How did it start?
Andreas' founding journey and Epsilon's are almost one and the same. It all started when he was two or three years old. His grandpa owned a popular Greek restaurant in Langley, BC, named the Poseidon Greek Restaurant. Every morning before he left, he would say goodbye and give him a Frisk mint and a five-dollar bill. That's when the curiosity of money began. Through that came conversations of what money does, what it can buy, and where it comes from. His grandpa worked so hard for his money, but he was his own man; he was free.
Andreas used to help him grow vegetables in the garden, work in the kitchen peeling vegetables, washing dishes, bussing tables and serving food. Sometimes he'd sit in on the meetings and get the experience to see how deals were being made and negotiated. He even used to sit down with the regulars and have dinner with them, which they loved. Andreas knew from a young age that he wanted to be in business, not fully understanding it until he started freelancing, but he was very much interested in trying to capture the idea of greatness.
"Yea, it was just a popular restaurant; it wasn't Uber, but it was its own world, and it was always packed full. They brought in belly dancers on the weekend that danced up and down the restaurant, the food, the lighting, the music, the people. It was all great. "
He lived a very latchkey childhood, and being a curious young businessman, he would often try his money-making ideas. He sold Yu-Gi-Oh cards at school, Hot Wheels and lunches, anything he could flip for a dollar.
His parents pressured him to find a job at 15 years old in high school, but he opposed it and was seriously infatuated with the idea of making his own money. So instead, he quit playing video games and flipped them on Amazon, and whatever didn't sell there, he sold on Facebook, eventually selling games for friends. Though his mother still insisted on him having a job, he did that for the summer and even into the school year. That inspired him to think of other things he could do for money growing up. It was around that time that he also got interested in design and fashion.
After high school, he ended up going to a school for fashion business and creative design. During his schooling, he realized that it wasn't the fashion that interested him; it was the business. He found out that he loved making an idea come to life, and that's why he loved the business side of it the most. The business side of it allowed for creative ideation, and it also allowed him to develop a plan and implement it into the real world.
Once school was completed, he started freelancing right away. At first, he took jobs for free to get his name out there. He worked on projects with people with no resources, people with many resources, people with bad ideas, and great ones; it gave him critical insights into what makes a great idea and what type of person has the ability to pull it off. After working with people who lack vision, even with resources, he realized that his passion was for greatness, and so after working as a freelancer, he decided that it would be a great idea to start a company like Epsilon Venture Group to work with great startups and brands. He found that many people with great ideas had no idea how to get started, and since he's worked with so many people with so many bad ideas with lots of resources, he learned how to get started, so here we are today.
The essence of Epsilon Venture Group is that we want to make something great by helping others make something great. The vision is we help a startup who has this excellent idea, and maybe they have some of the technicalities down, but through our expertise, we can find the right people and the right resources and help them plan for greatness and then execute the plan ourselves and make that greatness come to life.