It’s the time to girl up!
New York Times in its 2018 article, which outraged millions across the globe,claimed, “there are almost as many men named John in American leadership roles as there are women”. While the lack of women in leadership positions remains to be a challenge in many domains, they are further outnumbered when it comes to running and founding tech companies.
What about Poland?
Things are not very different at home. According to Startup Poland 2019 Report, only 24,6% of startups have a female co-founder and this percentage is decreasing year to year.
The same problem refers to Krakow ecosystem, so far, we have been able to identify only a dozen or so startups in Krakow that are co-founded or co-managed by a female entrepreneur.
Becoming Part of the Solution
To address this challenge and accelerate the growth of women-led businesses in Malopolska, OMGKRK has launched a unique mentoring program for female founders. The program is getting a lot of traction as the webpage continues to be the most visited page on OMGKRK’s website.
Meet the Mentors
The program boasts of an excellent line-up of mentors who can help the applicants with various aspects of running a business. From fellow female entrepreneurs to Krakow’s top CEOs, from legal experts to venture capitalists, the list of mentors is very diverse. Check out their profiles:
Justyna Wysocka-Golec – Co-Founder & CEO at LGM S.A.
Justyna Janicka – Co-founder at 1000 realities
Justyna is a co-founder of 1000 realities – a software studio focused on Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR).
They help to enhance brand engagement and business-to-consumer interactions, present projects, and create immersive, super engaging tools for training employees/engineers.
Anna Rys – CEO, Anymind
Anna is building a startup called dodo.work, aiming to help freelancers and employers to get connected like never before – using machine learning to match freelancers into on-demand project teams, based on their skills, personalities, project requirements, employer profile and more.
Justyna Uman-Ntuk – Founder – innoMED.co
Trained as a Pharmacist, Justyna came up with the idea of combining the world of medicine, new technologies and business was born to facilitate the creation of innovative projects in Poalnd. Events organized by innoMED attract innovators and people open to cooperation and development. We organize conferences and events for medicine, pharmacy, new technologies and entrepreneurship.
Bogumila Matuszewska-Wojtyła – Co-Founder – DrOmnibus
Bougmila is the cofounder of DrOmnibus. It is the first company from Poland and one of four European startups in Google Launchpad Accelerator 2017. DrOmnibus create modern, comprehensive multimedia tools that support ABA therapy for children with autism. Bougmila has been featured in Forbes 30 under 30 and Financial Times’s New Europe 100:
Eastern Europe’s emerging technology stars.
Agata Frankiewicz – Founder & CEO at Deko Eko
Passionate leader with a clear vision of success. Has a unique mix of competencies in marketing, advertising, design & circular economy. Currently running a fast growing company Dekoeko.com – an upcycling platform which cooperate with local designers to convert company’s waste into well designed consumer products.
Experienced in marketing, advertising and CSR projects for such companies like Bols, Bakoma, Hoop Cola, Polpharma, McDonald’s, IKEA, Orange, T-mobile. Circular economy expert.
Alina Usyk – COO at myREST / Senior Associate at State Street
Alina is the COO of myREST. She is passionate about finance and business development and is experienced in working with clients and setting the operating process as team leader in business and also non-profit organisation TEDxKazimierz.
Anna Ogar – CEO at Insignes Labs Sp. z o.o.
Anna is the CEO of Insignes Labs and co-founder of Hussar Tech. She founded Insignes Labs, a startup company specializing in antimicrobial additive for plastics, paints and textiles. Despite limited resources and barely any knowledge in business and legal affairs, she managed to establish a business with high potential for growth and success. This was a difficult and at times bewildering experience but at the same time very rewarding.
Magda Kordon – PhD, CEO, Founder at intoDNA
Magda is a founder of intoDNA and I have a research background in biophysics, cell biology and the fields of biology of cell nucleus, chromatin structure, DNA damage repair and CRISPR-Cas biology. She is an inventor on a patent describing the highly sensitive technique of detection of free ends of DNA in situ in cells. Magda earned my Masters and PhD in Cell Biophysics at Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
Tomasz Wesołowski CEO & Co-founder, Edward.ai
He spent last 15 years in the internet-industry as an entrepreneur, advisor, and board member of several companies. Founder and managing director of one of the biggest polish software houses, now he is involved in creating an intelligent assistant for B2B sales teams.
Zygmunt Łodziński – Operation Director, VisionCube
Director of Operation in IT Company with strong business planing and market strategy background. My experience is a mix of business approach with team management since I`ve been playing and now also coaching American football team in Cracow.
