The great aspect of Krakow’s Startup Community is that we never stop learning from each other. With the mission of ‘Inspiring Entrepreneurship,’ the #OMGKRK Academy is a regular event cycle that blends TED Talks and Y Combinator Startup School to catalyze stimulate innovative thinking and deliver applicable, real-world knowledge to be used in business. With speakers presenting on topics in which they are experts, the #OMGKRK Academy uses the power of example to inspire the next generation of Krakow entrepreneurs. Beyond a commitment to high-quality content curation, the #OMGKRK Academy strives to include an arts and culture component as well. The events take place in social and welcoming environments like bars and cafes attracting a diverse audience from across industries with various skill sets that provide an optimal opportunity to network. We look forward to seeing you at the next session!
Next Academy
Stay tune as we will soon announce date of next #OMGKRK Academy.
Past Academy Sessions
OMGKRK Academy #10
Krakow Tech 2018 – Year In Review
Wednesday December 12th, 2018
18:30 | Metaforma Cafe
The end of the year always offers a good opportunity for reflection and the theme for OMGKRK Academy #10 is Krakow Tech – Year In Review.
We believe that 2018 was a big year for the Krakow innovation ecosystem filled with stories of growth and success. CallPage closed a blockbuster deal with local VC Innovation Nest and international investors. Base Lab becomes a part of Zendesk becoming the largest and most notable exit in the community. Global companies like qualtrics open up offices in the city. Meanwhile, local companies like Synerise begin to take over the world. Events like Smogathon scale globally showing that Krakow is a solutions-orientated city. These are just a few headline examples of a growing and more innovative digital economy sector in the region.
Bartosz Józefowski’s Kraków Startup Community review of 2018 you’ll find here.
Take a look at pictures from #OMGKRK Academy #10.
Keynote: Krakow Tech 2018
Bartosz Jozefowski | Krakow Technology Park
Bartosz Jozefowski covered the key trends and stories in the tech community from the past year. Bartosz is part of the leadership team at Krakow Technology Park and Head of the KPT ScaleUp Accelerator along with being the author of the Krakow Startup Report 2017. Bartosz is also an Ambassador for Startup Poland. There are few individuals who have more insight and knowledge on the Krakow technology community than our keynote speaker.
The Growth Of Bidroom in 2018
Szymon Brylski | Marketing Manager @ Bidroom
Bidroom.com is a membership-based online booking platform that offers bookable hotels and apartments at discounted room rates right across the globe. With Bidroom you are always gauranteed a discount of at least 5% off the price you can find on other OTAs . In March 2016, Bidroom opened an office in Krakow that includes sales, marketing, PR and IT and in 2017 secured investment. In this presentation, we will learn what happened at Bidroom in 2018 including their partnership with Visa.
OMGKRK Academy #9
The Future Of Business with Digital University
Wednesday October 15th, 2018
The approaching convergence of exponential technologies will make a transformative impact on the future of entrepreneurship and our shared experience. The application of innovations in areas like automatization, artificial intelligence, bio-metrics, information technologies and 3D printing to name a few is creating new opportunities and challenges in the world of business along with changing our social norms. How to stay on the cutting edge?
In the 9th session of OMGKRK Academy, taking place during Krakow Startup Week 2018, we have invited speakers from Digital University to equip us with the mindset and skills we need to successfully navigate the future.
Take a look at all pictures from #OMGKRK Academy #9 here.
Izabela Bartnicka | Digital University
Sir Martin Sorrell (Founder and CEO of WPP) said ‘Technology will never again change as slowly as it does today.’ Though artificial intelligence grows faster than we suspected few years back and in just 2 years there will be flying cars, we still haven’t started preparing for the digital future. Izabela provided us tools to successfully navigate in technological future.
Wojciech Daniło | CEO of Luna
Domain experts are data illiterate. Their skills are focused on domain expertise with less skills in statistical knowledge and coding. Data scientists are on the other end of spectrum – they have a statistical knowledge and coding skills but lack domain expertise. Qualified data scientists are unicorns. As you may notice between domain and data experts is huge communication gap. So far nobody knows how to do it right. Does Wojciech figured it out? He created Luna.
