What I learned about Krakow and Poland after two years of Blogging

Paul Chen

Two years ago, I posted a report about the Hive 53 swarm. However, it wasn’t the first time I had written a blog entry. I wrote something for Centrum Studiów Polska-Azja about the Sino-Japanese conflict. It’s funny how that situation has come back into consciousness as the Japanese government is in the process of authorizing their troops to take on military exercises outside Japan.  This has people in China thinking 1937 all over again.  

Well after two years of blogging about the startup ecosystem in Poland and the CEE region, there are some things that I can report.

Small Pond Problem

Despite a population of 40 Million, the startup ecosystem in Poland is still like a small village. Everyone knows everyone else and gossip spreads quickly. Recently, the foundation Startup Poland has submitted a manifesto to the guys in Warsaw in the effort to get the government to pass legislation to streamline certain bureaucratic processes and make investing easier in Poland. Visas for foreign startups and educational programs were also included for future consideration. In many separate communities similar manifestos has also been submitted to the local governments.

From day one, I felt that governmental lobbying is essential for the success of the startup ecosystem. I approve of their efforts. And I would love to get in on the conversations, even if I am not Polish. In the EU, they are in the process of implementing different programs like the Horizon 2020, and Digital Single Market to make it easier for entrepreneurial activities easier in Europe. Despite their efforts and honorable intentions, I believe their roads will be a hard one.

Their main problem is money and popular support. A BPO such as KPMG, DHL, or Shell can come to a city and almost get the keys to the city right away because the city knows that this company will be able to employ a vast amount of jobs and investment to its population right away and help the mayors and governors look really good. The startup ecosystem can’t boast the jobs numbers nor the investment capabilities yet.  

Lack of recognition from the locals

As far as popular support, they aren’t anywhere close yet. If you go to Milwaukee or Prague and ask the locals what is the city known for they will say beer. If you go to Detroit, 20 years ago, they will say cars. If you go to an average Krakowian, they will not say beacons, even though Estimote and Kontakt.io are based in Krakow. I don’t blame them for the lack of recognition. They have a business to build and limited funding. Some local journalists, from what I heard, are trying to scare the public with the tracking abilities of the beacons. Easy, unless the beacons are able to track GSM signals, simply turn off the WIFI and the Bluetooth on your devices. Problem solved! They have a golden opportunity for easy public outreach with the implementation of beacons in MOCAK a local contemporary art museum. Yet, the signage in the museum is minimal and no substantial publicity in Polish has been put out.

Krakow was recently named #7 in Travel + Leisure’s top 10 global cities to visit. As a result, I am anticipating a bump in tourist numbers. Wouldn’t it be great if we had beacons in all the major museums and certain public spaces to showcase a locally built technology? It would provide many opportunities to get user cases and get people to go back home talking about beacons in Krakow.

Same Old Problem

Poland is in a peculiar situation for people who want to operate a business. With a population of about 40 Million and another 10 to 20 Million Polish speakers distributed world-wide, it is quite enough to do everything locally and earn a good living. For founders of lifestyle startups, it is possible to do everything in Polish and earn a pretty comfortable living. But, you wouldn’t be a startup, you would be a SME. There is nothing wrong about that, but you just have a ceiling on your ability to grow.

However for the outliers who would like to embrace the startup definition and grow rapidly, you have to get rid of your Polish language right away. Sure you can speak it between the employees and local vendors, but you will need to do everything in English.  After all, English is the lingua franca of the startup and the business  world. This means, your landing page will have to be in English and all your social media and press communications will have to be in English. OK, you may have a Polish version of your landing page, but English must be the default setting.  

Some of the English I’ve seen on the landing pages are horrible. It felt like they took their Polish content and just used Google Translate. If a customer or investor comes to your landing page and sees that, they are going to know something about your startup. Before you publish anything, you should employ a wonderfully communicative native speaker who understands technology and business, like me,  take a look at it. That said, I am however quite impressed by the English levels of many of the founders and VCs here. Ela Madej of Amicus, Piotr Wilam of Innovation Nest, Pawel Nowak of Contellio, and Jakub Krzych of Estimote all have done amazing well in their language training.

