Get to know a bit more about the Startup Founders, CEOs, Government representatives and influencers who are featured on the panel at Innovative Krakow forum on the 21st of October
Innovating Kraków: Be a Part of the Movement
The City of Kraków competes to be the most dynamic innovation ecosystem in Poland. The large number of events, the long list of funded startups, the deep human capital and increase in research and development make Kraków an innovation leader. However there remain many areas to improve in our ambition, entrepreneurial networks and engagement in the global markets.
What steps, big and small, are needed for a more innovative Kraków? Sit in on the opening panel, “Toward An Innovative Kraków”, with our esteemed panelists: Pałel Kulon, President of #OMGKRK; Katarzyna Wysocka, Director of Development for Entrepreneurship and Innovation for the City of Kraków; Wojciech Przybylski, CEO of Kraków Technology Park; and Przemek Berendt, Founder of Talent Alpha.
Paweł Kulon – President – #OMGKRK
Paweł Kulon has led the Foundation Supporting #OMGKRK for nearly three years growing #OMGKRK from a hashtag to a leading institution delivering value and impact in the Małopolska innovation ecosystem. He has brought together a diversity of organizations around a common mission of growing the local digital economy, creating a connected community and developing entrepreneurs.
Katarzyna Wysocka – Director of Department for Entrepreneurship & Innovation – City Of Krakow
Wojciech Przybylski – CEO – Krakow Technology Park
Przemek Berendt – Founder – Talent Alpha
Boosting corporations x Startup Partnerships
Kraków is among the top outsourcing locations in the world being home to many international corporations and brands. It is also home to a dynamic startup community searching for enterprise clients. However, there is much to improve in corporate x startup matchmaking and partnerships.
How can these two sectors work more closely together? We have panelist from a variety of organizations that provide this type of support. Join us at 11:00 for our “Boosting Corporations x Starts Business” panel to hear the perspectives of: Dominika Walec, Head of Growth at #OMGKRK; Eoin McCoy, Member of the ASPIRE Board; Wojtek Ozog, Head of Ericsson Garage; Piotr Lipnicki, CTO at Reliability Solutions; and Monika Pietrzyk, Govtech Polska.
Eoin McCoy – Member of Board – ASPIRE
Dominika Walec – Head Of Growth – #OMGKRK
For over 6 years, Dominika has been working for the Polish-American technology start-up Estimote. She gained extensive experience in applying for external grants, managing multi-partner projects and supporting S2B (Science-Business) and B2B cooperation. Dominika has a Ph.D. in management at the Jagiellonian University.
Wojtek Ozog – Head Of Ericsson Garage
Piotr Lipnicki – CTO – Reliability Solutions
Filip Moscicki – Business Development – Archdesk
Archdesk – dedicated project management tool for the construction industry. Board Member at MoTu Sp. z o.o. He has over 10 years of experience in his field of expertise. Outgoing, enthusiastic and open-minded about everything he does. He is a team player, leader, and love to work with people! Confident, hands-on, excited to face new challenges and opportunities. Loves to travel, experience new cultures, and meet new people. He is a realist who believes that with hard work anything is possible.
Women Founders
Statistically, a very small portion of funding goes to women-founded startups, which leads to few successful women-founded businesses. If you are a woman interested in starting your own business, or if you are a man who wants to know how you can better support woman-run organizations, join our 12:00 “Women Founders” panel as our panelist share their trials and successes.
Hear the stories of our panelists: Beata Mosór, CEO of Project: People; Agata Frankiewicz, CEO of Deko Eko; Justyna Uman-Ntuk, Founder of innoMED.co; and Bogumila Matuszewska-Wojtyła, Co-Founder of DrOmnibus.
Katarzyna Wabik – Community Manager at Revolut
Kasia’s adventure with communities has started in 2013 when she was hired by Yelp. While being a Yelp Krakow Community Manager she has built a community of thousands of active users from zero level.
In 2018 Katarzyna was involved in Trivial.co – blockchain project which helps users to become familiar with ERC-20 tokens. She also co-organizes Krakowski Festiwal Komiksu.
She is a graduate of Contemporary Culture at the Jagiellonian University, an enthusiast of weekend getaways and technologies.