OMGKRK Academy #8: Leaders from Kyiv, Warsaw & Berlin
04.07.2018 – Hevre +1
The 8th session of OMGKRK Academy revolved around the theme of sharing knowledge, strengthening partnerships and increasing collaboration among innovation ecosystems in our region. Joining us in Krakow was community leaders from Kyiv, Warsaw, and Berlin who was presenting several of the best examples of tech entrepreneurship in their respective cities, what they and their organizations are working on to advance innovation in their ecosystem along with laying out opportunities for cooperation and exchange in our regional network.
The event was hosted and moderated by Paweł Kulon Head of Operations at the Foundation Supporting #OMGKRK.
More pictures you’ll find here.
During the discussion our speakers tried to answer how to start a startup, here you’ll find a recap from the event.
Adam Formanek
He leads the International Relations and Business Development of Project ‘Lookout’ which promotes international cooperation within the IT & ICT Industry between Berlin and Poland. Adam is also the organizer of Polish Tech Night which builds a bridge between Polish and Berlin startup ecosystems by inviting Polish startups, the German tech community and investors to meet up in the global startup hub of Berlin.
Marta Diana Koziarska
CEO of ReaktorWarsaw, an organization helping startups by leading a coworking space, mentoring sessions and organizing monthly OpenReaktor meetings for the startup community. Co-founder of preacceleration programme ReaktorX. Ambassador of Startup Poland.
Click on speaker photo to watch a video of the presentation.
Nataly Veremeeva
CEO of Kyiv IT Cluster, is a passionate community builder with a background in Sales and Business Development in IT Companies. She runs a club of IT Sales and is working on the exciting project of building KYIV IT Cluster, a platform for growing KYIV IT Ecosystem. Nataly was recently invited to become the National Expert and a Team Lead for a project of World Trade Organization and Ukrainian Ministry of Economy, whose aim is to create an export strategy for all of Ukrainian IT.
OMGKRK Academy #7: How To Think Like Entrepreneur
25.04.2018 – Hevre +1
An entrepreneur seeks to build something from nothing; to take an inspired idea and make it a reality. This OMGKRK Academy session was about exploring what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur – the ability to disrupt the status quo, use design thinking to generate fresh perspectives, build resilience and leap forward from challenges. By harnessing the passion, determination and creative thinking of an entrepreneur, you can improve your business and more.
The event was hosted and moderated by Paweł Kulon Head of Operations at the Foundation Supporting #OMGKRK.
All pictures from event aviable here.
Don’t forget to check the recap from the event.
Szymon Janicki
Co-Founder of HCM Desk is a serial entrepreneur, co-founder of MyNetwork Group, a global operating multibrand group offering services at IT / HR sectors. Over 10 years of achievements in business development honored by Forbes Diamond and It@Bank awards. His companies support and work for international clients as Coca-Cola, AIG Bank, Allianz Group, T-mobile, Credit Agricole, Aviva, Unilever, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, and Orange.
Piotr Hołubowicz
CEO SEEDiA, is an enthusiastic engineer who dares to dream and is a passionate entrepreneur focused on solving global problems like global warming, air pollution, and energy grid through projects like SEEDiA. Piotr is an alumni of KPT ScaleUp and was listed on Forbes 30 Under 30.
Click on speaker photo to watch a video of the presentation.
Piotr Bucki
Co-Founder and Co-Owner of j-labs with over 10 years of company management as a member of the board, VP & CTO. He has hired over 500 IT and software specialists and written 1 000 000 lines of Java/JEE code as a former software specialist himself.
OMGKRK Academy #6: Connecting Zurich & KRK Startup Communities
23.11.2017 – Szpitalna 1 – 6:00pm
The 6th session of OMGKRK Academy is all about ‘International Collaboration’ and specifically about connecting the Krakow startup community with partners from Zurich, Switzerland.
Our special guests from Zurich are:
1) Michal Alinski who is a board member of Startup Weekend Switzerland and Vice-President of the student initiative WTH Entrepreneur Club at the Swiss Federal Institute Of Technology.
2) Justus Pfeiffer, the Founder of the Zurkow Festival which has the goal of connecting the cities of Zurich and Krakow through both startups and culture. Justus will speak about the program of the Zurkow Festival which takes place over the next 3 days at Szpitalna 1. Justus is also an IT Specialist at Swisscom. 3) Renata Puszkiel from Switzerland Global Enterprises.
Hosted and moderated by Paweł Kulon.
