AUTHOR: MARIA CHRONOPOULOU | PHOTOGRAPHY: VASILIS KOUROUPIS
– Yiannis, what is Clio Muse?
– Clio Muse is a platform, through which distinguished professionals from the field of Arts and Culture have the opportunity to create a thematic tour. This component differentiates it from other tour applications, mainly because of the quality of its content and its diverse subject matter. We attach great importance to the content and the educational message that is communicated, so there is always a scenario behind a guided tour. Through Clio, people who have a specialized knowledge of a subject – whether through their professional status or through their hobbies – are being guided by us to build a product for the global tourism market. The topics cover a wide range, from historical and archaeological to gastronomic.
– How did the idea come about?
– At an entrepreneurship seminar, where all three of us were there by chance, Andreas mentioned his concern about the lack of a platform that brings together the World Cultural Heritage. Each of us considered this idea a challenge, for our own reasons. Andreas is an art conservator, Daphne’s mother is a painter, so she has been around the field of arts since an early age and I have always been thrilled with the creation of technology from which someone could learn. So I thought it was a very good opportunity to create technology that would really serve people. And so we started. At first we did not know anything, the only thing we had in mind was the problem. Imagine that we felt in an inferior position compared to the other groups, because the rest had a certain idea, while we did not. Later on, there were successes, but also several coincidences.
– What kind of coincidences?
– When we met with Andreas and Daphne, we were strangers. Andreas is from Preveza, I am from Patras and Daphne is from Athens. And all three of us just met in Athens at this seminar. After we had started, the first week we were searching a name for our team. We decided to call it Clio Muse, at the suggestion of Andrea’s aunt. Needless to say, Andrea’s aunt was the philology teacher I had in Junior High School, who in the history lesson analyzed all the social and political happenings and so we learned, without much effort. Eventually, I found myself working with her nephew, creating a platform that tells stories and tries to educate you. Creepy!
– Fantastic! What are the stories that have the greatest response?
– Mythological tours have huge success. In our own guided tours, every point of interest, every stop namely, is presented through multiple short stories. Like this, we manage to present every point of the tour through many angles. When you are at the tour point, you see the titles of the stories available and you choose which one to read. We are also trying to get you to read the less mainstream ones. The truth is that we see great resonance in what we call storytelling. Namely, adults want their fairy tales too.
– I think stories are something that have been shared between people constantly, for many years. Either through books or applications. I believe this will never stop, because in such a way, people create memories and this has a great deal of power. Do you like stories?
– Very much, though with age, preferences change. As a kid I read a lot of Enid Blyton’s books, such as “The Famous Five” and “The Five Find-Outers,” and Jules Verne’s “Captain Grant’s Children,” where there was adventure. Growing up, I read a lot of police novels such as those of Agatha Christie, but also by less well-known (writers), such as Peter James and Ian Rankin. Lately, I like Jo Nesbo a lot and, since we started to develop as a team in the company, I also give great importance to books such as “How to Become a Better Team Leader”.
– What do you think they offer this kind of books?
– I think that all books open our minds. In these books you can find anything from common phrases to pearls. It is in everyone’s judgment what they will keep and what not. In 2013, I had to do my military service and it was the period we were planning the next update of the application, and just before our first partnership with the USA came. At some point, I had an inspection and I was punished with no leave, because under my pillow they had found the notebook in which I was planning the updating – the famous blue book “The Lean Startup” – and next to it a book by Peter James. I would put them in my uniform, in my pockets and read whenever there was a chance.
– Do you have a vision as a start-up?
– We have both a goal and a vision. Our commercial goal is when someone wants to take a guided tour of a city, so they learn something, to think of Clio Muse. The truth – and the reason we started – is that the three of us believe that the economic crisis is the result of the social one. Therefore, we think that the most effective way of combating it is education, rather than through measures and fines. We believe that by making good use of the visual stimuli that surrounds us, through stories, we can showcase the best practices of the past and examples to be copied. This is why the name Clio came up, which originates from kleos (Greek: κλέος) and kleis (Greek: κλεις). Kleos is the legacy left by someone for the good deeds they did and kleis is the key. The Ancient Greeks believed that the stories Clio, who was the Muse of History and Narration, was narrating were the key to unlock the future. Because you were seeing what had happened in the past, so if you wanted to do something good, you already knew. If you wanted to do something bad, you also had the knowledge of the past. The point is to get inspired to do something good, in any form of expression – from a graffiti to a statue in the Acropolis Museum.
– Thank you very much. The offline reality of this application is of great interest.