Agata Frankiewicz – CEO – Deko Eko
Agata is the CEO of Krakow-based startup, Deko Eko. Featured in Forbes magazine as one of the best 60 women-led businesses who are shaking the startup world globally, Deko Eko proposes an innovative upcycling platform which will completely change the way you think about waste. They turn waste into profit by facilitating the highest possible jump in value – from zero to a market-ready product. Their mission is to create the 1st Global Marketplace for upcycled products & services.
Justyna Uman-Ntuk – Founder – innoMED.co
Trained as a Pharmacist, Justyna came up with the idea of combining the world of medicine, new technologies and business was born to facilitate the creation of innovative projects in Poalnd. Events organized by innoMED attract innovators and people open to cooperation and development. We organize conferences and events for medicine, pharmacy, new technologies and entrepreneurship.
Bogumila Matuszewska-Wojtyła – Co-Founder – DrOmnibus
Bougmila is the cofounder of DrOmnibus. It is the first company from Poland and one of four European startups in Google Launchpad Accelerator 2017. DrOmnibus create modern, comprehensive multimedia tools that support ABA therapy for children with autism. Bougmila has been featured in Forbes 30 under 30 and Financial Times’s New Europe 100:
Eastern Europe’s emerging technology stars.
Investors
If you have a great idea but don’t know how to fund it, or if you are interested in investing in Kraków’s thriving startup community, join us for our “Investors” panel at 14:00 on 21.10.2019. Our panelist will answer questions like: What is the state of investment and capital in the Kraków innovation ecosystem? Are the startups in Kraków VC fundable? Can the investors really help these startups become global companies?
Discussing these topics will be: Richard Lucas, #OMGKRK Ambassador; Szymon Janicki, CEO at HMC Deck; Chris Kobylecki, COO of Innovation Nest; and Artur Karczykowski, Partner at Sunfish Partners.
Richard Lucas – #OMGKRK Amassador
Richard is a business and social entrepreneur, TEDx-er, committed to supporting entrepreneurship. Richard grew up in the UK but has lived in Kraków most of his life. Richard founded and invested in multiple companies, among them are nowadays leading Kraków Startups. He supports the companies he has invested in or founded. Richard is a founder and curator of TEDxKazimierz since 2014. He has taught Entrepreneurship at Krakow University of Economics MBA programme and at the Tischner European University and has done workshops for school and university students for many years.
Szymon Janicki – CEO – HCM Deck
Szymon is the co-founder and CEO of HCM Deck – one of the fastest growing HR tech B2B SaaS start-up in Europe. With over 100% YOY growth, they now support the success of more than 150,000 employees. Szymon is an HR tech expert, speaker at dozens conferences, organizer of L&D Meetup – the biggest conference on Learning & Development in Poland.
Chris Kobylecki – COO – Innovation Nest
Innovation Nest invests in early stage B2B Software companies. Chris is taking care of Innovation Nest’s deal flow activities and making sure that people know about Innovation Nest. He runs an invite only event called SaaS Meetup which gathers together B2B SaaS Companies, Founders, Mentors and Investors. Previously he was taking care of marketing for a Board of European Students of Technology, addressing 32 countries and over 90 universities. Life is a challenge. How big is yours?
Artur Karczykowski – Partner – Sunfish Partners
Sunfish Partners is an early stage VC that invests in Polish deep tech startups. Focused on B2B startups, Sunfish Partners typically invests PLN 1m (EUR 250k) and reserves an additional PLN 2m (EUR 500k) for follow-on investments in subsequent rounds. Sunfish Partners has offices in Warsaw and Berlin. Artur has worked for 200+ international top brands, build one of Poland’s biggest digital advertising agencies and successful software house, and helped setting up 20+ eCommerce projects. In 2016 together with three friends we started a Berlin based VC, Sunfish Partners
Paulina Białek – Director at Expara Europe
Paulina works for the Asian VC firm called Expara. She is an advisor to Polish companies with interests in expansion to Southeast Asia helping them find business partners and investors, as well as set up the company in Singapore. She founded and currently serves as a President to a foundation called Lotus League on establishing cooperation between young entrepreneurs from Europe and Asia to provide the exchange of knowledge and experience between two continents.
