes to all of our clients, old and new, who keep trusting this team’s performance for 6 years in a row. We wouldn’t have grown without your continuous support and guidance.
In Clio Muse Tours, we stood united, we worked from our homes and we tried as hard as we could to comprehend our customers’ new needs. Then we utilized our existing software tools and expertise to transform our products and services in a way that could meet our customers’ needs in this new era of tourism. We, the founders couldn’t have done it without our committed team.
So, I consider them the greatest gift ever delivered to Clio Muse. A team of hard-working professionals from archaeology, history, business, marketing and IT backgrounds giving their best, day in and day out. To find same-minded people adopting your values and culture, sharing a common vision and skyrocketing your dreams along with theirs is the ultimate award a founder can get and today, this is what I celebrate the most.
This year, we might not be able to blow out our birthday candle all together like we normally do, but we celebrate more than ever before our values, our culture, and above all our team members because this is how we got here and this is how we’re moving forward!
