Summary:

Born in the USA, Paul has been in Kraków for over a decade, and was instrumental in the explosion of Ruby on Rails popularity here, the improvement of management systems with Agile methodology and Kanbanery, as well as helping to get Kraków on the map as the perfect place to come for talent. From Paul’s point of view, the advantages of Poland and the companies operating here is abundantly clear.

Mentions and links:

* LunarLogic

* Kanbanery

* Aperitif

* ACE Conference

* TEDxKraków

* Estimote

Table of contents:

* 07:14 Intro

* 09:00 Paul’s backstory.

* 11:30 How the job market for coders has changed in Kraków.

* 12:45 From journalism to prison catering.

Active Learning & Giving Back to Your Community

* 18:23 The uncomfortable truth about learning from books.

* 23:40 Entrepreneur vs opportunist.

* 26:15 Paul’s impact on TEDx Kraków.

* 31:20 TEDx’s impact on Kraków.

How to Manage Yourself & Your Team

* 38:15 The death of Lunar Logic

* 44:45 How Paul would find clients early on.

* 49:40 How Agile management fixes our broken system.

*  54:26 Scrum methodology, and its limits

The Future of Our Community

* 59:25 How Kraków will move forwards.

* 63:50 Will we see the death of apps?

* 66:41 Outro

Transcript:

7:14

SAM COOK:

Hello again Project Kazimierz listener, this is Sam Cook here with my co-host Richard altogether with our guest Paul Klipp, Richard how are you ?

7:22

RICHARD LUCAS:

Very well, good afternoon everyone if it’s afternoon when you’re listening.

7:26

SAM:

And Paul, Richard I’m gonna let you as tradition since you know most of our guest better than I do introduce Paul. A little bit of his background before we get into that here.

7:38

RICHARD:

So I think I’ve first met Paul in about 2007 or 2008 introduced by Ramon Tancinco who also spoke on this podcast with on of our early episodes. Back then he was both an entrepreneur and setting up the IT small business alliance which I’ve had some failed earlier who wants to start networking community back in early 2000s. It was called the First Tuesday and Paul was doing some of this interview working better than what I was doing and always in my life I’ve been most succesful when I worked with people more effective than me. I tried to cope with that so we later worked together with Paul leading the first ever TEDxKrakow in 2010 and we’ve stayed in touch with supporting different projects. We’re both busy people so quite often we tend to work together when doing something as today. But Paul also has been very succesful entrepreneur with a company called LunarLogic which I’m sure helped until everyone more during the program.

8:39

SAM:

And also a new project that I’ve talked to Paul is exciting is software as a service project ...

Summary:

Rafał Styczeń is a legend in the tech startup scene in Kraków. He helped build a hugely successful telecommunication application when he was a student of computer science at Kraków Technical University. He’s now growing Meble.pl, a furniture ecommerce store that’s proving nothing is safe from software domination, not even our sofas. Rafał brings a unique wisdom to the table that comes from a combination of innate entrepreneurial passion and the hard-graft hustle of building multiple large businesses in the modern ecosystem.

Mentions and links:

* Innovation Nest

* Google Campus Warsaw

* Cracow University of Technology

* SKK

* Uber

* AirBNB

* John Biggs, TechCrunch Editor

* Meble.pl

* “The World is Flat” by Thomas L. Friedman

* “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham

Table of contents:

* 08:08 Intro

* 08:45 Richard introduces Rafał

* 10:20 Rafał’s entrepreneurial background

The Era of Disruption

* 18:46 What Uber has proven to the world

* 19:47 What is stopping financial services from blowing up like Uber

* 23:18 The role Bitcoin might play

* 24:42 The opportunity in Poland for digital banking

* 26:23 How to create great products

* 27:21 Skype for banks

How Ecommerce is Evolving Today

* 29:04 How Meble.pl is challenging the furniture sector

* 32:08 Why furniture is one of the easiest things to sell online

* 33:18 The World is Flat

* 34:32 Meble.pl is just too good to sell

* 41:31 Amazon. Their strength, and their weakness.

