Today on the top floor, we're joined by a visionary entrepreneur and global business leader with over 23 years of high impact experience in executive and senior leadership roles. He has navigated the complexities of B2B markets across multiple continents from the Middle East to the Americas. Known for his ability to unlock new revenue streams and lead teams to success, he has consistently pushed the boundaries of what's possible, especially in industries like artificial intelligence, tech commerce and digital media. As the co-founder and CEO of Superbow, he continues to set new standards in business development, strategy and innovation. His blend of deep technical knowledge and strong leadership makes him forced to be reckoned with in today's competitive landscape. In this episode of the top floor, we'll delve into his approach to entrepreneurship, his experiences in leading teams and his thoughts of what it takes to thrive as an entrepreneur in today's ever-changing world. Dimitri Papazisis, a warm welcome to the top floor. Thanks for having me Simon. I'm excited to be here. What an intro, right? I almost got convinced to actually buying myself. Thank you very much for having me. Absolute pleasure. To kick off, Dimitri, I want to look at your journey to date. What inspired you to venture into entrepreneurship, especially after, if you look at your LinkedIn profile, you've had several senior corporate roles. Why the change? Very good question. I've always been driven by the desire to create and innovate. And while working, you're right, while working in various corporate roles, it gave me valuable insights and experiences. I felt it was kind of a ceiling to how much impact I could have within the constraints of traditional business structures. Anyhow, regardless the industry, entrepreneurship is offering me, actually, it offered me the opportunity to take ownership of my own ideas and fully execute them in ways that could, hopefully, in ways that could disrupt industries. It was more of a sense of the ability to control my own destiny and build something from the ground up and watch it scale wide. It's what ultimately pushed me to entrepreneurship. It's a great take at that in the fact that you wanted to take control of your life. Not a big corporate. And I get that. I've had a similar experience. But now looking at your early experiences and sales and business development, how did you shape your approach in leading companies like Superbone? Well, listen, sales and business development are the foundation. They really taught me that the core of every single business, no matter how sophisticated, is the ability to connect with people. So whether that's customers or partners or team members, this is the essence, the ability of connect with people. It's about understanding the needs, creating the value and delivering the solutions. So those lessons, frankly speaking, have been, for me, they have been fundamental to, also, when it comes to my role in Superbone, right? So, because we do focus heavily on building very, very strong relationships. We would be very customer-centered to tell you the truth. So just to make it sure, ensuring actually that our innovations can meet the real market needs. It is very, very tricky part. So my sales background keeps me grounded in the importance of communication and execution. And with that focus on customer centricity, it's something I particularly enjoy looking at and studying and working with clients on. I mean, starting from a point of being customer-centric, that's half the battle, because if you're not and you're just trying to impose your processes or the way you do things on your customers, you're just going to get pushback. So it's great to hear the focus that you've got in Superbone working from a customer-centric approach. But obviously, as you've grown the business and as you come through this journey, as an entrepreneur, you face challenges. Can you share with the audience today a particular moment in your career where you faced a significant hurt? And how did you overcome it? Well, one of the biggest hurdles I faced was during the early stages of scaling Superbone. So we had a product that was very innovative. But the market was still catching up to the idea of digital transformation. They were not even into the gen AI in practical applications. You know, embedding your innovative idea into an organization where embedding AI today is a very big bet. So there was skepticism and, you know, it's a bootstrap company. We're just raising our series A right now, but we've been bootstrapping since the inception of Superbone. So we overcame it by staying persistent and focusing on educating the market. So we doubled down on customer success stories, proving our value through various POCs and case studies, trying to prove our value through, you know, all these case studies and then the pilot. So you say it took time. But persistence and adaptability were always the foundation, actually not were always the key, right? So you have to believe in your vision, even when others don't see it yet. And so the challenge in that was communicating that to your customers and getting them to buy into it or educating the market actually, right, to persisting and educating the market. We got very lucky with the, by the end of 2022, there was a worldwide buzz and boom about JNAI with the introduction of open AI in the world, right? So for us, it was like, it was one of those very lucky moments that we were saying, you know, we said, hey, this is a fantastic buzz. It's something that will help us and keep, you know, until now Simon, we keep educating the market. If you think that the market is ready or not true enough to embed JNAI, you know, it's not, it's all not true enough. And even the ones who believe they do it, they don't do it correctly. They need to be data mature companies. They need to have the proper data architecture and most of them are not, but just use it as a buzzword. But, you know, gradually they will reach that point. So, I mean, interestingly enough, when I talk