Airgate by IKROPKA

airgate 5/2011

without any Powerpoint slides. Then it’s all about networking and the fired up “busy bees” (more than 250 at the last event) usually stay until 11 pm drinking and chatting. “The next challenge for Hive is to become more connected with the universities. The problem is that people in the universities don’t even think about starting their own companies. Why is that? It depends on the sector. Biotechnology start-up costs are high and you need start-ups developing within the university. But in terms of IT it’s just a mindset. Unfortunately, often the people who remain in the university to teach are the least entrepreneurial ones.” According to Piotr, there are many models that Kraków can look to – New York, Boston, Berlin and in particular Dublin, where Ela recently attended a founders’ conference. “They are really doing a lot to attract start-ups. We can have this model in Kraków but we’re not there yet.” KrakSpot (www.krakspot.pl) BarCamp is an international network of conferences, the content of which is provided by the participants and shared over the web through blogs, photo sharing and social networking. KrakSpot is Kraków’s largest BarCamp and focuses on the web, marketing and new media. Compared with Hive, Krakspot tends to have more technical presentations focused on web technologies, but like Hive, networking is a major part of each event. Marcin Jaśkiewicz, who organised the first ten events, is now CEO of Webshake.tv, an Internet television company based in Kraków. KrakSpot was founded by members of the MediaFrame Student Research Group at AGH in Kraków. What began in a small room with 20 people now regularly attracts around 250 participants. Each event starts with a presentation panel followed by a moderated discussion panel. “After the discussion panel there is an un-conference, so people can share ideas, meet entrepreneurs and simply have a good time grabbing a bottle of beer and talking with friends. We are thinking of and trying new networking ideas, Open Spaces sessions for example,” says Filip Dębowski, organiser of KrakSpot. Brightberries (www.brightberries.com) is a key supporter of Hive and is the brainchild of Rafał Han, CEO of HanBright. Founded in 2009, the Kraków-based firm “helps start-ups to grow by sharing knowledge and investing at an early stage”. Brightberries have invested in a number of start-ups, including Webshake.tv, Futbolowo.pl and Lingapp.com. One of Rafał’s most important roles is as a mentor to start-ups at event such as Start-up Fest, Start-up Sito and Start-up Weekend in Warsaw, Poznań and Szczecin. His start-up CV includes a number of his own successful projects: – An interactive advertising agency (1998) which worked with brands such as KFC, FritoLay, Tesco and Orlen, – In 2008, Rafał started www.ciufcia.pl under the umbrella of his parent company HanBright. Ciufcia and later tajemniczakuchnia.pl and zosiaikevin.pl focus on “edutainment” games for preschool children and their parents (Rafał himself has three children). HanBright raised 1.7 million złoty from Satus Venture, became the #1 specialist in Poland in children’s online edutainment and are now in the process of floating on the New Connect stock exchange with a market valuation of 25 million złoty. “The Polish start-up scene has grown rapidly over the past two years. TechCrunch Europe wrote a few weeks ago there is ‘start-up madness in Poland’. From one side, the number of events and programs for start-upers is growing, from 2009 where only a few academic BarCamps existed, to 2010 where you have Start-up Fest organised by Agora, ennovation by Allegro, Internet Beta Rzeszów, and Start-up Challenge Szczecin. 2011 saw the addition of Labstar organised by WP (Wirtualna Polska), Start-up Weekend Warsaw #2, Poznan, Szczecin, and in January, Kraków. From the other side, many start-up incubators came to life with support from EU funds as well as VC capital. So overall there is now lots of money in Poland to invest in start-ups and more and more events where they can network and work with mentors,” explained Rafał Han. Richard Lucas is an active investor and mentor to start up firms in Poland and abroad. He helped start and has spoken at TEDxKraków and is a mentor at the next Warsaw Start-up Weekend. We spoke to Richard about how the city can accelerate the development of the start-up community “As you can see with Hive, KrakSpot and the work of Brightberries and the start-up events around Poland, this is starting to happen now. I would look primarily to deepen and strengthen what’s already happening.” Richard sees Cambridge in the UK as a model for Kraków’s start-up roadmap. “There you have a level of integration between business innovation parks, local government, banks, venture capital funds and different faculties and departments at the university including the business school. There is a strong alumni community that brings entrepreneurs back to speak at student society events. The tradition doesn’t exist in Kraków yet, but part of the gratification that wealthy ex-students/entrepreneurs get from coming to these events is that

BUSINESS CLASS

they become part of a community and are useful.” Richard also suggested conducting a systematic review of VC and private equity providers globally, including those who cover Central Europe. “If they invest in the region, offer them publicity here. Make it simple, make people aware that money isn’t the barrier, the primary barrier is value creation, finding customers who want your product; you will then find shareholders who can share that value with you.” Longer-term, Richard would focus on education and what happens in schools to encourage the teaching of skills that are of value to entrepreneurs. Give kids contact to real entrepreneurs, inviting the alumni back, especially if they are women, as that helps change the perception in the media of business people as men in suits. The Accelerators A consistent theme raised by everyone we interviewed was the need of a business accelerator in Kraków. Accelerators combine the elements of traditional incubators (cheap office space and a host of business services) with small amounts of equity based funding combined with in-depth coaching/mentoring. Funds for start-ups are available, but there is a lack of know-how in scaling operations that accelerators could help to provide. Chris Kowalczyk and his Gamma Rebels program in Warsaw is an excellent example, with the following for those who pass their recruitment process: – “A predefined equity investment of up to 20,000 złoty for 10% equity – An international team of mentors and coaches – Working space in Warsaw – The chance to pitch investors at the end of the program at Demo Day” In the humble opinion of this author, the great work done by the people we interviewed for this article and their likeminded thinking and efforts would make them prime candidates to start such an organisation in Kraków. In preparation, I suppose I had better dust off that business plan I wrote in university for an online site where people can keep in touch with their friends, share photos, send messages, chat… Special thanks to Richard Lucas and Kate Scisel, for introducing me to a number of the contributors to this article. The fifth Hive event will be on the 11 December 2011, at Piwnica Pod Baranami, (www.piwnicapodbaranami.pl), at Kraków’s main square, number 27. Their guest speaker will be Amanda Rose (www.amandarose.com).