I invest in early stage startups in CEE 🇵🇱 🇺🇦 🇱🇻 🇪🇪 🇱🇹 🇷🇴 @smokvc l Co-founded @filmaster @Reaktor_X @StartupPoland | I ❤️ 🎥 🏀 & @olamusielak
Warsaw, Poland
Joined September 2008
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15 years ago today, Reaktor was born.
We just wanted a place to work, but we've built the Warsaw startup ecosystem instead.
It was July 2011. I just came back from my first trip to San Francisco where I was inspired by startup mansions like the Blackbox Mansion, and I thought - why not build this in Warsaw?
We teamed up with @kubafilipowski who has been thinking about something similar for a while, and my college pal @anwalkowska. The three of us were just launching their own startups, @filmaster, HumanWay and Homplex. But we also wanted more from the office than just work. So we invited friends from the small Warsaw startup world to join us... and they did.
In the following 10 years we launched 82 legendary #OpenReaktor events, 10 amazing birthday parties, dozens of mentoring and matchmaking sessions. We hosted startup legends like @jerrycolonna or @bragiel as well as the rising starts of polish startups at the time like @elamadej @sbatory or @sadek.
In 2016 @dianakoziarska joined as house manager and she took it to the next level launching the pre-accelerator program ReaktorX which helped 200+ founders launch their startups.
Without Reaktor there wouldn't be @smokvc as we wouldn't have met this many amazing people who later became our mentors and LPs in the fund.
Till this day every week I meet someone who tells me they met their cofounder, investor, employer or friend for life at one of the OpenReaktor events.
We closed the house in COVID time when we were busy launching our first fund. But the @Reaktor_X brand is alive and kicking - currently run by @Stirbat_Luca in San Francisco where he's supporting the most ambitious under 25-year-old founders from Central and Eastern Europe.
What a week in the San Francisco Bay Area!
I met my partners in crime @bragiel & @danbragiel, portfolio founders @sonia_piorek @LesyaHendrix @yfilipch @AntonPolishko @arturkiulian Pati Brzozowska, many old and new friends like @tyggy @neffko @cparjaszewski @thisismosalah @promethe @calikasia @KielakKacper @Igor__Markov @mikitamikado & more!
It's been too long since I last visited so I'm making the pledge to come to SF *at least* once a year from now on.
Off to New York City today on the same mission of (re)connecting the Polish, Ukrainian and CEE diaspora.
See you soon! – at San Francisco, CA
Borys Musielak @ New York City retweeted
We 50x'ed in the past 4 weeks:
> I moved to SF
> organically viral on X, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn
> hired most cracked engineer ever (was hacking Twitch at 18)
> we're outpacing teams 100-1000x our size
We build a General Purpose Simulator for entertainment.
Should we raise?
more soon
(we got another 100x in the pipeline)
Turystyka startupowa nie działa.
Musisz być tu na miejscu, jeśli chcesz zbierać pieniądze od kalifornijskich VC i sprzedawać tutejszym klientom.
Przynajmniej przez kilka miesięcy.
Wrzucam moje przemyślenia po powrocie do San Francisco, choć tylko na tydzień.
Next stop: NYC. – at San Francisco, CA
Thank you @cparjaszewski for inviting me to Founders Gatherings in San Francisco! Super cool low key meetup for early stage founders. – at San Francisco, CA
Last night I hosted a CEE Diaspora meetup at European Startup Embassy in San Francisco. Over 100 people showed up and the energy was fantastic!
As our diaspora portfolio at @smokvc is growing I'm planning to be more often in town so this is definitely not the last meetup.
Thank you @VCincurova7829 & ESE team for hosting and all the friends showing up! – at San Francisco, CA
150+ CEE founders approved for our @smokvc party at European Startup Embassy later today. San Francisco is such tech capital of this world!
If you haven't signed up yet, RVSP here asap:
luma.com/u1pso5wc and reply so that I can approve you.
See you soon! – at San Francisco, CA
I'll have breakfast tomorrow @ North Beach, San Francisco with a great builder. DM if it's you. – at San Francisco, CA
MIA ⛱️ -> SFO 🌉 🦄
Looking to meet old buddies and meet new ones. It's been a while!
Wanna hang out? DM!
And don't forget to RVSP to @CeeStartup meetup on Wednesday: luma.com/u1pso5wc
#ceevalley – at San Francisco, CA
Last night we had another @smokvc CEE diaspora dinner, this time in Miami, Florida with @sbatory @gregokon @natalbrzezinski @1annafrankowska @uldis @ihor_bauman & other Miami-based entrepreneurs originally from Eastern Europe.
San Francisco next! – at Miami Beach, FL
I'm in San Francisco next week and you're all invited to our @smokvc party at European Startup Embassy this coming Wednesday!
I'm especially happy to meet Eastern European entrepreneurs building in the Valley as well as local venture capitalists and angels investing in diaspora founders.
We've already made over 10 investments in San Francisco founders from Poland🇵🇱, Ukraine🇺🇦, Romania🇷🇴 and looking to add more over the coming years.
See you in SF next week!
RVSP: luma.com/u1pso5wc
VC bierzesz tylko wtedy kiedy wiesz że nie dasz rady wygrać rynku bez kapitału.
W przeciwnym razie - bootstrap to najlepsza droga.
My US trip starts tomorrow in Miami 🏖️🇺🇸
Exited to meet CEE diaspora folks over the next few days and experience the Vice City during the new GTA launch.
Also, let's hope 8 see Giannis 🔥🏀 win their first game this season against Pacers on Friday.
See you around!
Software jest dziś najtańszy w historii.
Dystrybucja jest najdroższa w historii.
Nadchodzą ciężkie czasy dla bootstrapu, a złote czasy dla venture capital.
Firmy z kasą z VC jeszcze bardziej zdominują konkurencyjne globalne rynki.
Dla bootstrap zostanie nisza.
Borys Musielak @ New York City retweeted
We need a true 28th regime so that a company can incorporate once and operate under one set of rules in every member state. We must harmonize the treatment of employee stock options so that European talent shares in European success.
@vonderleyen
@eucopresident
@_CStocker
@Bart_DeWever
@IlianaIotova
@AndrejPlenkovic
@Christodulides
@AndrejBabis
@Statsmin
@KristenMichalPM
@PetteriOrpo
@EmmanuelMacron
@_FriedrichMerz
@kmitsotakis
@magyarpeterMP
@MichealMartinTD
@GiorgiaMeloni
@AndrisKulbergs
@GitanasNauseda
@LucFrieden
@RobertAbela_MT
@RobJetten
@donaldtusk
@LMontenegropm
@NicusorDanRO
@RobertFicoSVK
@JJansaSDS
@sanchezcastejon
@SwedishPM
DM if you're in town for Warsaw Tech Week!
Let's meet on Monday or Tuesday
as I'm flying to Miami ⛱️ on Wednesday morning.
#polandtechweek #techwawa #polandmaxing
In Warsaw for #PolandTechWeek?
Join our Wednesday event with 5 @ycombinator founders from CEE on whether you should apply to YC.
Sign up:
luma.com/sde7u7ib
Dobry advisor na początku drogi budowania start-upu może być więcej wart niż najlepszy VC. Taki impact miał na nas @markdeq jak budowaliśmy @filmaster (acquired by @sambaintel in 2015).