Chris Kowalczyk - GammaRebels - Poland - Stanford Engineering - Mar 11 2013

transcript

www.gammarebels.com chris@hardgamma.com @kkowalcz

#gammarebels #hardgamma

Krzysztof (Chris) Kowalczyk

Founder & Managing Partner GammaRebels / HardGamma Ventures

chris@hardgamma.com

European Entrepreneurship & Innovation (ME421)

Stanford Engineering School

March 11, 2013

Poland? Between which countries :)?

• Studied in Poland and Germany (M.Sc. in Qualitative Methods and

Information Systems + Masters in International Management from

• Founded first company in the 90s (IT Support), joined Internet

startup in 2000 (ISP+Web) and launched current company 2005

(consulting) / 2010 (fund)

• Corporate experience: P&G (UK,US), PwC, Lycos, McKinsey&Co.

• Academic experience (2000-2008): WSE Assistant Professor,

WEMBA (CSOM, UoM) MIS Lecturer

About me

Startup Weekend, E-nnovation, BitSpiration

(2010)

(2011)

(2005)

(till 2011 as

UBIK Business Consulting)

(2013)

• A cash investment of up to $15,500 in return for 10% equity +

$80.000 worth of cloud services from Google and Microsoft Support

from 70 mentors (40% international) Office space in the center of

Warsaw (GammaFactory) Demo Days in Warsaw and London plus

‘digital mission’ to SV

• Part of HardGamma Ventures Fund (follow-up opportunity)

• 6 startups in GR1, 7 in GR2

GammaRebels

GammaRebels - Demo Day

GAMMAFACTORY - creative tech space

Big ideas & innovation area

At Hoża 51 street, in the Centre of Warsaw, old and renovated cheese factory, special place bristling with creativity and innovation.

>8000 sqf (750 sqm)

Event space

Conference room ∼ 120 persons

Tech showroom

Co-working for ∼ 40 persons

HardGamma offices

Internal wine bar :)

Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft official technology

partners of GF

PORTFOLIO: 38 entries (24 PL, 13 UK, 1 US) / 31 active

Angel Advisorship

HGV Fund Accelerator

stealth

Among most recognized in Europe

•(2013) GammaRebels shortlisted as "Best European Startup Accelerator/Incubator"

•(2011) GammaRebels Highly Commended as "Best European Startup Accelerator"(2011)

HardGamma Ventures Highly Commended as "Best VC of the Year 2011"(2011) Chris

Kowalczyk Highly Commended as "Best VC Partner of the Year"(2011) BusyFlow (portfolio)

nominated 'Best Startup Tool For Startups'(2010) Codility (portfolio) awarded 'Best Startup Tool

For Startups'

Early stage investment ecosystem in Poland

backed

incubators

($70M)

14 govt.

backed VCs

($300M)

Funds with

only private

Accelerators

(YC-like)

ENGINEERING TALENT (PL)

ENGINEERING TALENT (PL,US)

ENGINEERING TALENT (PL, US, EU)

ECONOMY IN A (RELATIVELY) GOOD SHAPE

POLES (RELATIVELY) HAPPY ;)

• EU money = easy money => higher valuations

• lack of experienced, serial tech entrepreneurs

• Poland is mostly a “sales” market, no serious R&D (besides Google & Intel)

• No clear success story so far (i.e. no Polish Skype so far)

• No country branding (i.e. no “Estonian mafia” notion)

• Wrocław and Cracow became hubs for software development outsourcing,

draining the talent pool

Challenges

• Startups solving too narrow problems

• Dealflow drain

• Network effects?

• That’s why HGV invests in

Springboard / TechStars London

Doubts about acceleration model

#gammarebels #hardgamma

SELECTED PORTFOLIO

COMPANIES

SHOWROOM - Series A from Burda International

CubeYourMind / Hacienda HD

Appvetica (mobile lab)

Manubia (e-commerce analytics)

Intelclinic (IoT)

BusyFlow

Codility (testing coders)

Macoscope (iOS/MacOS lab)

Krzysztof Kowalczyk

HardGamma Founder +1.415.657.6616 (US) +48.602.366.675 (PL) chris@hardgamma.com

@kkowalcz

Thanks for having us!

Magda Kwoska

GammaRebels Program Director +1.415.657.6434 (US) +48.501715538 (PL) magda.kwoska@hardgamma.com

@mkwoska

Chris Kowalczyk - GammaRebels - Poland - Stanford Engineering - Mar 11 2013

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