By Paul Chen
New
York City is the city that never sleeps. As startup founders know
all too well, building a product then a company is something that
never sleeps as well. Therefore, these two activities fit each other
perfectly. As New York, or as they like to call themselves: Silicon
Alley, is growing rapidly. It is starting to gain lots of interest
from European startups. Next Wednesday, September 24, 2014 in AOL HQ on 770 Boradway, PolishTech Boom: The 1st Ever Polish Startup Demo Day in NYC
will take place. Tickets sold out almost as soon as they were
released, however
you can still get waitlist tickets. I had a chance to chat with
a couple of the organizers. Here is what they have to tell us:
How
did this idea come to pass?
Tytus Cytowski:
I have been involved with Polish tech companies coming to the USA for
several years and noticed that most startups forget to stop in New
York City and miss out on funding and business development
opportunities here. I told this to Daren and we decided to launch an
event.
Daren McKelvey:
I had actually worked with Beata Adamczyk from the
Trade and Investment Section of the Embassy of Poland for the
2014 LAUNCH Festival in February, via Tytus's introduction.
Things went really well and when Tytus told me about the idea, I
jumped on board.
Who
was involved in the organization of the event?
Tytus:
Beata, Daren and myself. Also some of our good friends from the tech
ecosystem in NYC helped with social media. PARP helped with promotion
in Poland.
Daren: Yeah, lots of people helped us along the way to make this come to life
and we're very thankful for the support.
With
Silicon Valley on the other coast, why do you want to connect with
the NYC startup community?
Daren:
NYC has been always known for diversity and it has made NYC business
and culture strong. We believe the event will bridge innovation from
Poland to NYC. In terms of practical things we hope that it will
create jobs, partnerships, investment opportunities and a
unique exchange of ideas between attendees.
Tytus:
The NYC tech ecosystem is focused on sectors that are mostly ignored
in Silicon Valley. For example enterprise, finance, fashion,
education and advertising are super hot in NYC. It is only natural
for Polish companies to come to NYC to explore opportunities here and
discover clients, partners and investors. The reality is that you can
potentially get early stage funding in the valley, but the customers
and later stage investors are on the east coast.
What
do you hope to achieve from the event?
Daren:
The thesis is that NYC is a natural hub for Polish tech startups
to grow in a way that is mutually beneficial for the city and Poland.
We want to put Polish tech companies on the map in Silicon
Alley.
Tytus:
Concretely, more and more top angel investors and funds are
considering Polish startups as viable investments and we would love
to translate leads into closed business after the event. As Daren
said, it is about jobs, signed contracts and relationships being
formed.
Who
will be attending the event from the Polish side?
Tytus:
We have been fortunate to have secured the Deputy Minister of
Economics, Ms. Ilona Antoniszyn-Klik.
Daren:
About 10 polish government officials from the Embassy in Washington,
D.C and Poland.
How
was the Polish Embassy involved with the organization?
Tytus:
They were responsible for selecting the startups that will be
presenting. They also assisted in securing finances to make the event
a success.
Daren:
the Embassy's trade mission in SF, led by Beata, runs the Polish
Silicon Valley Acceleration Center (SVAC) and they run an
acceleration program to select the startups who are ready for the
spotlight.
What
are the Poles bringing to the table?
Tytus:
Passion, fresh ideas and out of the box thinking that New Yorkers
love.
Daren:
I've spoken with a bunch of the founders and really impressed with
their business acumen, backgrounds, and drive to make it here in the
US. They want to contribute to the Silicon Alley eco-system by
creating jobs here and open doors to anyone wanting to do business in
Poland.
Among
those representatives, which ones would you like the attendees to
watch out for?
Tytus: Social WiFi and Brand24. Excellent founders, good product, traction
with clients globally and clear vision.
Daren:
Definitely those two and also Momentum by Atsora, great founder
and making solid revenue this year so far. One of the startups was
invited by a prominent investor to pitch a week before the demo day
in NYC.
I
see that there will be 8 Polish startups making pitches, who will
they be?
Tytus:
Monster & Devices, Biotrustis, Momentum by Atsora, Evercode,
Realdeal, Social WiFi and Brand24. One can't make it last
minute. After we announced the event we were approached by more
companies that wanted to demo, but unfortunately we could not
accommodate; they will be participating in the second edition though!
I
can see that the press release says that the guest list will be
highly curated, why is that?
Daren:
Anybody in NYC that goes to tech events knows there are dozen
events to choose from each night. It can be confusing for a startup
visiting to know which are the good events, so we want to make sure
they are getting the most out of this. The type of people who are
invited–and who we've attracted–are the ones that can open doors
and accelerate community support and infrastructure for Polish
startups in NYC. This is a huge opportunity for the companies to
make a splash in front of key influencers, potential customers,
partners, investors, and press.
Who
are you looking for the startups to meet and connect with?
Daren:
This goes back to curation, but the companies will connect with
investors that are open to foreign startups who want to set up
offices here, as well as potential customers and vendors in various
different verticals. Outside of the demo day, we are organizing
educational and informative workshops, co-working and accelerator
space tours, and intimate networking opportunities for the startups
throughout the week.
What
would make the event a success?
Tytus:
You can look at the success metrics two ways. First, you can look at
the business relationships that will be formed for the years to come
and the non-tangible benefits for the startups from Poland and NYC
investors and the tech community. Second, you can look at closed
business that we hope to facilitate through the event. Most New
Yorkers want concrete things out of the event.
Daren:
At the end of the day, it's about people meeting people that want to
add value and make each other more successful. But taking action
after the event, that's essential. Everyone's got to follow up!
Things move so quickly in NYC, so face-time is great, we will urge
them to manage their new relationships for the long-term. Success is
relative to the feedback we get from the startups and the audience.
Was it worth everyone's time? What was the vibe? Did everyone meet
great people? Beata, Tytus and I really love to build community,
match-make, add value and this is an experiment we're excited about
undertaking.
What
will make you want to make a second edition later on?
Tytus:
We have been overwhelmed by the NYC community’s positive response
and the feedback. The event got waitlisted in an hour after our
initial email announcement went out. The second edition hopefully
will be announced soon. We will be looking for hot startups and
sponsors for the next one. Stay tuned.
Daren:
Ha yeah! I wish we had more space! AOL has been gracious enough to
sponsor and let use their space, but we can only fit so many people
in one room. People with Polish roots are really coming out of the
woodwork wanting to get into the event and it makes sense to do
another one since there's already high demand.
Daren
McKelvey runs his own consultancy that helps companies strategically
partner with and market at top tier tech and innovation events. He
also does Business Development for NYC-based mobile app design and
dev agency Blue
Label Labs.
You can follow him at @darenmckelvey
Tytus
Cytowski is an attorney and founding partner of Cytowski LLC a
law firm specializing in representing startups, entrepreneurs and
tech investors in the US and Poland. He is admitted to the New York
State Bar and finished Harvard Law School. You can follow him at
@tcytowski
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