“Startups create jobs and revenue for the country and act as a positive model, especially for young people, but we can not expect these companies to create the number of job positions needed in Greece” Harris Makryonitis, managing director of Endeavor Greece, said.

The Greek startup companies employ about 1,500 people in companies ranging from taxi-finder applications to social networking and takeout operations.

In 2013 144 new startups were established, compared with 65 in 2012 and 16 in 2010.

Indicative of the success of such companies was that only 30 of them attracted 42 million euros in investments in 2013 compared to a total of 500,000 euros in 2010.

15 % of these companies have good chances to become a bigger firm, Makryonitis said calling that a good performance but not enough to solve the problem of unemployment in Greece.

“Even if we created our own Silicon Valley, we couldn’t suddenly see revenue 200 million euros-worth of GDP” Emilios Markou, co-founder of Hellas Direct, said.

“It’s too early and optimistic to say that startups are the future of Greece and will turn its economy around” Nikos Moraitakis,chief executive office of Workable, said. As he explained “there is an eagerness to show positive stories about Greece after a such a difficult period”.