Jakub Żbikowski – Director of Innovation Financing Strategy, Exeq
Jakub is an expert in public funding for R&D and innovations, who specializes in designing and implementing funding strategies for startups and SMEs. Over the last 12 years, he was involved in nearly 200 projects for companies all over Europe.
Maxime Polesello – General Manager, Sinterit
Maxime is the Managing Director of Sinterit, the worldwide leader on compact SLS 3D Printers. Before joining the 3D printing industry, he had the opportunity to work for various industries (aircraft, automotive, home automation) and different sizes of companies from startups to multinationals and successfully led many “scale-up” projects in challenging environments and market.
Dominika Walec – Vice President, Foundation Supporting #OMGKRK – Head of Partnerships, Estimote
Dominika is responsible for the Foundation’s strategic development. For the past 7 years she’s been running Estimote’s business operations in 100+ countries supporting establishment of new IOT start-ups and digital transformations of world’s-leading brands like Nestle, Air France, FC Barcelona.
She has extensive experience in managing multipartner projects and facilitating S2B & B2B collaboration. Her joint portfolio of projects encompasses 10+ projects with €6M budget.
Filip Moscicki – Business Development – Archdesk
Archdesk – dedicated project management tool for the construction industry. Board Member at MoTu Sp. z o.o. He has over 10 years of experience in his field of expertise. Outgoing, enthusiastic and open-minded about everything he does. He is a team player, leader, and love to work with people! Confident, hands-on, excited to face new challenges and opportunities. Loves to travel, experience new cultures, and meet new people. He is a realist who believes that with hard work anything is possible.
Gabi Malacha – Creative Director, Mniej Więcej
Gabi is an art director and graphic designer. She has 12 years of experience in art direction, branding, visual identity, creating websites, mobile apps and illustrations. She is passionate about sustainability and always trying to implement environmentally friendly solutions to her ideas. She was responsible for creating Estimote brand, that in 2014 won “Must Have” award for designing beacons.
Piotr Lipnicki – CTO, Reliability Solutions
Piotr is a CTO at Reliability Solutions in Kraków. He’s expertise is AI, ML and data science powered by industrial background. He has previous experience in running R&D projects and leading cooperation between startups and corporates for large industrial companies.
Gabriela Zalejska – Trzepla – CEO, Workwill
Gabriela is a CEO of WORKWILL. An energetic professional, for whom the industry of innovative technologies is a constant source of inspiration and development. At work, she focuses on building strong, long-term relationships with clients and partners. A law graduate, enthusiastically developing her interests in psychology and management.
Jan Marczyński – Attorney-at-law, Partner at JWMS JAKUBOWSKI WIESE MAZGAJ STASZEK
Jan is an attorney-at-law, partner at JWMS Jakubowski Wiese Mazgaj Staszek law firm in Kraków. He helps both developed business and start-ups with legal matter related to their business, including analysing legal aspects of the business idea, informing about challenges related to setting up rules within the co-founding team and assuring that documentation meets standards required by potential investors.
Michael Ros – CEO & Co-Founder, Bidroom
Michael is the Co-Founder and CEO of Bidroom – the world’s first no-commission, membership-based hotel platform that offers best hotel prices to frequent travelers and a fair business environment to hoteliers. His award-winning subscription startup is on a mission to change the online hotel booking market worldwide to the benefit of its consumers. Previously, he was the Director of Sales and Marketing for a multi-million international enterprise in the hospitality industry and later on he also founded and sold Travelservice travel agency.
Maciej Gnutek – Principal, Innovation Nest
At Innovation Nest Maciek is responsible for sourcing and evaluation of potential investments and working with portfolio companies. Loves getting familiar with new business models, crunching numbers and diving into financial modelling. Previously gained experience in management consulting and public sector working as an advisor to the Minister of Infrastructure and Development of Poland.
Daria Plona – HR Manager, Grand Parade
Daria is an experienced HR leader who helped scaling Grand Parade from 120 to 350 people. She is passionate about talent development and loves facilitating training sessions. She advocates for women in technology and leadership and can share her own experience of managing a busy professional life along with being a mum.
Kinga Hepner-Hołda – Delivery Lead, Grand Parade
Kinga is always asking about value, benefits and goals, focused on doing the right things instead of making things right. Experienced Business Analyst, Scrum Master, Team Coach, Delivery Lead, cat lover and home brewer.
Justyna Sroka – International Communications Executive, Grand Parade
Justyna is communications specialist & people person with strong marketing and branding experience in IT and technology sector. Feel free to ask for advice on creating and driving various communications strategies from scratch as well as executing marketing activities & people engagement projects.
