John Roa is an American lifelong entrepreneur, technologist, philanthropist and business investor. He has founded and managed six companies since the age of 14. His largest company, ÄKTA, went on to be one of the fastest growing companies in America in both 2013 and 2014 and was fully acquired by Salesforce Inc. (NYSE: CRM) in September 2015.
After committing to take a hiatus from technology startups after selling ÄKTA, he founded Roa Ventures, focused on early-stage investments, projects and experiments in lifestyle companies. Initial outside investments included Ellison (luxury eyewear hand-made in Greece), The Grand Voyage (designer footwear made in Italy), an unnamed hospitality project in Beverly Hills, and others. He then focused real estate investments on the island of Mykonos, Greece.
We were happy to host John Roa, March 12th 2018 for a very interesting fireside chat. Interviewees were Mrs Mantalena Kaili, MADE Group Co CEO, Mr Yiannis Mylopoulos, Fabrika Storytelling Ideas and YET Chairman, Mr Vassiis Tsoulis.
The fireside chat took place at Sheffield University International Faculty, CITY College, were undergraduate and postgraduate students of the Business and Economics Department (BAED) participated with questions and comments to Mr Roa.
The discussion focused on John Roa’s experience in entrepreneurship and startups, creativity, skills and mindset needed. He was very open to talk about his failures and how they actually helped him.
The event was organized in cooperation with the U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Greece.
https://roa.com
https://medium.com/@johnroa/the-secret-of-getting-rich-on-startups-87958b9347da
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