990 Revekka Palaiologou:

Wings of Inspired Business Podcast EP990 – Host Melinda Wittstock Interviews Revekka Palaiologou

Melinda Wittstock:

Coming up on Wings of Inspired Business:

Revekka Palaiologou:

We keep the community very tight, very intentionally because we want to make sure that, you know, we create the network organically and you actually feel comfortable enough to go out with these persons, with these people and meet in real life. We want to make sure that we have high value users. So, the people that are worth meeting are on the on and you know that everyone is vetted, everyone is referred by someone. You can actually invest on, you know, buying someone a drink, a coffee and you can actually invest on meeting those people in real life.

Melinda Wittstock:

Somewhere between all the likes, swipes, and double taps, something got lost. We’re the most connected in history, yet most people are lonely, feeling isolated and disconnected.  Revekka Palaiologou grew up in Greece, and taking her inspiration from the town of Ikaria, one of the fabled “Blue Zones” where people live healthy lives to 100, she set out to change social media – by bridging the gap between digital interactions and real-world relationships. Today Revekka shares how her app Dion helps people initiate connections by sending each other real drinks, coffees, and experiences that can be redeemed in the real world.

Melinda Wittstock:

Hi, I’m Melinda Wittstock and welcome to Wings of Inspired Business, where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I’m all about paying it forward as a five-time serial entrepreneur, so I started this podcast to catalyze an ecosystem where women entrepreneurs mentor, promote, buy from, and invest in each other. Because together we’re stronger, and we all soar higher when we fly together and lift as we climb.

Melinda Wittstock:

Today we meet an inspiring entrepreneur who has made it her mission to solve the loneliness epidemic by bringing people together in real life via a new type of social app she calls “community as a platform”. Revekka Paliaologou is the CEO and founder of Dion, a new social app using the power of AI to connect people in real life for genuine community bonds and shared experiences. 

Melinda Wittstock:

Today Revekka shares the inspiration behind her app that allows users to send each other real drinks and experiences, all with an emphasis on safety, quality, and authentic engagement. We also talk about her journey from software engineer to founder, the challenges of building and scaling a values-driven platform, and the innovative ways brands and communities are finding new ways to engage. 

Melinda Wittstock:

Let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Revekka Paliaologou.

[INTERVIEW]

Melinda Wittstock:

Revekka, welcome to Wings.

Revekka Palaiologou:

Thank you for having me. Great to be here.

Melinda Wittstock:

I am so excited to talk to you because social media is broken. I think most people can agree on that now. It’s had so many toxic impacts on our lives and you’re changing the game. So, let’s start at the beginning. What made you want to change it?

Revekka Palaiologou:

Because we realized exactly that, that we live in one of the most connected generations, but it’s also the most lonely one. So, you know, you see around there some shocking data like that. The whole organization declared loneliness as an epidemic. So, judging from our own interactions, our friends and the problem that we keep hearing, like, look, I don’t know how to meet people. I’m, you know, I don’t know how to connect. I moved to a new city. I don’t know how to make friends. We were like, look, it’s, it should, there should be a way that you can actually use technology not only to build amazing deep tech stuff like, you know, ChatGPT, Claude and all the rest, but to actually bridge the gap between the, between digital interactions and real-world connection.

Revekka Palaiologou:

And there should be a way to make people to use the convenience of meeting someone online, inviting them and get a manual about who they are, but then move that to a physical place. So, this is what resonated a lot with us, and this is how it all started.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, I, I couldn’t agree with you more. I mean, the loneliness epidemic, it’s really significant and especially for younger people: not only did they have the pandemic, but it’s all they know. So, they don’t really know how to make friends. And if you, and I’m sure you’ve studied this all, the Harvard study on happiness, but also the blue zone research, the community belonging to is the thing that really ties to our, not only our wellness, but our longevity. And so, I imagine that that’s a big part of this as well. Like just really creating a real community,

Revekka Palaiologou:

100%. Not only I’ve read the studies, but I’m Greek, so I’ve actually been many times to Ikaria, which is one of the five blue zones around the world. And if ask them, because I’ve spoken with, you know, many people that has surpassed the age of 100 and they are super active, they ride their bike, they go around, they work, they will tell you, yes, for food is good and you know, the water is clean, but to be honest, it’s not, it’s not that different from any other place in Greece. So, for me, in my own at least, findings, the most important link was the community and the connection that these people have, that they are active when they get older, they are not being pushed aside, but they continue to meet with everyone in the church, in the, you know, in the plateau they call the place that everyone gathers and they keep these interactions. I feel community is the next big thing. And for me, it’s super nice to see that this is something that, especially in the US things are catching up. Because in Europe it’s not like that anymore. I mean, I moved to US super recently.