How to Do Business Well

* 44:40 How global swings affect your business

* 46:00 You should not care about what which you cannot affect

* 46:25 The value of grit and speed in business

* 48:09 If you are solving real needs, money comes after that

* 48:51 What Poland needs right now to be successful

* 51:38 Is there a lack of optimism in Poland?

Life After Initial Success

* 53:13 Rafał’s thoughts on investing

* 56:09 Why integrity is more attractive for investors than intelligence

* 56:52 Rafał’s ambition to never become a corporation

* 59:28 Culture is something that’s the most difficult to change

* 59:52 Strategy

* 1:01:38 Outro

Transcript:

08:08

sam cook:

Hello again, Project Kazimierz listener, my name is Sam Cook and I’m here again as always with my co-host – Richard, how are you, Richard?

08:14

richard lucas:

Very well, good morning, good evening. Whatever time of the day it’s when you’re listening.

08:18

Sam:

Richard’s always aware of people being in different time zones everywhere, so welcome back to another episode of Project Kazimierz, we’re here with, well, I’m going to let Richard do the formal introduction of our guest, Rafał Styczeń, who is pretty legendary in the Polish and especially Kraków technology community, so,

Summary:

Welcome to a whole new season of Project Kazimierz! A lot has changed in 2 months. Samuel Cook tells us about a tough business decision he had to make, and how he recovered from the fallout. Who’d have guessed that consulting world-class triathlon coaches would eventually lead to arriving in Cracow? Sam talks about building a team here to expand the business, about traveling to Silicon Valley for investments, and about pivoting into a brand new market.

Mentions and links:

* Innovation Nest

* Google Campus Warsaw

* Michał Borkowski, CEO of Brainly

* Ralph Talmont, TEDxWarsaw

* Ania Bywanis, Regarding the Artist Project

* Jonathan Ornstein

* March of the Living

* Manager Tools Podcast

* “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport

Table of contents:

* 07:07 Intro

* 12:03 The surprising upside of being an interviewee

* 12:48 Richard’s crazy consumption of podcasts

* 13:33 The reason for the season break

TEDxKazimierz

* 16:18 Technology revolution

* 17:50 Be a before and after story of TEDxKazimierz

* 20:36 The culture of Fail Fast

Sam’s Recent Adventures

* 22:15 The story of Sam’s business turmoil

* 24:09 Sales figures for Sam’s triathlon camps

* 27:04 One of Sam’s weaknesses in business

* 29:31 Lessons from NYC and Silicon Valley

* 31:21 When to raise money

* 40:46 How Sam built his email list of 40 000

* 44:36 Sam’s offer to anyone listening

Dealing With the Fallout

* 46:13 How Sam overcame the emotional battle

* 46:56 The value of failure

* 53:34 When is it time to cut staff?

* 53:54 Taking control of bad news

Looking Ahead to Season 2

* 1:01:24 Sponsorships for Project Kazimierz

* 1:02:17 Tell us about community announcements

* 1:08:57 Outro

Transcript:

07:07

sam cook:

Hello again, Project TEDxKazimierzimierz, this is Sam Cook again, back here with another episode, after a little bit of a break, with my co­host­ Richard Lucas.

07:16

richard lucas:

Good afternoon, everyone. If it’s afternoon, when you’re listening.

07:19

Samuel Cook:

And, Richard, with your trademark intro. We’re actually doing something a little bit different today. We’re starting another season, as we call it. We just realized we’re on 20 episodes of Project Kazimierz and we think it’s a great time to look back, see how the first 6 months have gone. We’ve been out here already six months. And just kind of review how the first season went, where we’re at and where we want to take things. And the other thing, speaking of starting a new season, I was going talk about a topic called “Starting over”, which is part of the entrepreneurial journey and we’ll go into that in a little while, where I’ll be talking about some of my experiences recently … and starting over. And,

Summary:

Jed Crews has been immersing himself in the tech community in Krakow for many months while studying the prevailing paradigms of our culture. His findings help shed light on our strengths as well as potential weak points, including how we’ve developed over the last generation, and how we compare ourselves to the “Silicon Valley ideal”. With a background in the US Navy, Jed is currently studying Business Management in London School of Economics, coming top of the class of 2015.