I think the Polish startup community is moving in a positive direction. In the last year, there has been a $1 million exit. Many startups have moved from their coworking space into their own offices. However, there are still a bit to go before they can think about the “U” word. They need smart investing, more diversity in terms of population and types of startups. Whatever happens, it’s time to stop shouting,’Hey, there are high tech startups in Poland too’ and start solving major global problems. Poland has produced people like Skłodowska-Curie, Copernicus, and Wojtyla. Who’s going to be next?

Thank you for reading another one of my posts done just for you!  If you liked what you read please share it by using one of the buttons up top and check out other posts in this blog.  I don’t want you to miss out on future posts so please follow me on Twitter @Eurodude23.  If you haven’t done it already, please like my Facebook fan page by clicking here!  See you next time!

Peter Szymanski tells us about Investors Introductions

Paul Chen

For a start-up to get off the ground it needs funding. There are generally two ways to do it, either save up and bootstrap it or getting money from investors.  Unless you have a nicely paying job, won the lottery, or have rich relatives, you probably will have to do the latter. What are effective ways to raise funds? We got some advice from a successful entrepreneur.

Peter Szymanski is an entrepreneur and attorney born in Warsaw but is currently based in Silicon Valley.  He has fourteen years of experience as an entrepreneur, CEO, attorney, and angel investor. Peter was also a board member of a fund for social entrepreneurship in San Francisco. He has raised more than $35M as a startup executive, and advised on more than 500 financings, helping entrepreneurs raise more than one billion dollars for their startups during his career.  He has worked with two Polish startups, Intelclinic and Fido:labs, helping them grow their business. Currently, he is the brain behind Silicon Valley Counsel. It is an encyclopedia organized by topics targeted towards entrepreneurs of all levels.  It contains shareable advice in under 140 characters.  This advice is based on full length articles written by some of the most well known entrepreneurial minds of our time like Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel and our own Piotr Wilam. These articles are correctly referenced and linked.  

This past month Peter did a tour of Poland making a stop at Bitspiration in Warsaw and a Hive 53 Swarm in Krakow. The following is based on his presentation at Bitspriation.

Poland is in the midst of one of the most prosperous periods of its thousand plus years of history. In the last few years Poland has remained the fastest growing economy in the EU. Between 2014 and 2020 8.61 Billion Euros will have been invested in Polish research and development plus innovation.  There are over five hundred start-ups listed on AngelList.  And more and more start-ups like UxPin, Estimote, and Brainly have secured over a million dollars in their seed rounds. Internet and smart device penetration in Poland is set to jump in the next decade. It may be surprising to learn that population wise, Poland is in the top 10 worldwide for smartphones usage (22M people) and top 15 for internet use (25M people).  Therefore, the time to launch a technology start-up in Poland is now.  

However, you need funding. What to do?

Step 1: You need a Pitch Deck

A pitch deck contains about 15 pages of material.  The topics that should be covered include purpose, problem, solution, application and team.  An average investor spends less than four minutes on each pitch deck. You should explain why your start-up exists then talk about the rational behind the product then end with some information on the team. Raising your fund in a round will take more time than you will expect so be patient.  

Step 2: Finding the right Investor

So you got an awesome pitch deck prepared, what now? You will need to get to know some investors. Googling investors in your area or country or top investors in Silicon Valley is a nice idea. And you might think about sending them an email with your pitch deck.  However, since they get hundreds and in the Valley, thousands of pitches, your email will probably not be read at all.  The best way to get an investor to notice you is through warm introductions.  If you are lucky enough to be friends with Peter or a well known start-up founder like Marcin Treder of UxPin, then they may be happy to make some introductions for you, but likely only if they already know you. If not, you should attend some free and paid start-up events and network. The quality of networking is a bit better at paid events.

When you do meet a well known entrepreneur, don’t just ask for an introduction right away. You need to develop a relationship with him or her first. Allow them some time and more meetings to get to know your start-up and you as a person. Remember, when an entrepreneur introduces you to an investor, they are putting their brand on the line.  Don’t be too business oriented, the best results come from informal talks about something that interest them. Once they know you better, they might introduce you to an investor that is better suited to your situation.