Revekka Palaiologou:

I used to live in Europe, and I spent some time also in Dubai. And this is not the case there, you know, but in US you can see that everywhere, you know, this is the new thing that the brands want to reach communities, the individuals want to be part and belong in communities. I think this is a very interesting time and that the company, company that will manage to capitalize and capture that is going to be a super valuable company.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, tell me about how your platform works. I understand that people can send each other real drinks and coffees and experiences that can be redeemed. But tell me, like how that actually works in practice. What do you do if you’re on your platform?

Revekka Palaiologou:

I open the app and then you see different recommendations. So, you see people based on shared context mostly. And this is something we emphasize. So, we might see you might be prompt to connect with someone because you belong in the same Padel community or because you both are training for Ironman or because you know you love the same restaurant. We try to create these social cohorts first and foremost to allow people not only to connect, like has been done so many years now based on proximity, but allow them to connect based on shared context. There is no chatting or follow request or swipe functionality. The only way to break the ice and unlock a conversation is if I treat you to a drink, a coffee, a matzah. And soon to be an experience that is actually anchored in a real venue and redeemed in the real world.

Revekka Palaiologou:

So, I send you a drink, let’s say I send you a matcha latte at your favorite coffee place. So, you have the option to go through my profile review and accept it or not. If you accept it, then the chat opens and we can actually communicate. And now we are rolling out a new feature that you have the option to set up a day to actually go and meet there together and we help. We have AI agents that also facilitate the process. But this is the idea. The idea is that the only way to break the ice is through a real redeemable gesture in the physical world.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. And so how long has this been up and running and how many people are using it?

Revekka Palaiologou:

We went live in the US last June, so less than a year. And we have now we have surpassed 45,000 people in the wait list because it’s invitation only still. And we have more than 15,000 users that are using it. We keep the community very tight, very intentionally because we want to make sure that, you know, we create the network organically and you actually feel comfortable enough to go out with these persons, with these people and meet in real life. So, we don’t want to have something, you know, you have 1 million users, and you don’t know at this point at least, and you don’t know where someone came from. We want to make sure that we have high value users. So, the people that are worth meeting are on the on and you know that everyone is vetted, everyone is referred by someone. You can actually invest on, you know, buying someone a drink, a coffee and you can actually invest on meeting those people in real life.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So, you’re the safety involved in this because that’s an issue, right? If you’re meeting people in this life is based on that referral. Do you do like, do you vet people? 

Revekka Palaiologou:

Yes, we vet. We vet people. Exactly. We vet people. We focus a lot on the community, on community, referring, you know, other members and other users. And then we do the whole thing. We go through their social Internet presence to make sure that, you know, at least everyone feels as comfortable as possible.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, that’s really interesting. So, you actually are reviewing like, yes, their online presence. So that seems like a lot of work, I imagine. Are you doing that with AI or how do you do that?

Revekka Palaiologou:

Yes, yes, yes. My background is in tech. I’m a software engineer. So, all these things, especially now with AI agents, they are not, they are super easy to be done. I think the hardest thing and what is super hard to replicate is the value of the network, you know, the value of the people that you bring in. And this is hard, this is a distribution problem because there are so many apps now out there that they say, look, I’m going to find you the best people to, I don’t know, to date, to network. And I’m going to do this because I take all your data from your social media presence or by AI agents on boarding you, etc. But and this is cool, it’s very cool to be in a place to understand someone really well so you can actually recommend connections that make sense for them.

Revekka Palaiologou:

But what is the purpose of this if you don’t have the right people on the network? So, it’s a two-sided problem, right?

Melinda Wittstock:

It really is. So, the real value of your business is the community. It’s kind of like community…

Revekka Palaiologou:

Exactly.

Melinda Wittstock:

…As a platform.

Revekka Palaiologou:

Exactly.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. Because again like with these AI businesses it’s so it’s getting so easy. I mean you can set up a skill for that in like Claude or whatever. Right, just go do that.

Revekka Palaiologou:

Exactly, exactly.

Melinda Wittstock:

I mean those things are going to become so ubiquitous that the, the actual value is in that real human connection. And so how do you measure success in that case? I mean there needs to be like whole new metrics around this because it’s not just daily active use or monthly active use or all these kind other engagement mechanisms like likes or shares or stuff like that. So, so what are you tracking?

