It’s only been a few years since Polish startups started gaining experience in foreign markets, but thanks to that a group of people capable of managing the technological business on an international scale has already appeared in Poland – said the participants of the debate on the future of digital technologies during the Impact’21 congress in Poznań (27-28 October 2021).
“Technological international business is successfully managed from Poland,” said Stefan Batory, founder, and CEO of Booksy, a company offering online booking of appointments in beauty and hair salons in more than a dozen countries in Europe, North and South America, as well as Australia and South Africa.
“We consider ourselves a global company, not a Polish one,” Stefan Batory stressed, noting that the key to international success is “quickly reaching out to the best people from around the world”.
According to him, 6-7 years ago, when Booksy was founded, there were few companies in Poland thinking about expanding abroad, but since then there has been a clear change.
“It is heartening to see that now founders of technology companies in Poland have global ambitions and plans. Thanks to this, Polish startups are growing faster than just a few years ago,” said the head of Booksy.
Participants in the debate pointed out that there are more and more people in Poland who have experience in international business management and work in global corporations, and it was the lack of such specialists that a few years ago was a major obstacle in the global expansion of Polish technology companies.
Participants in the debate also pointed out that the natural path for the international development of startups should be gaining experience and achieving good results on the Polish market, and then entering culturally close markets – mainly in Europe, and then in the US. However, expansion outside Europe should be well thought out, and it is worth entering Asian markets, particularly tempting in terms of size and absorption, with a large international partner.
On the Impact’21 website we can read that:
“Impact’21 is a place for exchanging views and substantive discussions held at the meeting point of business, politics, science, and modern technologies. A wide group of experts allows for a multi-level discussion and creates an opportunity to work out solutions that may turn out to be key in building the development potential of the Polish economy”