VIVO Cafe is located on George St, in Sydney's CBD. The café is owned and operated by Angela Vithoulkas and Con Vithoulkas. In 2005, VIVO Cafe won the City of Sydney Cafe of the year award, presented by Lord Mayor Clover Moore. 2 years later, Angela Vithoulkas was awarded the 2007 Telstra NSW Business Owner Award.
In 2012 Angela Vithoulkas was approached by real estate agent and former campaign manager to Lord Mayor Clover Moore, Barry Goldman to run for public office as part of the Living Sydney Independent party. Mr Goldman established the team due to frustrations with Clover Moore's council's inaction for Business and transport reforms, including controversial reforms to the Business voting laws of Sydney. The 8-week campaign for City of Sydney Council was almost entirely personally funded by Angela Vithoulkas, resulting in her election as a City of Sydney Councillor.
In 2013 Angela Vithoulkas launched Eagles Waves radio as a digital radio station dedicated to small Business matters in Sydney. The station claimed the title of "Australia's first and only radio station dedicated to empowering small businesses". The studio is located inside of Vithoulkas' VIVO cafe.
In 2014, Angela Vithoulkas left the Living Sydney party citing its links to the liqueur and gambling industry publicly. At the time of leaving the party, Ms Vithoulkas was the only contact on the website and made up the bulk of the sites' content - suggesting that the party had largely been dismantled after the election. Vithoulkas remained from 2014 - 2016 as an independent councillor in the City of Sydney.
Incumbent Clover Moore had a resounding victory in the 2016 City of Sydney local government election and was returned to office alongside 5 members of the Clover Moore Team. Angela Vithoulkas was returned as an Independent Councillor, securing 7.35% of the vote as councillor (6051 total votes). She also received 7.74% of the vote as Mayoral candidate (6432 total votes). No other Sydney Matters candidates were successfully elected.
Small Business Matters surpassed 1000 members on November 6, 2017, making it eligible to qualify and register as a political party. An official application for the party was submitted to the NSW Electoral Commission.
In late August, Angela Vithoulkas made news for selling her house to fund her political campaign. Vithoulkas had stated that she wore the self-funding as a badge of honour, saying "I don’t want to tow a party line. I like my independence and I think the people of the City of Sydney get that..".
