Episode Details

There are at least 70 cities in Europe which have at least one unicorn in them – a very different pattern from the US/UK ecosystems. Over 20 of these cities are in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). There is thus far more to CEE than a place to near-offshore your tech or dev team. In this episode Adam gives us both a tour de force et tour d’horizon of the vast region that is CEE –  – I was certainly impressed with my lack of knowledge of the tech landscape in the region which has developed super-fast. 

Adam is a rara avis having been a multiple-times founder, bank CEO and now long-term regional VC so has a super-good 360 degree perspective on the area which he leads us through.

Five years ago Adam co-founded OTB Ventures, an early-stage CEE VC based in Warsaw, who invest $1-15m in their CEE portfolio companies,

Topics discussed include:

• is tech concentrated in Warsaw or is it spread around Poland?
• other tech hubs in Poland
• Adam’s career journey – from great anecdote about how he started at BCG through founding several companies including perhaps of the first Fintech in the region in 2000 and Bank deputy CEO-ing
• experiences in Ukraine [in passing the podcast was recorded before the recent troubles]
• Angel-investing experience
• pivoting from Angeling to VC with a buddy who had been in Intel Capital for 18 years
• Kiev back in the day
• when was the CEE tech boom?
• reviewing the major features of the tech landscape in:
  • Poland – 15-20yrs ago gaming industry was the early market leader with global reach; other sectors increasing over past 5yrs.
  • the mid-size country gap – market big enough to get some success but not so small that one has to globalise right away
  • Finland (some count as CEE (?!)) – very key
  • Estonia – the largest number of tech unicorns per million people in the world
  • Lithuania
  • Ukraine– less local market and more connected to the US market
  • Czech – cyber-security especially
  • Slovakia – developing fast
  • Romania – UiPath listed on the Nasdaq is now worth $20bn…
  • Bulgaria – eg Payhawk (who were the guests in LFP187)
• the importance of local successes in encouraging other entrepreneurs to believe that they too can create a success in the country
• reasons to offshore in CEE:
  • price – pre-pandemic techies 1/3-1/4-ish of London rates, now ~1/2 London rate
  • quality
  • quantity
  • longevity as market less hot
• how to use CEE
  • less about offshoring and more about putting the whole tech team in the region
  • centering on a co-founder moving back into the region
  • centering on a key tech guy in the region
  • key-person-centric rather than “map centric”
  • importance of not just regarding people as “interchangeable resource” hence importance of deep cultural insight into the country one chooses in CEE
• importan