Revekka Palaiologou:

We are tracking of course the basic mechanics, the basic units like this which are the most important because they are the fundamental one. You know how many daily active users you have, monthly active users, what is the retention, what is the GMV? Because it’s a platform, you know that all this data makes sense. You need to understand the stickiness and how people use it and but as you correctly said, we do now we started tracking some things on top. One super important metric for us is the engagement rate. And at this point we have more than 62% which is huge. If you compare it with any other engagement rate of social media, that’s huge.

Melinda Wittstock:

And so, engagement counts as like sending someone a drink or sending someone a…

Revekka Palaiologou:

A drink and these people actually acknowledge and engage, engage in a discussion with you. This is the first layer of it. For example, we’re sending someone a like, and they never respond or sending someone a DM and they never respond. So, our engagement is super high, and the explanation is super simple. I mean and this is how we started. If you look around, you know most people don’t Reply to the DMs, don’t reply to their likes or swipes. But if someone buys you a drink in real life, you engage.

Revekka Palaiologou:

You have to acknowledge it’s the polite thing to do and someone not only was intentional but invested in the relationship. So, this is why you know, we have the same rate of actually engagement and success on that part. And of course, now that we’re taking it to the next level and we also help people to meet and arrange this date, or meeting, let’s say, because not necessarily a date between them. This is one of the metrics that will be start monitoring very closely.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So interesting. And so how do you scale this? Because it’s, you know, it’s, it’s wait list, it’s invitation only. I, I think your instinct is right to make sure the community is really, really solid before you scale. But what’s the scaling plan? How do you scale it? Does it have to be big to succeed? What’s your view on all of that?

Revekka Palaiologou:

This is a very good question. And for now, what we focus more is the value of the users and how does this translate to actually numbers? So, the GMV that we have is the cross-merchandise value of Any user is $37 per monthly active users, which is super big. So, at this point we think about quality over quantity. And as this grows, the plan is to create, you know, this networking dating layer that sits across communities. So now as you said, we have, you have, we are curating our own community. But there are many communities out there that they don’t have a, a way for the members to connect. So, you know, you have these dating clubs, run clubs, book clubs that they might be able to connect in real life. But many communities are huge and they don’t actually have a space, a digital space when you can do social discovery and find people.

[PROMO CREDIT]

Wings of Inspired Business is brought to you by the podcast, Zero Limits Business Growth Secrets where Steve Little – serial entrepreneur, investor and mergers & acquisitions maestro – shares the little-known 24 value drivers that spell the difference between a $5m business, and a $50mm even $500 mm business. It always pays to understand what’s driving the underlying enterprise value of your business. So, check out Zero Limits Business Growth Secrets at zerolimitsradio.com – that’s zerolimitsradio.com and available wherever you get your podcasts. More information about valuation growth at Zero Limits Ventures.com

Melinda Wittstock:

And we’re back with Revekka Paliaologou, the CEO and Founder of the IRL social app Dion.

[INTERVIEW CONTINUES]

Revekka Palaiologou:

And this could be anything. You know, meet the people in your gym. Gym is a social cohort. Meet the people that went to the same Uni like you did. Meet the people in your ant club, your book club. So, the plan and the scaling plan is, you know, to give all these communities the same digital experience and the same digital approach. So, Dion essentially will become a place where you meet the people in your different circles in your life, if that makes sense.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, because most people have overlapping interests. They’re not just one dimensional. So, you have multiple interests, right? And you have like work networks; you have like hobby networks. You like a cyclist or something and you want to meet all the other cyclists, right? 

Revekka Palaiologou:

Yes, yes, yes, 100%. 

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, so, you also have this whole brand component which I’m fascinated by too. So, it’s not just social that you’re changing, but you’re also changing how brands interact with people. Tell me a little bit more about that.

Revekka Palaiologou:

Yes, this is super interesting in our mind as well because it’s the first time that we can actually help brands do directly, especially beverage brands do directly distribution to consumers. So, we actually work with big brands from Moet, LVMH, Ciroc, Pernod and many more. And the way it works is that we are able to run campaigns on their behalf and give them back amazing data, data that they’ve never had before. So, you know how many people actually consume that drink? Where did they go to do that? How people spend their money to actually buy someone a drink, what are the places they like, what are the venues that they visit? So, we give them all these data points that the brands need to create synthetic data, and they didn’t have access till now. Because if you run an influencer or marketing is great for brand equity and you know, you have many eyeballs and people see it. But how do you know what is the convention in real life? How do you know if these people that saw, I don’t know, someone sipping an apparel spritz at the US Open actually went and bought and tried the Napoleon spritz? If you don’t try a new drink, you will never change your preference. You don’t know if you like it or not. So, we do the last mile.