Foreign Founders
In the USA, 90 of the enterprises listed on Fortune 500 have been founded by immigrants. As the contribution of immigrant entrepreneurship for the global economy is being recognised by policy makers and experts, how does Kraków fare in this regard? What is the impact of diversity on innovation? What are the challenges and advantages of being a foreign founder in Poland?
Join our “Foreign Founders” panel at 15:00 on 21.10.2019 to hear the perspectives of our panelists: Richard Stevens, Editor-In-Chief at Poland Today; Maurizio Tripi, CTO of Bidroom; Suleman Siddiqui, CEO of Wave Growth; Sunny Vashishtha, Site Lead at Symphony Solutions; and Kamila Chmielewska, Startup Support & Program Coordinator for Huge Thing / Poland Prize.
Richard Stevens – Editor-In-Chief – Poland Today
Richard Stephens is founder & editor of Poland Today, an English-language media firm based in Warsaw. The company is the publisher of the award-winning Poland Today magazine and hosts its flagship conferences at MIPIM, the world’s leading real estate fair in Cannes. Richard is also Director of the Emerging Europe Awards in London, organized by Emerging Europe. He was previously editor of Eurobuild CEE magazine, where he established the conference department and also created the hugely successful Eurobuild Awards Gala, running the first two editions. Previously, he was Managing Director of CEPIF, the CEE region’s real estate fair in Warsaw. Throughout his career, Richard has organised over 120 international conferences and events, including 10+ trips of international journalists to Poland & CEE countries on behalf of entities like UEFA, ahead of Euro 2012 in Poland & Ukraine. Richard is English and graduated in Theology & Religious Studies from Bristol University.
Maurizio Tripi – CTO – Bidroom
Originally from Italy, Maurizio spent many of his recent years in Silicon Valley, CA, where he was deeply rooted in the tech ecosystem. Throughout the years, he’s been an active investor, entrepreneur, and strategic advisor in several ventures. In 2014, he founded Real Contacts, an AI-based reputation system focused on better relationship-building. Prior to that, he served as the VP of Innovation & Consulting for Herzum, a consulting company headquartered in Chicago, IL. At Herzum, he led Digital Transformation initiatives for large organizations and acted as an agile evangelist and CxO consultant.
Suleman Siddiqui – CEO – Wave Growth
Originally from Washington DC, Suleman is the founder and CEO of Wave Growth whose European Hub is rapidly growing in Krakow.
Wave growth is an international corporate development company which has paired some of the most forward-thinking entrepreneurs with the world’s largest and most innovative companies in their respective industries.
With more than a decade of experience and his process-oriented approach to sales, he has added between $1 Million and $1.5 Million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) to each of his clients.
His belief is that entrepreneurs should be able to focus on challenging the Status Quo whilst the exponential growth of their business develops organically.
Sunny Vashishtha – Site Lead – Symphony Solutions
Kamila Chmielewska – Startup Support & Program Coordinator – Huge Thing / Poland Prize
Kamila coordinates the realization of the Poland Prize powered by Huge Thing acceleration program. Responsible for the startup recruitment process. Huge Thing is a global innovation hub. By organizing acceleration programs, workshops and consulting it helps build profitable startups, as well as implement and develop new technologies in organizations. She oversees the execution and the recruitment process for the Poland Prize acceleration program. She supports startups in cooperation with corporate partners.
Final Keynote
Hugo Amsellem — Director (Berlin) – The Family
Hugo founded oocto.com in 2012 – the platform helped 100+ artists raise $700k in a year. In 2013 he spent 6 months in France and 3 months in San Francisco iterating on FolkApp.com. He joined The Family in 2013 and kickstarted an offline community of 30,000+ people in 2 year with 20,000 people attending 200+ events. He is now building The Family’s infrastructure in Berlin giving access to the city’s best people, resources & money.
The Family’s mission is to empower ambitious entrepreneurs across Europe.
The Family is not just an incubator or an accelerator. They describe themselves as warriors-on-demand, dedicated to the growth of our entrepreneurs. Based in 3 cities – Paris, London and Berlin. Their portfolio includes over 200 startups that have raised more than €600M in total.