Mentions and links:

* Jed Crews

* Open Coffee Krakow

* Paul Chen

*

href="https://pl.linkedin.com/in/danieldi/en">Daniel Di Giusto

*

href="http://www.uj.edu.pl/">Jagiellonian University

*

href="https://getbase.com/">BASE

*

href="http://estimote.com/">Estimote

*

href="https://www.silvair.com/">Seed Labs

*

href="http://brainly.com/">Brainly

*

href="https://azimo.com/">Azimo

Table of contents:

* 00:47 Sam’s introduction

* 03:00 Jed’s background and journey to Krakow.

* 04:25 The purpose of Jed’s academic paper on Entrepreneurship in Poland.

* 06:38 How the cultures of tech communities are fundamentally unique.

* 11:10 Silicon Valley has become a metaphor.

Why Polish Entrepreneurship is Unique

* 14:25 Are the aspirations of Polish entrepreneurs realistic?

* 17:22 The gap between the mindsets of the previous and current generations.

* 18:32 Is the culture of “tech entrepreneurship” be stronger than national culture?

* 21:21 How academic study of culture avoids bias.

The Polish Mindset

* 24:50 Is entrepreneurship a natural human trait, and how does culture change it?/span>

* 28:00 The three most common mental frames Polish startups use concerning culture.

* 30:17 “Polish optimism”.

Academic Research of Entrepreneurship

* 32:40 Jed’s highlights of his adventures in Krakow.

* 35:27 Using academic credentials to gain 100s of valuable connections.

* 38:00 The role of government in the community.

* 40:15 How financial supporters shape the culture.

* 42:30 The biggest advantage of Eastern European mindset.

* 45:40 Could multinationalism disrupt national culture?

How to Build a Thriving Community

* 48:25 How events are the cornerstone of an entrepreneurial community.

* 51:01 If you want it, you’ve got it in you to do it.

* 53:58 One clean hack to make an event highly effective for networking.

* 56:24 Outro

Transcript:

00:47

sam cook:

Hello again, Project Kazimierz, my name is Sam Cook, the host, with my co-host here of Project Kazimierz – Richard. How are you?

00:53

richard lucas:

I’m very well. Good evening, if you’re listening in the evening, when you’re listening to this.

00:58

Sam:

RWhenever people listen to it. So, today, Richard, we have a very… all of our guests are very interesting, but I would say we’re in a departure from the normal here in terms of who we’re speaking to today and it’s actually very interesting,

Summary:

Project Kazimierz presents Gareth Mitchell and Bill Thompson, with Richard Lucas and Sam Cook. Gareth and Bill discuss podcasting and their BBC show, ‘Click’. Richard joins in to analyze technologies throughout Europe. Sam talks about the Americanization of technology and its effects in the business communities across Europe.

Mentions and links:

* BBC’s Digital Planet Facebook Group

* Economist Article

* Click podcast

*

href="https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/gareth-mitchell/3/b31/b50">Gareth’s LinkedIn

*

href="https://twitter.com/garethm">Gareth’s Twitter

*

href="https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/bill-thompson/27/468/417">Bill’s LinkedIn

*

href="https://twitter.com/billt">Bill’s Twitter

Table of contents:

Gareth and Mitchell Get Right to It

* 00:47 Sam’s introduction to the show

* 01:34 Gareth compares technology in Europe vs. the United States

* 03:25 Bill recognizes the differences in technology

The Idolization of Silicon Valley

* 04:57 Poland building a unified market

* 07:48 The perception of European projects

* 09:29 English impacting the tech market

Developing the Podcast Community

* 11:19 BBC platforms and podcasting

* 14:26 The benefit of the format

* 14:53 Reaching a large audience

* 15:31 Maximizing the opportunity with social media

* 16:55 The importance of fan clubs and groups

* 18:06 Value of a brand

* 20:53 Google Hangout for the program

Always on the Clock

* 21:38 Gareth and Bill are live in five

* 21:52 Richard sends his appreciation

* 22:17 Sam brings everything full circle

* 37:18 Investments in the company

* 23:00 One final plug

* 23:32 Sam wraps it up

Transcript:

00:46

sam cook:

Sam Cook: Hello again Project Kazimierz listener, my name is Sam Cook as always with my co-host, how are you doing Richard?