Revekka Palaiologou:

We are the ones that can actually make sure that these people will try the beverage and will give them back data. Of course, this in the future can be translated to different type of brands, different types of activations. But the goal and the idea, the thesis behind it is the same, that we help brands to reach communities or high value individuals and actually give them back data about redemptions and about experiences that happens in the real world.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, say someone like, you know some of the brands you have say Ciroc, right?

Revekka Palaiologou:

Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:

And someone wants to send a drink, is that drink that they’re sending like a sponsored drink or is it who, who’s actually like where’s the drink coming from?

Revekka Palaiologou:

The drink comes from users to users or if we do promotions, it comes from Dion. Ciroc cannot change, cannot send a drink directly to consumer. So, they have to go through the three tier distribution channels. It’s more about what happens on the consumer level and give them back the data. They don’t have anything to do with that if it makes sense.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, you’re saying it’s more of a…

Revekka Palaiologou:

…marketing thing for them.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So, the mechanics of this, you send someone a drink and it has a price associated with it, right? Take me through all the detail of how all that works.

Revekka Palaiologou:

You send someone a drink. Let’s say, let’s go back to the example that I sent you matza latte at your favorite coffee place. Coffee place we have AI that actually gets the menus and matches the prices. So, I’ll see that this drink is costs, I don’t know, $10. So, in order to send that I have to pay something with say $10. And you get the notification that the Reva, this is her profile, this is her LinkedIn, Instagram and everything else wants to connect with you. You. And she sent you this matza latte at Matza full, let’s say and this message, this note.

Revekka Palaiologou:

So, you choose you, you have this and you have 24 hours to actually accept if you are going to engage or not. So, you choose, look, I’m going to unlock it, I’m going to reply, I’m going to engage or I’m going to decline the request. If you decline the request, I get my money back as a refund, you know, and I can use it to buy a drink to someone else. We will never charge someone if they don’t actually end up connecting with this person. If you choose to unlock it and you know, you choose to have the conversation, then you have this drink voucher, let’s say in your wallet and you. We use the on cards. So, we have done a fintech implementation where we give our users some the virtual cards that live in their Apple wallet. You can go whenever you want to the place and actually pay for your drink as you would do with any other card.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, it’s almost like a, like a coupon isn’t the right word. But you accept a drink and then you have this thing in your, in your Apple wallet or digital wallet and you go to your coffee shop and…

Revekka Palaiologou:

Yes, exactly. We send you the credit because it’s a real card with real money. So, we send you the credit, but it’s the own card. So, it’s very limited. It has only to be used at the right place and for the same drink.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So, the database, like I’d love to look at your schema. I just think that the database underneath this. This is complicated. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the background. Tech wise.

Revekka Palaiologou:

There are some things happening, yes. And we have a very, you know, a very native technology that actually enables all these checks to be in the right place to not use it to buy, I don’t know, cigarettes across the street. So, this is something that we built in the house. All the rest, I mean, nowadays especially, you have elements that you can replicate. I mean, the payment goes through stripe. The important, the novel part of the technology is how we actually allowed people to pay for this drink like they would do with any other card.

Revekka Palaiologou:

This is a novel part, and it took us a lot of time to get there.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, is this all patentable? Do you, do you have patents on this technology?

Revekka Palaiologou:

We started having some, some. Yes, we’re working on that still from beyond trademark and we have trademarks and everything.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, it makes sense, Revekka, that you would build a platform like this. You’ve got your master’s in computer science. You were a senior software engineer at Bloomberg.

Melinda Wittstock:

What was it that made you say, okay, look, I’m going to become an entrepreneur. I have this vision for this thing. And what was the spark that made you say, I just need to go do this myself?

Revekka Palaiologou:

I think this started a while ago because since I was very young, I started doing side jobs, imagine when I was 14, so I would do weekends in a Netflix shop. And over the years I did so many things from, I don’t know, waiting tables, bartending, hostess. I would always try to find small ways to be independent, to earn more, to experiment. Because I grew up in Greece, I didn’t know what startup means, but I knew I wanted to build something meaningful, something that could reach far beyond, you know, where you were born or where you live. So, this is always on my mind. I wanted scale and impact. So, this is one of the main reasons, you know, I felt love with software because for me it’s so fascinating that you can think something and you can create, you know, a mathematical based solution and you can impact lives of people around the world that you don’t even know and how dynamic it is. Because, you know, if you build a hotel.

