People misunderstand Poland. Real estate cannot be the only respected investment path forever.
Just because Poland has less venture capital than the U.S. doesn’t mean Poland is poor.
The real difference is mindset, risk appetite, and ecosystem maturity.
After attending the YC Stockholm event and talking with YC founders and Paul Graham, one thing became very clear to me:
If I want to build a “Made in Poland” unicorn at global scale, San Francisco is still the best place in the world right now.
And trust me I actually want to be wrong.
But the speed, ambition, founder density, and capital deployment in SF are still unmatched.
A few thoughts after my trip:
1️⃣ Poland still has very few YC founders compared to ecosystems like Stockholm.
That doesn’t mean Poland lacks talent.
We absolutely have world-class founders, engineers, and builders.
The problem is:
We are not identifying, supporting, and exposing the highest-potential founders early enough.
YC Stockholm felt different because the ecosystem constantly pushes ambitious people into rooms with other ambitious people.
That compounds over time.
2️⃣ Stockholm ecosystems move slower culturally, but they still win in startups and VC.
Why?
Because the ecosystem supports risk-taking.
In Poland, people often work harder, worry more about survival, and hustle like crazy.
But hard work alone is not enough.
You also need:
Ambitious capital
Founder culture
Global thinking
Mentorship
Second-time founders reinvesting
A society that respects startup risk
Hosting startup events alone will never build the “SF of Central Europe.”
We need to change the mindset around investing, ambition, and failure.
Real estate cannot be the only respected investment path forever.
3️⃣ Stockholm has incredible founders.
But Poland also has cracked founders.
The difference is visibility, network effects, and ecosystem maturity.
At YC Stockholm, I saw young founders traveling there just to learn from the best builders in the world.
That culture matters.
The next generation of elite founders is built through proximity.
I genuinely believe Poland can produce globally iconic companies and it’s already happening.
Just look at the cracked founders behind ElevenLabs and Booksy.
But they didn’t build those companies fully based in Poland.
Now you already know the answer why ?
Poland, we need to stop thinking small.