00:51

richard lucas:

Very well, Richard here.

00:53

Sam:

Richard, great to have you here. We’re gonna go straight to the content, because we have a very short time here, we’re gonna get great stuff out of two BBC broadcasting technologists here, Gareth Mitchell and Bill Thompson. They’re both technology writers and what’s particularly interesting today what I would like to explore is the technology scene in Europe – because we talked a lot in this podcast about Cracow and Silicon Valley but I’d like to get on how technology writers in Europe see the overall landscape and specifically how Poland fits into that, so Gareth – I’m gonna toss this one over you first – give me a quick comparison of technology in Europe vs the United States.

01:40

gareth mitchell:

Gareth MItchell: Well, we report on technology from around the world, so of course includes Europe and United States from my side of the things of space – scating on things of technology landscape, if that’s not mixing too many methaphors. As I work more as a journalist rather than a practitioner. I mean,

Summary:

Project Kazimierz presents Michal Borkowski, with Richard Lucas and Sam Cook. On today’s episode of Project Kazimierz, Richard and Sam talk with Michal Borkowski, co-founder of Brainly. Michal explains the importance of building, growing, and nurturing a community. Richard and Michal break down the competition within the networking platforms. Finally, Sam and Michal look into education and the need for personalization within the system.

Mentions and links:

* Brainly

* Algolia

*

href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/borkowskimichal">Michał’s Linkedin

Table of contents:

Michal’s Background

* 00:47Sam provides an overview of the episode

* 02:02 Richard gives a brief bio on Michal

* 03:32 Michal introduces himself and Brainly

Educational Ambitions of Brainly

* 04:18 Explaining Brainly’s atypical global strategy

* 05:40 Addressing homework first

* 07:06 Personalizing the educational experience

* 09:00 Objections and opinions from educators

* 10:37 Building volunteer motivation

* 12:23 Using Brainly to advance employment and education

The Development of Brainly

* 14:23 The pathway to Brainly

* 17:03 Jumping into the idea

* 19:01 Organizing by language

* 21:09 Keeping the database catalogued

* 23:46 Combining community with information

Where Brainly Sits Amongst the Ranks

* 24:46 Judging the competitive landscape

* 28:00 Balancing three markets

* 29:10 The psychology of efficiency

The Future of Brainly

* 30:08 Monetization and the journey

* 33:27 Modeling after improvements

* 36:03 Sponsored educational content

Smart Investing

* 37:18 Investments in the company

* 39:10 Current funding needs

* 42:28 Looking to invest today

Transcript:

00:47

sam cook:

Hello again Project Kazimierz listeners, my name is Sam Cook – the founder of Project Kazimierz, here with co-founder, Richard Lucas, how are you Richard?

00:55

richard lucas:

I’m very well, north of Italy in a little village called Gamalero, good morning everyone – or good evening, wherever you are listening. Whatever time.

01:02

Sam:

Richard, thank you for providing us a little bit of jealousy for being in northern Italy right now. So, actually in my historical context of innovation in Europe that’s probably the birthplace for me of a modern era of innovation last 800 years, so it must be cool to be there, in the birthplace of the reinessance.

01:26

Richard:

Mhm, certainly.

01:30

Sam:

So Richard – today we have a very special guest, every guest is special but we’ve been looking for this interview for a while with the founder of brainly.com – which is one of the biggest success stories in the Polish startup scene in Krakow, in Poland and in general and Richard, I’m gonna let you do a bit more detailed introduction of Michał Borowski.

