Wroclaw – A Perfect Place To Launch Your Startup

Wroclaw is a beautiful city. It is modern but still has a lot of historical architecture which adds to its beauty. What’s more important, at least in modern day economies, that Wroclaw is a city which provides outstanding business opportunities. It is home to startups like Live Chat and Cloud Your Car. Looking for a team member? There is plenty of local startup events (held in English as well) – just stop by and network!

How do I know all of this? Well, I moved to Wroclaw myself. Here are three reasons I decided to do so:

• Developers – you can outsource your startup to one of many software houses that specialize in startup projects.
• Business opportunities – you can literally find an investor in an elevator: Google, IBM, Nokia, Microsoft and other companies are already here.
• People – Love is in the air 😉

Go To Wroclaw!

Advantages Of Starting Up In Wroclaw:

• The city officials are very supportive. The City has its own startup meetup once a month (called Startup Południe).
• There is a lot of startup communities which bring together businessmen, developers and investors.
• Need a mentor? Wroclaw is a city of many successful startups.
• If you are looking for a freelancer, you can simply go to one of the co-working spaces and find him on the spot.
• There is plenty of software houses which outsource a whole startup development so you can just focus on the business part and leave tech stuff to the professionals.
• You do not speak Polish? No worries. Almost everyone in Wroclaw knows English. You can find an office in city center for a fair amount of money and there are a lot of offices to choose from.
• We have one of the most advanced Technology Parks in the country.
• There is more than 40 business incubators to start your project fast, cheap and without useless paperwork.
• We have an international airport and the city itself is a few hours from Berlin by car.

What Startup Founders Might Want To Consider:

• Most of the meetings are in Polish but the networking can be done in English.
• Young startup founders are students with no business experience, but… they are VERY talented.
• From the other hand, you can share your experience with others and – in no time – become a local celebrity 🙂
• You can get stuck in a traffic jam past 4PM

So…

While already in Wroclaw, I met a man from the US. He spent a year researching for “a perfect city” for his business. Guess what? Well, we met in Wroclaw…. From low crime rate to high happiness level, if you are looking for new business opportunities or just a fresh start – the Polish Silicon Valley welcomes you.

First Step: Connect With Wroclaw’s People

The startup community is dynamically growing faster more than ever, as students often choose to put their skills into launching a startup. There is a lot of opportunities to be seized. The community consists of small, specialized groups. You can find the official catalogue of startups here.

Info On Upcoming Events, Meetups & Other Occasions:

• If you are experienced entrepreneur you should closely follow InvestInWroclaw – the web site is available in English as well.
• One the biggests FB-based startup communities is RushWRO.
• You can post or find a startup job.
• Try the official startup group and the Bootstrap Wroclaw.
• Startup Weekend Wroclaw on FB – in English.
• There are some catalogues of startup-focused events. Most of them are tied to IT. First of all, try the English Meetup Site, but there is also MADE IN WRO – a local startup events site.
• Check out one of the the biggest Polish services – Crossweb.
• JCI Wroclaw – JCI is an international organization that helps startups, there is a lot of business oriented events throughout the month. The best idea is to subscribe to their newsletter. Most events are held in Polish, but you can freely use English.
• ASBIRO Wroclaw – a series of networking meetings with young entrepreneurs.
• Aula Polska Wroclaw – a series of meetings with experienced and successful startups and entrepreneurs.
• TEDxWroclaw – independently organized TEDx events held in English.
• Go Wroclaw – there is an official city catalogue of all type of events – in English.

Regular Events And Meetups:

Feel free to use English in the following groups:

• Tech Saturdays – the idea is to learn from successful startups and meet new people, event is organized once a month. If you are in Wroclaw – this is the first meetup you should go to.
• Startup Południe – meetings with experienced and successful startups organized by the city officials.
• 1st Million Toastmasters – Toastmasters is an international organization that helps people to lead others and teaches them public speaking. One of the clubs focuses on helping startups in particular. By the way, I am a proud member and co-founder of this club 🙂
• WFS – if you are looking for a business partner, WFS might be a place to go, as attendees are young and successful entrepreneurs.
• ZajezdniaDabie – it’s a place where you can meet interesting people, mostly entrepreneurs and freelancers.