Once you are introduced to an investor there are 10 things that you need to know:

1. You should exhibit an extensive knowledge of your market and be ready to back every hypothesis you make with statistics and trends. And you should have a proven track record of executions. They don’t all have to be successful. The investor needs to know if you can actually do the thing you set out to.  
2. You should have a road map to rapid growth and explain how you intend to keep the customers that you have acquired.  A good business is one that is able to hold on to existing customers.
3. You need to be able to explain how you intend to scale your business so you have the capability to grow from the local to the global.
4. When you have returning customers, your revenue stream is more predictable and when you are able to scale, growth comes naturally.
5. You should be able to control your distribution and keep your price competitive. With that you are able to do quality control to retain your customers and keep them happy.
6. Founders with a longer track record is a more secure investment.  If that is not your case, it’s better if you can do more with lower number of hires. It keeps the level of complexity low.
7. In the beginning of the process you should show that you can understand what your customers need, be able to give it to them, and collect money from them upon delivery.
8. You should be able to distill your pitch down to an elevator pitch which should last between 60 to 100 seconds with the focus on frequency, density, and pain. In other words how often does the problem occur, how many people have it, and what’s the problem with current alternatives.
9. You should decide whether you are building cheaper typewriters or improving typewriters to word processors. Investors are more interested in the latter.
10. You should be aware of whether your start-up exist because you have a passion (consumer) for something or you want to solve a problem (enterprise).  

Peter goes on to advise you that the way you can judge an investor isn’t how he treats his star investment, but how he deals with his average or worst investment. That is how you can judge his leadership skills.  

Most importantly, investors are people not ATMs. If a start-up is able to maintain a good relationship with them, the ROI for both parties will likely be more than just wonderful profit.

Peter adds that there are top-notch investors like Innovation Nest in Poland that are very active in the Poland startup ecosystem, and with global ties and excellent reputations. Building relationships with such funds is a great way to meet other investors as well.

Thank you for reading another one of my posts done just for you!  If you liked what you read please share it by using one of the buttons up top and check out other posts in this blog.  I don’t want you to miss out on future posts so please follow me on Twitter @Eurodude23.  If you haven’t done it already, please like my Facebook fan page by clicking here!  See you next time!

This is a repost of an article that originally appeared in Polish on web.gov.pl with permission.

My pick of the Top 10 Startups of the ChallengeUP IoT Accelerator

Paul Chen

Throughout this week at the Hubraum facility in Krakow, startup teams have been receiving valuable mentorship from experienced professionals from Twitter, Cisco, Intel, and Deutsche Telekom.  In general, the mentors are quite impressed by the maturity of this batch of startups.

Min-Kin Mak, Head of hub:raum Berlin was also impressed by their creativity. Throughout today and tomorrow, the startups will be making their pitches to executives and partners of the particitants of the ChallengeUp Accelerator in a closed session. Before tomorrow’s evening, we will know which 12 startups will advance on to the six months of intense mentoring in various European locations. The selected startups will talk to Deutsche Telekom, Cisco, and Intel about future steps over the weekend. The other 12 will not leave Krakow empty-handed. They will go home with some homework to make their value proposition even stronger as well as some wonderful connections in the industry. Everything will culminate in a sort of demo day/ pitch-off at a major tech conference in London this December.  The conference has yet to be decided.

Here is my TOP TEN from the batch of 24 startups in no particular order.

Semseye - A solution, built on the most advanced algorithms for intelligent video processing, provides the opportunity to increase efficiency in any retail business area.

DeviceHub.net - IoT web platform that gathers data, summarises it and gives you the possibility to remotely control your connected devices.

Admetsys - a first-of-its-kind artificial pancreas for hospital and surgical care, leveraging adaptive learning algorithms and counterbalancing treatment of insulin and glucose.

Oort - A technology based on intelligent devices that lets you control your whole living environment with a single app. It’s simple, universal and created to bring comfort & peace of mind for its users.

Tag2Sense - Custom-Designed sensors are able to sense environmental factors such as temperature, light, humidity, barometric pressure, vibration, shocks and location. It transmits this data in near real-time providing an essential picture of what’s happening inside of the shipment.

Senic - Nuimo: a programmable controller for your computer and connected devices.

Waylay - helps companies with remote machinery and devices to increase operational efficiency and build a service business model.

M2MGO - IoT-Application platform is designed to drive the progress and innovation of the IoT solutions! M2MGO features all components needed for creating a professional, state of the art IoT application.

