Business and the economy. THE UKRAINIAN DREAM How do the Ukrainians create in Poland start-ups worth millions of Polish zloty and what could we learn from them?

Thematic scope

SESSION CONDUCTED IN ENGLISH

Ukrainians and people of Ukrainian descent have established more unicorns than the Polish. WhatsApp was founded by a Ukrainian immigrant, Jan Koum. He was born in Fastov in eastern Ukraine, the part of the country ripped apart by the sound of Russian shelling. PayPal was co-created by Max Levchin (currently developing a company centred around fintech – Affirm), whilst Revolut owns its position partially to Vlad Yatsenko, an entrepreneur coming from Mykolaiv, one of the key targets of the Russian invasion. Do you use Snapchat? One of the technologies used in the application was developed by the Odessa-based team of Looksery, a Ukrainian start-up led by the brilliang Yuri Monastyrshin. Poland, where numerous industrious and talented founders live, can boast a similar result. Ukrainians perceive Poland to be their window to the world, as it offers them an opportunity to expand into Western European and American markets. Their advantage stems from the fact that their ideas are easily scalable. Because of the underdeveloped start-up ecosystem the founders had to create scalable businesses capable of making money right after their establishment. During the debate we will talk about the experience of Ukrainian entrepreneurs in Poland, the difference between start-up ecosystems in Poland and Ukraine, the influence of the war on their situation, as well as how can we help each other and learn from one another.