Revekka Palaiologou:

Yes, of Course, you impact the lives of people that come and stay there. But it’s very limited. It’s very limited and cannot change. It’s very hard. You know, if you build it, it’s kind of done. They are not, you cannot say, oh, I don’t like it today, I’m going to change it and I’m going to do something completely different. Whereas with software, you have all this power, you know, you can change the product in a few hours now. And, and it’s a very live look.

Revekka Palaiologou:

Every day we spend so much time looking at the data, reading what people, understanding what people want, do interviews, customer interviews, getting feedback, and then we refine constantly the product based on that. This was something that I always wanted to do. And for me it was very important to get, you know, first of all to live abroad because I was in Greece, and to get experience in a very big company that successfully, you know, changes people’s life every day and has so much impact. So, this is how I started with Bloomberg, which, you know, I really loved math and I love the finance impact of it. But then, you know, as years, years, as time went by, I wanted to do something that is much closer to my life, let’s say, because for me it’s super important and this is one thing that makes me happy as an entrepreneur, that there is no separation between personal life and work life. Because even if I loved working at Bloomberg and my company, my team and everything, you know, I reached the point that Sunday I was like, oh, no, I have to go to work tomorrow. And for me, this is the point that, okay, I’m ready to move on long now because I don’t want to do something that feels like work. I feel, you know, you only live once.

Revekka Palaiologou:

Work should feel something that you’re super excited about and it’s part of their daily life.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right? Yeah, no, that’s really true. So, what have been the biggest challenges that you faced building this? Tell me, because where do I begin? Yes, exactly. Well, always there are, and, and, and there’s all the things that you don’t know, that you don’t know, know when you start. And, and, and that’s part of the joy. I laugh so hard because, you know, the best m. Made plans, meet the real-world and…

Revekka Palaiologou:

Exactly.

Melinda Wittstock:

You know, there’s always something, right? Always something that you, you, you, you, you didn’t plan for. And, and so, so tell me some of the challenges that you’ve had along the way?

Revekka Palaiologou:

I feel the biggest problem that I realize is you feel you are ready to do this. So, you read all the books, you listen to all the podcasts, you see all the interviews, and you’re like, look, I’ve understood all these people talk from their experience. And they say, for example, that you should do only one thing, super simple. And we’re like, yeah, of course I understand that. But unfortunately, there is nothing like experience. There is no chance. This is what I realized down the line. There is no chance that you understand, understand anything if you don’t get your heart, hands dirty.

Revekka Palaiologou:

So, for me, even in the beginning, you know, before I started, I was reading so much and I was trying, you know, to be prepared, let’s say, like an exam, it doesn’t work like that. The approach that I have now is when you are inside, you know, the experience, then I think it’s the point that you actually start getting advice and listening to, I don’t know, relevant, relevant podcast or speak with entrepreneurs when you have the problem at hand, if it makes sense. Because this is the only point that you can actually understand how you can use someone else’s experience to help you get there. And then, you know, so many things that you change. I mean, in the beginning, we had the completely with. We thought that we would make that the business model would make sense because we would have partnerships with events, so we would go to all the venues and, you know, speak to them and do sales job and partnerships job, and we would get 10% commission, which sounds great. And we would do the math. And the model was like, oh, yeah, this is how we’re gonna make, you know, make this business profitable.

Revekka Palaiologou:

But down the line, we realized that this was the biggest bottleneck because there was so much friction there. It was so hard to do all the sales job, to do all the partnerships. People change for waiters, they would forget. So, we had to actually, you know, take a step back and come up with something that is super agnostic and has to scale, which is not easy to see. So, you know, no, you have to take a step back and see, okay, does this really make sense now that I see how it works, I understand the effort, I see the scale, I see the dynamic.

Revekka Palaiologou:

Or should I actually, you know, reinvent the business model and reinvent myself according to that? Another big mistake that comes to mind is a hiring. So. And this is a stupid mistake on my side, I would say, because I come from Bloomberg and I was so involved in hiring. I would be captain for, for different campuses. I would do so much recruitment. I was really, really involved. So, I knew the game really, really well. And I always say that hiring is the most important thing and it’s super important to have the best team, which is good.