PalleTech - connects cargo, warehouse and fleet information through smart pallets and an Industrial Internet of Things platform.

N-Join - Transforms any factory into a smart factory, increasing efficiency and reducing environmental impact in the process.

Thank you for reading another one of my posts done just for you!  If you liked what you read please share it by using one of the buttons up top and check out other posts in this blog.  I don’t want you to miss out on future posts so please follow me on Twitter @Eurodude23.  If you haven’t done it already, please like my Facebook fan page by clicking here!  See you next time!

Rombo Games' hybrid games connect board games to your smart device

With contributions from Paul Chen

I met Marcin and Juan at Digital Dragons, the biggest gaming conference in Europe, in May. They showed me their new game Roar. When I saw little pieces of cardboard with pictures on it, I thought,"Oh, another German style board game."

Then, they took out their tablet and held it over the table and tapped on an icon and, CRUNCH! All of the game pieces had been eaten by monsters via Augmented Reality. As a result, I saw points being added up.  This means I don't have to keep points via some sort of meeple. I mean, you can still do that if that is your sort of thing. 

Later that month, the final of the Agora Startup Fest event came to an end! From over 200 participants only 20 managed to qualify for this stage. There all of the startups had the opportunity to present their ideas at the biggest event for startups in Poland. Amongst the winning ideas, Rombo Games received a special award from one of the sponsors of the event - the lawyer’s chamber of Spaczyński, Szczepaniak and Partners SKA. They won the  "The surprising obviousness and intransigence of the project" Award. That says a lot about the commitment to innovation of Rombo Games. They were also finalists at the Pirates on the Shore event in Krakow. 

Rombo Games is specializing in the creation of hybrid family games, designed to appeal both to the kids as much as their parents. The company's team co-created games like Hungry Monsters, Roar! (Catch the Monster) or Brooms, which combine the physical aspects of boardgames and card games with the expansion into the digital world by using a mobile device as an integrated part of the game mechanic. An important measure, taking into consideration the growing generation of children, who are always connected with various mobile devices. Hybrid games allow to use these devices to encourage children to meet outside the virtual world and interact with each other. They teach them cooperation and working in the group and, above all, they are a common source of great entertainment. Acting through augmented reality, advanced sensors or touchscreen interfaces, hybrid games allow you to experience a whole new level of gameplay.

The company is preparing their Kickstarter campaign with a clear aim to create an original game intended for families everywhere. This game will teach children new tools and specific skills through play, while adults will also enjoy many hours of shared fun! And as a parent you will be sure that the time spend on it will be a positive growth stimuli for your children. Currently you can see conceptual work on the page: http://rombogames.com/kickstarter/.

Rombo Games Team: Marcin Maciejewski, Hubert Spala, Juan Gómez
Fanpage on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rombogames 

Thank you for reading another one of my posts done just for you!  If you liked what you read please share it by using one of the buttons up top and check out other posts in this blog.  I don’t want you to miss out on future posts so please follow me on Twitter @Eurodude23.  If you haven’t done it already, please like my fan page by clicking here!  See you next time!

VoicePin wants you to Throw Away your Passwords

Paul Chen

One of the most annoying things about our super connected lifestyles is the need to remember our passwords to the different services that we are subscribed to. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and the apps we have on our smart devices all require us to have a sign-in and a password.  As we found out in Spaceballs, 12345 is an awful password.  Passwords should be long and hard to cipher. Which means one cannot have their name, favorite number, birthday, or city or residence as part of it.  With the sophistication of modern password hacking software, even the most elaborate passwords can be hacked.  

One of way to alleviate users from having to remember a long list of passwords or pins lies in biometric technology.  What is it? Biometrics are any characteristic of your person that is unique only to you.  Those include fingerprints, retina blood vessels, finger blood vessels, and your voice.  

The problem with fingerprints is that anyone who have seen Jame Bond movies knows that fingerprints are not the safest way to securely identify a person as even a papercut can mess up the identification process. Furthermore, if your finger is too dry, the reader might not be able to pick it up, not to mention the issue of hygiene.

The issue with blood vessel scans of the retina or the finger is that you will need to install more modules or special equipment to your service machine or smart device.  And because the technology is still quite new and in the developmental phase, it isn’t quite so reliable and could drive the price of the hardware.

