Invoicing with Laravel. The Artisan of the Day Is George Drakakis.
George Drakakis describes himself as an “old‑school Greek fullstack developer.” He first saw Laravel in version 3, about 13 years ago, and ever since has made the framework his focus without looking back. He founded Laravel Greece early, registering the domain because he believed Laravel deserved recognition in Greece.
"What started as a simple forum has now become one of the oldest and largest Laravel communities worldwide!" he shares.
Fullstack Roots and SaaS Ambitions
George’s background spans more than two decades. He has worked as both a graphic designer and a developer, but Laravel has become central to his work. He maintains a SaaS product called Billit, an invoicing app built for small businesses in Greece.
Billit is cloud-based, web accessible, and compliant with Greek and European electronic invoicing laws (MyDATA, PEPPOL, etc.). It supports online payments, automated invoicing, and integrates with certified providers, delivering features that help freelancers and small/medium businesses handle revenue, expenses, invoices, and digital receipts.
Why Laravel, Why Greece
George says that sticking with Laravel let him build both community and product in parallel. He maintains Billit himself, building features informed by real user needs. The Greek market needed a usable, modern invoicing tool, and George built it to fill that gap more than a decade ago.
He also runs Laravel Greece together with Harris Raftopoulos, helping other Greek developers connect, learn, and share for over 10 years. At the meetup’s recent tenth anniversary, the team welcomed Laravel Cloud’s Infrastructure Engineer, Florian Beer, who delivered a talk in Athens.
“In our latest meetups, we’ve been having 40-50 people in every meetup, and after Harris Raftopoulos joined the core team, it grew even more!”
The Greek meetup is now supported by some of the country’s startups, such as HackTheBox and LearnWorlds, which also share a love for Laravel, Drakakis assures. That community work reinforces his product focus.
The Bigger Picture: Community + Craft
For George, Laravel helped shape his career, connected him with people both inside Greece and abroad, and gave him the tools to build something sustainable. He continues to believe in the excitement of each new Laravel feature.
“I’m so glad about the decision I made 13 years ago to stick with it and specialize in it without looking elsewhere!”
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