Revekka Palaiologou:

And this is something that I believe, but at some point in life, the last months I realized that I was so caught up in doing the day-to-day tasks and trying to finish everything and try to push to go to the next level. And because hiring is not easy, especially if you are hiring for a new category or for roles that are now created, it’s very hard to do the first hiring in this category. It’s easier if you have built the team and you actually find the people too much or not much. So, because it would take me so much time and so much effort to find the right people, I would postpone it, said it’s okay, you know, the team that we have now, super strong, they can do it. So no, this is something that. It was my major decision for 2026. Focus on first finding the right people and instead of trying to do everything yourself, try to empower them to do their best job.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s, that’s absolutely the block that every founder has at a certain point. Because in the startup stage, right, you’re used to doing everything yourself. It can be hard psychologically to let go of all that control. And it’s kind of enjoyable early stages, but then you, you, you hit a block because you cannot get to that next level, into the millions and multi millions without taking that leap. Right. And you need to sort of let go of the control. I think that’s hard for a lot of women, especially women who are tend to perfectionism, right?

Revekka Palaiologou:

Like, I agree, I totally agree.

Melinda Wittstock:

And you know, yeah, it doesn’t work that way.

Revekka Palaiologou:

And if you’re a founder, it’s one more problem. It’s not because I had this in my career. I wanted to, you know, I was, it was hard for me to delegate. But then as I involved in Bloomberg, I let go. But when I became a founder, you, you can fall into the trap. Look, hiring takes because you cannot do it in a day. You know, it takes weeks, not months. So, you’re like, it’s okay, we can do it, we have to push, we don’t have time.

Revekka Palaiologou:

Whereas at the end of the day, yes, okay, let things fall behind, do the right hire. Because down the line it’s gonna be, it’s a long-term game. It’s not a short-term game. But you cannot see it when every day you have things that need to be done yesterday.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. Because sometimes you do have to, to go slower, to go faster. And, and knowing what.

Revekka Palaiologou:

Exactly.

Melinda Wittstock:

Knowing what those moments are and, and it’s not easy. Do you know what I mean? Because everything feels like urgent.

Revekka Palaiologou:

Exactly. Exactly.

Melinda Wittstock:

I laugh because I’m, I’m really laughing at myself, you know, I know the…

Revekka Palaiologou:

…the funny thing is that I recognize that, but even last week I caught myself saying, it’s okay. It’s like, no, this is your, your, you know, your one decision for 2026. You’ll spend days, you know, a lot of time. And I speak with more successful entrepreneurs and they’re like, oh, I spent 80% of my time. And I’m like, oh, wow. So, you have to spend a lot of time because better to on board, you know, you don’t want to give a bad hired. This is costing you more down the line.

Melinda Wittstock:

It, it really does: I’ve lived that across my five companies at various stages. So, Revekka, I, I could talk to you for a lot longer. I think what, you’re really spectacular. I want to make sure that people know the best way to find you and get an invitation to your platform.

Revekka Palaiologou:

The best way is always LinkedIn under my name, Rebecca Pal logo or Instagram, which is easier under my username Rebecca Pal Pal.

Melinda Wittstock:

Okay. And if they go to the, the app, can they sign on to a wait list?

Revekka Palaiologou:

Yes, yes, yes, they can sign up and in the wait list and they can actually send and receive drinks from their friends. So many people use it only for that. But of course, the most interesting part is to actually find the community, get in and meet the right people.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing. Well, thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us today.

Revekka Palaiologou:

Thank you so much for having me. It was great talking to you.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Melinda Wittstock:

Revekka Paliaologou is the CEO and founder of the social app Dion, connecting people in real life around shared interests.

Melinda Wittstock:

Please take a moment to give us a five-star rating and review the podcast on Apple and Spotify—it helps more entrepreneurs like you find the secret sauce to support and grow their businesses.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s it for today’s episode. Head on over to WingsPodcast.com – and subscribe to the show. When you subscribe, you’ll instantly get my special gift, the WINGS Success Formula. Women … Innovating … Networking … Growing …Scaling … IS the WINGS of Inspired Business Formula …for daily success in your business and life. Miss a Wings episode? We’ve got hundreds in the vault, all with actionable advice and epiphanies. Check them out at MelindaWittstock.com or wingspodcast.com. You can also catch me on LinkedIn or Instagram @MelindaAnneWittstock. We also love it when you share your feedback with a 5-star rating and review on Apple, Spotify or wherever else you listen, including Podopolo where you can interact with me and share your favorite clips.