OMGKRK Academy #5: Krakow Goes Global – Founders From Abroad
23.10.2017 – Kolanko No. 6 – 6:00pm
The 5th edition of OMGKRK Academy was a special one because it took place during Krakow Startup Week and was hosted by OMGKRK president and Contellio CEO Pawel Nowak who invited two founders and Techstar alumni to travel from Berlin to Krakow for this event. 1) Linh Nguyen, CEO, and founder of Kisura https://www.kisura.de/ – the first personal shopping service for female fashion in Europe. 2) Chris Kraenzeler is the CEO and co-founder of lengoo.com – the AI-powered marketplace for expert translations. Together these two founders have over 100 employees.
OMGKRK Academy #4: The Great Debate ‘Corporations Vs. Startups’
17.10.2017 – Krakow City Hall – 6:00pm
In our 4th session, OMGKRK Academy engages the topic of work and careers in both startups and corporations. Pramod Jain has spent most of his career at Sabre while Mateusz Mucha founded and bootstraped his own startup Omni Calculator. Joining them is Sunny Vashishtha who has been in leadership roles in both a startup (Estimote) and corporation (GE).
Following presentations outlining their career journeys, we will have a DEBATE about the differences and similarities, pros and cons of careers in startups and corporations.
Hosted and moderated by Paweł Kulon.
OMGKRK Academy #3: What It Takes To Make A Million Dollars
14.8.2017 – Metaforma Cafe – 6:00pm
For #OMGKRK Academy #3, we have secured two of Krakow’s most proven and successful entrepreneurs to share their career journey, guiding values and business principles that have helped them create over a million dollars in value. Krzysztof Zdanowski is CEO of Summa Lingua, In 6 years, Krzysztof took the company public and closed six polish and two international acquisitions placing his business among the top 100 biggest language service providers worldwide with a market capitalization of 50mln PLN. Vincent Vergonjeanne is CEO of EVERYDAYiPLAY and Lucky Duck Games, both award winning studios in the social gaming industry. Their most recent release, the Vikings Gone Wild strategy game, has over half a million downloads on Google Play. Vincent addressed the challenge of endurance in entrepreneurship. Joining them is student entrepreneur Dimitri Khlopkov presenting his start-up Spokoloko, an Airbnb like service match-making event organizers with ideal venues. Hosted and moderated by Paweł Kulon.
OMGKRK Academy #2: How Will Virtual Reality And Artificial Intelligence Change Our Lives?
27.6.2017 – Metaforma Cafe – 6:00pm
In the second #OMGKRK Academy, we engaged the likely transformation produced by two of the most innovative and disruptive technologies emerging today: Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality. Speakers included: 1) Vladimir Alekseichenko, Founder, and Trainer at Data Workshop where he explains how to use a machine learning in a real life without theoretical complications. In addition, he hosts a regular podcast on Artificial Intelligence titled “Biznes Myśli.” 2) Justyna Janicka, the co-founder, COO, product owner and project manager of 1000 realities is creating broad applications of VR, AR and MR and loves to say that she ‘designs realities made-to-order.’ 3) Rudradeb Mitra has spent his career as an AI researcher and publishing 10 research papers on AI topics including language processing, semantic web, 5th generation languages, and multiagent planning. After completing the University of Cambridge, he went on to build 4 startups including a multi-million dollar revenue business. Hosted and moderated by Paweł Kulon.
OMGKRK Academy #1: What It Takes To Be A Young CEO
24.5.2017 – Metaforma Cafe – 6:00pm
Our inaugural session of #OMGKRK Academy: What It Takes To Be A Young CEO brought together five leaders under 30 running their own company who shared their career journey and insight into management at an early age. Speakers included: 1) Maja Schaefer Co-Founder and CEO of CodeHeroes, a software house specializing in the development of software for businesses in financial services, education, e-commerce and fashion industries. 2) Dominik Nowak CEO of Husarion which is developing a global robotics operating system for consumer and service robots. Co-CEOs 3) Karolina Szlęzak and 4) Kinga Urbanska turned their studies at Jagiellonian Univesity into the company Your Roots in Poland that delivers family histories for clients with Polish descent from around the world. 5) Michał Misiek Co-founder & researcher at Airly which builds networks of air quality sensors that enables real-time monitoring of air quality via an online map. Hosted and moderated by Paweł Kulon.
Academy Team
Partner
Is your company interested in an opportunity to reach motivated and innovative young professionals throughout 2018?
Then please send OMGKRK an email.
Public Support
This project is realized with the financial support of the Małopolska Voivodeship.
Projekt realizowany przy wsparciu finansowym Województwa Małopolskiego.