Yearly Or Major Events, Festivals, Conferences:

• StartUp Mixer AIP Wroclaw – startup speech contest that is in a way similar to Dragons’ Den.
• Wroclaw Business Starter – I guess the name says it all, a perfect opportunity to kick off your project.
• There are some big conferences organized once in a while (like Smarcity) or as a part of a series (like MJM). The best way to keep track of new ones is to simply follow this link.

There Are Also Some Volunteering Opportunities:

• To start as a volunteer check out Tech Saturday, TEDxWroclaw, JCI and WFS.

Second Step: Park At A Cool Place In Wroclaw

I know and I can recommend a few coworking spaces.There are others to choose from: the city provides an updated list. From my experience:

• if your priority is networking – go to AIP Wroclaw,
• if you would like to be right in the city center – try Idea Place.

Want More?

• Business Link Wroclaw – similar to AIP, targeting at more mature project. Definitely, worth checking out.
• Panato – very different model of coworking: supports creative thinking and facilitates payment per hour.
• Workband – want to rest in a stylish lounge at your break? This one is for you.
• Colaborawork – renovated tenement house, a great piece of Wroclaw architecture is waiting for you… and accepts hourly payments.
• Co- mamy – ideal solutions for parents. You child will never be bored while you are working, because a professional babysitter will take a great care of him/her.
• Hello – provides 24 hour help desk.
• Biurolandia – 320 square meters of office space with additional facilities.

Third Step: Take Care Of Your Financing In Wroclaw

Incubators:

• DAIP – you should consider it, especially if you are a hardware-based startup.
• AIP Wroclaw – fast growing and having much to offer in terms of networking.
• AIP Politechnika – an incubator that is strongly tied to local technical university.

As I mentioned there are over 40 incubators, most of them are minor and are simply extensions of universities. A few examples:

Accelerators:

• RST LIFT-OFF Startup Accelerator – a private accelerator with extra fast enlisting process.
• Business Link Wroclaw – it has a coworking space as well.
• Venture Incubator – an accelerator with pretty impressive portfolio.

Crowd Investing Platforms:

• CrowdCube – is a equity equity crowdfunding platform.
• Wspieram.to is perfect if you need small amounts of money for your project.
• PolakPotrafi.pl is the leading platform in Poland.

Venture Capital Investors:

• Arkley – they have some major successes, worth checking out especially if you are hardware-based.
• AIP Seed Capital – they have already funded over 100 startups.

These are only the highlights… If you are looking for funds in Wroclaw you should definitely check out local advisers, like PEC or SKwiecien.pl. As I mentioned above, events like Wroclaw Business Starter will help you raise cash quickly.

Fourth Step: Always Look For More In Wroclaw

If you are looking for a city with a successful startup community, effective business development models and also a place that is great to live: Wroclaw is your new home. There are plenty of startups outsourcing their IT to us, both from Europe and from the US. Imagine if you were here, right on the spot: you could outrun your competition and keep track on things much smoother than remotely. Imagine how it will speed up the whole development of your project.

If you are looking for investment opportunities: follow the Invest in Wroclaw site.
For additional links and support visit the website of the City of Wroclaw. Keep track on this short list of startup events. Last but not least, feel free to contact me directly.

The city is ready for you. Are you ready for us? 😉

______________________

Many thanks for contributing to this guide to Anna Romanowicz.

Last updated: August 25th, 2016

The guides are like startup communities – they constantly change and grow. Make sure to check for updates and if you have something to add or want to publish one for your city, get in touch right away! And don’t forget to enrich the startup ecosystem by creating your company profile at StartUs!

Sharing is caring!