to, you know, friends, colleagues, customers about AI, some of them, some of them are almost saying, oh, it's all old hat now and it's, we're waiting for the next thing to come along. Because everybody's sort of, I think, still, as you quite correctly focused on Dimitri, the need to learn about how to use AI properly to get the maximum out of it. And I think a lot of people are still going to chat GDP, throwing something in their outcomes and the way they go. How do you maintain the resilience and adaptability in such a rapidly evolving business environment, you know, especially when we look at AI and digital media? How do you, how do you do that in Superbone? It's not how I do that in Superbone. I do that all of my life, right? So, you know, staying resilient comes from having a very strong purpose and being adaptable by always learning. So, in industries just like AI, things move very fast on an exponential rate. So, if you're not staying ahead, you're definitely falling behind. So, I do maintain, you know, my resilience by keeping and focusing, I mean, keeping my drone term vision while being flexible in the short term, without being myopic. If something doesn't work, I mean, this is something we're doing Superbone phenomenally. If something doesn't work, we pivot. But we never lose sight of our broader goals. So, I also, you know, make sure I surround myself with people who are definitely smarter than me, with a diverse theme that brings different perspectives. You know, something that also helps us stay innovative and adaptable in this rapidly changing. If not the world, I'm going to say ecosystem. It's exponential, the rate is exponential. Yeah, that old adage from Henry Ford, you know, if you have the ability to recognize ability, you'll be successful. And it's refreshing to hear that you're, you know, as a CEO and a leader, that you like to get people around you that are more capable, more qualified, whatever it is to grow your business, which is great to hear. And I just want to focus on that, because you've let diverse teams across different cultures and geographies, you know, what strategies have you found effective in emotivating and aligning those teams towards a common goal of vision? Well, the key is to foster a sense of ownership and a shared purpose. And when people feel like they are part of something, of something bigger than themselves, they are naturally motivated. So, you know, I still have to focus on very clear communication, making sure that every single one understands not just what we're doing, but why we're doing it. So, empowerment is very critical, if I say, okay, it's very critical. I believe in giving my team with the autonomy to make decisions and take risks. While we, you know, asks, you know, the whole C-suite, we ensure that, you know, we give them the resources they need in order to succeed. It's also about respect, respect for diverse perspectives, regardless of culture, experiences of geography, is very vital in building and aligning team. So, yes, we hire stutter people, we hire stars, and we hire people mainly with great character. This is very important, you know, human resources departments, they tend to oversee that. They just focus on skill. Skill is necessary, but skill is something that you can also develop along the way. Carter, unfortunately, you don't have anything to develop your character, you know, this is the most you can get, and this is as good as gets. Yeah, I mean, I find that absolutely fascinating, because, you know, as you quite rightly say, a lot of corporates tend to focus on the classic competencies, you know, have you got the qualifications to do the job, but you're actually looking at something slightly different. And I find, again, that's very refreshing, this focus on character. And, you know, you've said some key words already, you know, respect in powering people. What is and how important for you, when you approach team building of the qualities and of these individuals, and how do you prioritize when assembling a high performance team? So, let's look at simple bow. You have the concept, you had a vision of what you want to do, that you knew you needed some technical capabilities around there, but how did you prioritize those qualities that you just discussed? Yeah, very, very important question. Well, we have another question. Well, I prioritize diversity of, you know, fun resilience and passion. I look for people, again, with great character, character, or, well, not only skills, but also very curious, and adaptable, curious. Curious is a big play word here, right? In today's world, industries, you know, that's very well, they should very quickly. So having a team that can be flexible enough to people to learn on the fly is very crucial. Superverse courting is fantastic. They're phenomenal. They do have these. I also, I also, as I said, the empathy people who can work well with other people, understand different viewpoints. They can really collaborate a lot more, a lot more effectively at the end of the day. So teamwork is more about synergy than individual charisma or brilliance. So I focus on creating a culture where everyone's strengths are amplified through collaboration. I think it's key. And so if you combine all these, the character with the curiosity that actually never keeps the character, you end up with a fantastic diversified plateau of characters of talented, skillful people with great character. Yeah, I can fully endorse that approach. And look, you know, in this stage, when I invite people in to sit around the table, I look at four things, which is authenticity as a leader, the ability to grow and the want to grow, not just themselves, but also their business, their vulnerability. And the willingness to share wisdom, but in a fun way. You know, if you've got those sort of qualities around the table, and everybody's focused on the vision, it becomes a very, very powerful environment. And I can see that. So let's talk about innovation and growth in Super Bowl. You know, it's innovation has clearly, you know, been at the