Storyteller Interviews: Startup Stories and Lessons from Central and Eastern Europe

In this episode we’ll be speaking with Jędrzej Kowalewski, CEO of Scanway. Scanway is a space technology company that works on both space and terrestrial applications, including photographing the earth from satellites for the Polish National Armed Forces. Hear how he moved from project to project as a student to consultant, finally running his own company and preparing for an IPO on the Polish stock market. Intro and Outro by TimMoor from Pixabay 2nd Intro: Fire - Jackson Aide Recorded on the Welder platform. Cover photo by Katie Figura

In this episode we’ll be speaking with Bartek Lipnicki, Founder and Managing Partner of Alfabeat a Polish based Venture Capital fund focused on investing in enterprise startups from Central and Eastern Europe. Alfabeat has invested in companies like Coinfirm, Intiaro and has a track record with a unicorn investment into Wolt, a food delivery startup. Listen in to hear how Bartek started his career at a major corporation and accidentally ended up in the world of startups to finally building his own venture capital fund. Intro and Outro by TimMoor from Pixabay 2nd Intro: Fire - Jackson Aide Recorded on the Welder platform. Cover photo by Katie Figura

In this episode we’ll be speaking with Uros Banjesevic, Founder and CCO at Mad Head Games in Novi Sad, Serbia. Mad Head Games is an award winning studio that has created titles including: Adam Wolfe, Rite of Passage and Pagan Absent Gods. They have also received numerous awards including Best Developer from All About Casual Games in 2016. Listen in to hear a story of passion, creativity and fortitude. Intro and Outro by TimMoor from Pixabay 2nd Intro: Fire - Jackson Aide Recorded on the Welder platform. Cover photo by Katie Figura

In this episode we’ll be speaking with Max Gladysh from Ukraine, founder and managing director of Botscrew. Botscrew is an enterprise platform for creating chatbots, a market expected to reach $20B by 2027. Max and team are focused on working with fortune 500 companies and believe it or not, helping pharmaceutical companies bring new drugs to market. Listen in to Max’s fascinating story and learn how he managed the bumps along the way. Intro and Outro by TimMoor from Pixabay 2nd Intro: Fire - Jackson Aide Recorded on the Welder platform. Cover photo by Katie Figura

In this episode we’ll be speaking with Chris Kobyłecki, COO and early employee of Innovation Nest.  Innovation Nest is a $50M Venture Capital firm focused on investing into and supporting early stage European B2B software founders. They’ve invested in over 60 different companies in the last decade, with the majority from Central and Eastern Europe.  Listen in to hear Chris’ experience as an early employee and how one of the pre-eminent Central and Eastern European funds evolved over time. Intro and Outro by TimMoor from Pixabay 2nd Intro: Fire - Jackson Aide Recorded on the Welder platform. Cover photo by Katie Figura

In this episode we’ll be speaking with Kalev Kärpuk of Estonia, founder and Ceo of Adact. Kalev is blazing a trail with Adact’s recently launched platform for gamification. The term "gamification" was coined  in 2003 and it took another 10 years for it to be used even in the slightest. Now almost 2 decades later we see companies not only utilizing it but building their entire presence and value offering around Gamification. That's why it's currently valued at anywhere between $7~9bn and growing 36% year-over-year, faster than E-commerce, Crypto and Legal-tech combined" Listen in to Kalev’s story and how he’s bringing Adact into the Gamification foray. Intro and Outro by TimMoor from Pixabay 2nd Intro: Fire - Jackson Aide Recorded on the Welder platform. Cover photo by Katie Figura

In this episode we’ll be speaking with Timmu Tõke of Estonia, founder and Ceo of Wolf3D. TImmu has led Wolf3D from it’s beginnings as a B2B hardware solution for capturing high resolution 3d face scans to today,  a consumer solution utilizing AI to create virtual avatars from just one selfie. Timmu and team are targeting the gaming industry, which is an over $140B market, bigger than music and film combined. Listen in to how his story evolved and what the future holds for online avatars in games, work and your social life. Intro and Outro by TimMoor from Pixabay 2nd Intro: Fire - Jackson Aide Recorded on the Welder platform. Cover photo by Katie Figura

In this episode we’ll be speaking with Mateusz Mucha of Krakow, Poland. Mateusz is a bootstrapped entrepreneur that has built a business around online calculators that solve our everyday tasks. At first glance it may seem like a small endeavor, but search queries are well into the billions per month for tasks anywhere from calculating tips, to the cost of raising children, to your wait time for vaccination. Omni calculator is on a mission to capture as big a piece of that traffic as they can, and the advertising dollars that come with it. With over 200% year over year growth over the last few years and featured in Wired, The new York Times and Tech crunch, listen to the story and lessons from the king of calculators. Intro and Outro by TimMoor from Pixabay 2nd Intro: Fire - Jackson Aide Recorded on the Welder platform. Cover photo by Katie Figura

This is the second part of a two part episode,  where we’ll be speaking with Johan Cutych of Prague once more. In this episode we’ll dive deeper into how his team’s weekend projects turned into a full fledged company providing high fidelity remote video recording and how they’re blending hackathons with a lifestyle business approach to form an innovative business platform called crazymonkeys. Intro and Outro by TimMoor from Pixabay 2nd Intro: Fire - Jackson Aide Recorded on the Welder platform. Cover photo by Katie Figura

Welcome to the first episode of Storyteller Interviews: Startup Stories and Lessons from CEE.  In this first part of a two part episode we'll be speaking with Johan Cutych of Prague. Johan is the founder and CEO of Welder, a platform for recording high quality digital video remotely. Johan will share his unique story of entrepreneurship resulting in his creation of Welder and Crazy Monkeys, a truly unique business ventured built around his lifestyle and values. Intro and Outro by TimMoor from Pixabay 2nd Intro: Fire - Jackson Aide Recorded on the Welder platform. Cover photo by Katie Figura