VoicePin.com, a startup from Krakow is solving the last and the least invasive way to verify your identity.  You guessed it, the voice.  They are the first company of its kind in Europe. Their service has been accredited by international biometric organizations.  Your voice is as unique as your fingerprint.  Like snowflakes, no two voices are 100% identical, even with twins.  VoicePin takes advantage of something that is already in your phones, the microphone. Most smartphone mics are sensitive enough to take advantage of this technology. This means implementation of the service into your offerings is cost effective.  

The value in voice verification is that it is language independent. This means implementation across international borders is streamlined.  This means I can use the same English phrase to identify myself no matter where I go.  With VoicePin’s proprietary software, it can differentiate the intonation and the unique intangible characteristics of the user’s voice from others even if the user has laryngitis.  The system requires a person to actually talk into the microphone. This means you cannot record another person’s voice and play it back.  That will not work.  

VoicePin has already been implemented in some major banks and businesses in Poland like ING and Tauron Energy.  The applications can range from identification verification for e-banking and m-commerce to verifying permission to enter a house and even some IoT applications involving voice commands. At a recent Hacktory organized by Estimote, VoicePin validated their voice biometric technology by creating a voice activated door lock. This August, VoicePin will officially launch in New York City at the SpeechTek conference.  Attendees will have a chance to test out their technology.  Those who cannot make it to New York, can visit their website and contact them and see how they can help you improve your customer service experience.

Thank you for reading another one of my posts done just for you!  If you liked what you read please share it by using one of the buttons up top and check out other posts in this blog.  I don’t want you to miss out on future posts so please follow me on Twitter @Eurodude23.  If you haven’t done it already, please like my fan page by clicking here!  See you next time!

Krakow says farewell to a Startup Ecosystem Champion at an AmCham Event

Paul Chen

American Chamber of Commerce is celebrating their 25th anniversary as an organization that seeks to make the ties between the United States and Poland ever tighter. They endeavour to communicate the message that US-Polish relations has never been better and that American companies are quite happy to invest and do business in Poland. As a reward for their efforts, 16 of their members has been honored with the recognition by the government of Poland for contributions to the development of the Polish economy by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Economy Janusz Piechociński.  Among the 16 are giants such as Google, IBM and Motorola.  An independent business, Lynka, was also among the honorees.

This morning at an American Chamber of Commerce in Poland organized reception, Krakow bid one of its most beloved diplomats farewell.  Ellen Germain has been the Consulate General at the Krakow branch of the American Consulate since August 22, 2012.  During the past three years, she has been a avid supporter of the Krakow Startup ecosystem and other ecosystems in the south of Poland.  

Her goal was to strengthen the connections between the United States and Poland. During her tenure as Consulate General, the American Consulate has provided educational support and connected Krakow to the brilliant minds of Silicon Valley.  

A major achievement was the Polish American Innovation Bridge conference at AGH University of Science and Technology. Professors and professionals from Stanford University, Akamai, Google, and Cisco gave the Krakow ecosystem some important pointers in growing their business.  

Ms. Germain has also attended many startup events such as Open your Mind to Astia.  There she shared her passion of computer science and American values with the attendees.  Ms. Germain was a computer programmer and a science journalist in her past life.  She also holds a CS degree from Cambridge University.  

Joanna Bensz, Vice Chairman of AmCham, thanked Ms. Germain for her outstanding service to the various communities in Poland and she will be missed.  John Lynch second that praise and added his gratitude for Ms. Germain’s service to the United States’ mission in Poland as a flag carrier.

Ms. Germain told me that her interactions with the talented individuals of the Krakow startup community and other communities have been one of the highlights of her time in Krakow.  She encourages us to keep up the good work.  

Ms. Germain, on the behalf of the Polish startup community, thank you for your enthusiastic support. We wish you the best in your future endeavours. Come back again sometimes, we’ll leave the light on for you.

Thank you for reading another one of my posts done just for you!  If you liked what you read please share it by using one of the buttons up top and check out other posts in this blog.  I don’t want you to miss out on future posts so please follow me on Twitter @Eurodude23.  If you haven’t done it already, please like my fan page by clicking here!  See you next time!