02:03

Richard:

Borkowski. I thing I’ve come across Michał when he was giving a talk on one of our startup community events, probably 3 or 4 years ago, I think it was a Hive event. And I remember working while these guys have got a great vision. We don’t know each other that well, but Brainly is certainly one of the most visible startups from Poland and ...

Summary:

Project Kazimierz presents Paul Papadimitriou and Ivan Hernandez, with Richard Lucas and Sam Cook. Paul and Ivan, co-founders of Digital Loop, discuss podcasting and its effectiveness in distributing a message. Richard discusses angel investing and entrepreneurship with them. Finally, they look forward to predicting technology trends and how they judge startups to invest in.

Mentions and links:

* Paul’s website

* Paul’s Linkedin

* Paul’s Twitter

Paul’s Facebook Page

* Ivan’s blog

* Ivan’s Linkedin

* Ivan’s Twitter

 

* Digital Loop

* Bitspiration

* Freakonomics Radio

* LeWeb

* SeedLabs

* Age of Context by Robert Scobel

Table of contents:

Ivan’s and Paul’s Background

* 00:47 Sam’s introduction to the show

* 02:10 Richard tells how he met Ivan on Bitspiration

* 06:02 Paul’s story

Rebirth of podcasting

* 08:27 State of podcasting scene in Europe

* 11:55 The beginning of DigitalLoop

* 15:35 The hardest bits and learning curve about recording

* 22:27 The beauty of creating a good show

* 25:04 Power of the medium

Investing in technology

* 31:20 Paul’s opinion on investing in people

* 36:30 Situation in emerging markets

* 40:14 Growing your ecosystem

Predictions for upcoming trends in technology

* 47:40 Importance of connectivity

* 55:27 Hardware as added layer of complexity

* 56:40 Quality of end product relation with the ecosystem

* 59:00 Sources of innovation

* 01:02:40 Technology predictions

* 01:04:50 The importance of circumstances

Poland in international context

* 01:12:00 Piece of advice for all start-ups from Ivan

* 01:16:10 Tip for every entrepreneur from Paul

* 01:18:04 Sam’s recap and closing

* 01:19:52 Outro

Transcript:

00:47

sam cook:

Hello again Project Kazimierz listener, my name is Sam Cook the cohost of Project Kazimierz along with my host Richard Lucas. How are you doing Richard?

00:56

richard lucas:

Very well. Good afternoon or good morning or good night depending on what time of day you’re listening anywhere in the world..

01:01

Sam:

Hi Richard, your standard introduction. You ways start out with the evening and today you’d have to say all of them, right?

01:08

Richard:

Yeah…

01:09

Paul Papadimitriou:

… the change so…

01:11

Sam:

But, okay, so Richard and I have 2 very interesting guests today, Paul Papadimitriou, an entrepreneur turned lobbyist, innovation scout, world renowned keynote speaker in early stage st...

Project Kazimierz presents Peter Cowley, with Richard Lucas and Sam Cook. Peter discusses angel investing and how he came to be the UK Angel Investor of the Year in 2014. Richard and Peter talk about the different ventures they’ve invested in. They also break down why Peter is much better at it. Finally, Sam looks into growing his business, while Peter and Richard explain what success means to them.

ProjectKazimierz presents Mariusz Trojak, with Richard Lucas and Sam Cook. Mariusz is a professor of economics at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. They discuss economics and the changing economy of Poland pre- and post-war. Richard analyzes the way government can assist or hinder entrepreneurship and business growth. Sam discuss the effect of Communism on Poland and Mariusz explains why the effect was positive.

Project Kazimierz presents Will Bunker, with Richard Lucas and Sam Cook. Will was the founder of One-and-Only.com (currently owned by Match.com). He is a successful entrepreneur and investor. Richard and Will chat about their philosophies around investing. They discuss the importance of surrounding yourself with people that can bring you new ideas and ventures. Finally, Sam and Will look into analyzing data and its use in predicting startup success.