core of many of the adventures. How do you identify growth opportunities and balance innovation and operational efficiency to take advantage of those opportunities? Well, innovation for the sake of innovation doesn't work. So the key is actually to identify where innovation can solve real problems. I keep my ear close to the ground talking to customers, studying markets, the market trends, and constantly asking what's next. So at Super Bowl, we are always, I think this is like a constant for us. We're always thinking about the next wave of technology, but we ensure that each innovation is tied to a clear, very clear business case. Most of the R&D divisions or companies that innovate, they tend to focus on the R&D and the innovation, like, you know, exclusively without tiring it with, with, you have to tie it to a clear business case. So balancing innovation with operational efficiency, it really comes down to discipline. If you ask me, it comes down to discipline. So we experiment, but we also, you know, we do experiment constantly. But we also keep a very close eye on our resources of our people to ensure that innovation aligns very well with our broader goals. Okay. So, you know, Super Bowl focuses on cutting edge technology, you've highlighted that like generative AI. And I know when we've, I look more than that. So Gen AIM, LLMs are pretty much mainstream for Super Bowl. We are in VA, Gen AI, you know, doing virtual employees, not even a monolithic way. We're talking about purely autonomous, non-monolithic AI agents. So it's really the next big thing. It's going to be here, like, in full demand in the next couple of years. Wow. And so with that sort of visionary thought process that's going through the business, how do you stay ahead of the curve in terms of technological advancements? And sort of what excites you most about the future of the tech, particularly with Super Bowl? Well, I think as I said before, we, you know, we foster a culture of continuous learning and exploration, right? So we're constantly testing new ideas, partnering with researchers and staying connected to the tech community, I mean, on a global scale. So what excites me most about the future of tech is the absolute democratization of creativity and problem-solving. And we are getting that. So technologies like Gen AIM, if not already, the will and power people to do a lot more with less, allowing basically very small teams and individuals to create at a scale previously, reserved only for very large enterprises. So you're going, we're going to experience in our lifetime companies of 10 or 15 or 25 people, while having valuation of $500 billion. So it's possible. So the potential for unlocking human creativity through AI is really incredible. And we're just scratching the surface. Wow. Wow. So what qualities and let's look at this entrepreneurial spirit that that Demetri has. What qualities do you believe this doing is a successful entrepreneur from those who struggle? Sorry for my life. It's a very, it's a very difficult question. I think everyone has, you know, his own character. But for me, you know, my humble opinion is that successful entrepreneurs are resilient, are adaptable, and they have an insatiable curiosity. I mentioned curiosity before. So resilience helps you push through inevitable setbacks, while adaptability allows you to being flexible and be evil. When things, let's just say don't go as planned, right? Curiosity again drives you to continuously learn and innovate. So another critical quality is self-awareness, you know, knowing exactly your strengths and weaknesses, and surrounding yourself with people who complement you, who can offer and contribute and fill in your gaps. So if not smarter, at least they need to complement what you cannot do. This has to be clear for entrepreneur. And of course, my favorite word for entrepreneur is risk. Then you have to take the risk. There's no other way you need to take the risk. You need to be a risk state area. Of course you need to be you stay curious and stuff, but you need to take the risk. Take it. When we first met, you explained to me how Super Bo is set up, based here in Dubai, but you've got teams all over the world sort of contributing in various aspects. How important is having this strong network? And how has your global perspective helped you achieve success across the different markets that you're operating in? Well, it's a strong network is invaluable, right? So they say your network is your network. So your network is your support system, right? So your sounding board and often your positive, very new opportunities. So my global perspective has been instrumental in understanding different markets. I was always very good at this. So each and every region has its own culture, business practices, and customer preferences. So by by immersing myself in different markets and building very strong local partnerships, I was always able and I'm still able to expand successfully across geographies. As I said, you can also imagine, we were talking about how you build the team internally. It's the same philosophy applies when you build your network externally. So you need diverse team of partners to help you localize your offering and your understanding. Because the understanding from north to east or from west to east or from north to south is it can be very, very different, very different. So look, for any aspiring entrepreneur listening into this podcast, given your extensive experience, what advice would you offer to someone looking to start their own business today? I think we are living in very challenging times. But my advice stage is saying my biggest advice is to stay focused on the customer, understand their their pain points, deeply understand deeply their pain points and build solutions that genuinely address those needs. Don't just build for the sake of building, right? Don't get distracted by trends unless they align with your vision. So also don't underestimate the importance of execution. So ideas are only as good as your ability to bring them to