A journey to learn more about our Business Developer, Christos Mansinakis.

His motto: Reach more than your targets and treat your customers like lifetime partners.

Since his early childhood, Christos grew up surrounded by many people. His parents were the happy owners of a Greek restaurant on the outskirts of Brussels. From that moment on, he understood that what unites people are relationships and smiles.

He admits that “the easy way would have been to inherit everything from my father and continue a tradition that had lasted for 2 generations, but I chose a different path. Meeting people from different backgrounds, and different cultures gave me a lot of perspectives. I have always loved listening to people and understanding what they tell me from another perspective. When you listen, you understand the needs, and for every need, there is a solution.”

A happy childhood

“Ι lived at a time when children still tore their clothes and shoes playing together in the street. We were at the crossroads of a new world, computers and the internet were coming into our homes, and very quickly more digital solutions and different ways of doing things were emerging in the face of habits that had been ingrained for years. Suddenly, everything started to go faster, and I understood that opportunities would come to me.
“I was playing soccer at the highest level, but I realized that I would not make a difference. At the same time, I did not see myself studying, so I decided to go to work, full of confidence in myself following the advice of my father: There are no limits, think of always improving, learning, and growing in your career.
This lack of academic background that I thought would hold me back always intrigued and interested my superiors.”

First station: Casino

“Not wanting to continue my studies after 1 year of public relations, and spending not even 1 day without work, I joined the casino as a croupier. Αgain, the desire to work with people in an extreme environment was the biggest motivation. This was an opportunity to network, listen, and talk with people from different backgrounds.”

It was meant to be

“Life is made up of meetings and opportunities. My parents always had their restaurant and I helped them occasionally. One day a client asked me to recommend him wine for him and his wife. I asked him what he was going to order, the specialty was lamb, I knew that Syrah would go well with that and that this was one of the only good wines we had on the menu. When I gave the wine order to my father, he told me that this customer always drinks the house wine in half-liter and that I had made a mistake. Well, eventually, I had made no mistake. Instead, the customer asked me if I would want to become a sales representative in his company. I told him that I was not a salesman but a croupier, and answered back that I was more a salesman than anything else. I had just seized the opportunity of my life!
His company was thriving and I had no experience. We started this new project from scratch, and three years later we had taken 10% of the market share. Only when I left for the next job did I understand the baggage he had given me.”

eHealth domain

“I was watching all these start-up stories and I wanted to be part of it. Developing relationships and business, and managing key clients as well as having exponential business development attracted me strongly. I was entering for the first time the world of health. Online medical diaries were the first medical product I got in touch with. They were launched in Belgium by a visionary founder and the sales manager who would make me what I am today.
Again starting from scratch (or almost), I had one goal: to conquer the market with a more dynamic approach, less classical still led by the basics I had learned before.
Going from Relationship Manager to Key Account Manager was a huge success and I was able to learn how to sell a SaaS, to understand the logic of pricing, acquisition, and, of course, partnership… Because alone we go faster but together we go further.
Again, meeting people different from me all day long and improving their daily lives with efficient solutions were all the more satisfying.
After 5 years, I had become an expert in the world of medical diaries, I had a great network with health professionals, understood what a SaaS is in the world of e-health, and wanted to share my knowledge in a new project with more responsibilities.”

The chronicle of the great acquaintance

“At that time, a new opportunity came to me, a crazy project in orthopedics, where the mission was the development and the release to the market of 5 products and services that followed one another.

At that time, I was thinking a lot about my family, projects abroad, and having a child had taken over my career, so I chose to go and help a start-up in a different sector; renewable energy. An interesting project where I brought a commercial structure and the goals were to reach 1 million euros as soon as possible, meaning to increase the turnover by more than 500%.

Αt 80% of the goal, I had the chance to meet the CEO of Innovation Sprint via a reference and despite my desire to settle down, he offered me such a challenge that I could not refuse it.
Why? After a brief coffee with Sofoklis Kyriazakos, I recognized this entrepreneur, in love with his project, down to earth but with a clear vision.
Humanly speaking, I was seduced. The desire to return to my first love and to medical technologies was still there. Once I saw the product and services, I could see the potential of our SaaS and PaaS. A true innovation combining market need and industry demand. When these two demands come together, it can only work.“

Today

“Today, we can reach out to everyone in the healthcare domain: Hospitals, Medical Centers, Clinical Trial Centers, Pharmas, Mutual Insurance, and Doctors. We improve the patients’ experience, we involve them in their treatment and above all, we provide them with guidance on what they should do once they leave the hospital. We allow clinical studies to take into account the real parameters of life (mood, activity, nutrients, fluids, medications, etc.) to obtain evidence that is much closer to reality. The doctors do really follow their patients in real time.
We, at Innovation Sprint, put the technology at the disposal of health while having the necessary structure to be customizable. Our product, Healthentia, is CE marked and therefore we are really an exception among the 350k medical and wellbeing apps on the market. I am sure that this is exactly the right time to offer our solutions to this difficult -but rapidly developing- domain. Everything is in place for great success and I am very happy to share my experience and the company’s values.
Ready to Sprint? More than ever!“