life. And many companies tend to forget that. It's very important. I mean, you've hit the nail on the head around the ideas because I meet people who have some great ideas, some really fantastic ideas, but their ability to bring them to life often is limited because of their network and who they can reach out for and the willingness or lack of to take a risk to make that idea come together. How should, sorry, but they also get distracted from, you know, trends, what's going on. They don't really do the reality check to see they align with their vision. It's very important. You know, you can hear of a dozen creating fantastic ideas on a daily basis, but you still need to question yourself. Is this for me? Is this going somewhere? Is this aligned with our own vision in this company? Yes or no? So you're damn, it's a reality check. And yes, because if you don't do that, of course, it's a touch of the king's king's clothes, isn't it? You're going down thinking everything's wonderful. And of course, there comes a point where everybody says, "No, it's not." And if you haven't had that reality check with your network, with those around who you can trust, with the team that you've built up, you're asking to set yourself up for failure, sadly. So how should entrepreneurs prepare themselves for the inevitable ups and downs of that journey, the entrepreneurial journey? Well, you know, you have to mentally prepare for the long haul. Entrepreneurship is a marathon. It's not a sprint, right? So you need to be ready. So you're going to be in this race for quite some time. Surround yourself with you need to surround yourself and establish a support system, this how I call it, right? So support system, whether it's, you know, mentors, friends, family, peers, who can really help you doing tough times. It's very important, even mentally, right? So, and also, I say that to my, my partner many times, you also need to celebrate the very small wings along the way. And of course, never lose sight of why you started this in the first place. So passion and persistence are your greatest assets here. Interesting, interesting. So, yeah, let's talk about Superbow looking forward. What's next for you and Superbow? And perhaps it might be helpful if you just give a brief overview of what Superbow does to the audience. What Superbow is, is an agent in AI companies. So we started all the way from AI. We went all the way to the deep down of AI. We moved to play gender AI, which is not here yet, but it's going to come, but we have to stay ahead of the market, building, you know, virtual employees, not in a monolithic way. So eventually Superbow will be offering the possibility to do it yourself, your own virtual employee with the skill set that you want, build it, and let him do the job of thousands of people. At Superbow, we are continuing to push the boundaries of what's possible with gen AI and agenting AI. We're really working on several exciting projects that will, well, basically they will help democratize the access to AI, driven, creative tools, the marketplace. We call it a virtual employee marketplace, empowering all the way from individuals to very large enterprises. So we're also exploring how AI can revolutionize other industries, like, you know, all the way from education to entertainment, to, you know, airport, telecos, insurance, medical. There's, actually, there's no limitation. And that's why we are, we're industry agnostic, because we do believe that there is a successful way to embed AI in every single organization. Regardless, if we're talking about a small obstacle office or if we're talking about a humongous, large enterprise, there is a way. It's not the same way, but there is a way. Interesting. So are you allowed to talk about any exciting projects or ventures that are on the horizon for Superbow that can keep our interest with you? The most I can say right now is that we are building something phenomenal in terms of delivering outstanding and outstanding idea, outstanding idea of how virtual employee will be able to be super productive. And at the same time, you know, killing jobs in the market will come with the creation of new jobs in the market. So you're going to be amazed to see people who were probably, you know, probably supervising a team today that would be supervising a set of virtual employees. I know this glows more in terms of clients, but I can tell you that we have reached successful VA genetic AI era in Superbow, and we're moving a full portal right now to the virtual employees, which is, again, part of VA genetic. So we're staying ahead of the market, as much as we can. We innovate. We create ideas. We test ourselves. We talk a lot. We communicate. I think we have a very good communication and a lot of, you know, we also, we have been very lucky by having the chance to test our ideas along the way in commercializing the idea. So every single step of our innovation, every single face of our innovation has been commercialized. It means it doesn't mean that you make the money, we're not revenue centric right now. It means that you vet your process in real life with millions of users using your product. It's very, very important for any company. It's a reality check. Wow, sounds exciting. So to wrap up, if you could sum up your entrepreneurial philosophy to meet me in one sentence, what would it be? Take risks, remain curious, and never stop innovating while focusing on solving real problems. Nice. Take risks. Take risks and remain curious. And remain curious. I love that. I think that's great. I think that's great. Dimitri, it's been a real pleasure talking to you and thank you for finding the time to come and visit the top floor and share your wisdom. I look forward to seeing Superbow grow and see how it's really going to impact positively, I think, by the sounds of the marketplace. And look forward to inviting you back perhaps in six to tell up 12 months' time. You can tell us what's happening. For a certain time, thanks so much for having me Simon. It was great. Absolute pleasure, absolute pleasure.
