Poland
A few weeks back I visited Poland for the first time and went to a place called Sczeczin. I was there to talk to a new Angel Forum that has been set up there and the strange thing was that this talk came about because of my Canadian connection. (So, I was an Indian Brit, representing Canada, in Poland).
I was reminded that my Canadian adventure started with a talk at an angel conference two years ago. So who knows what this may be the start of?
There were many interesting things and it was good to hear from local Polish Business Angels. They were talking about exactly the same issues that angels talk about everywhere I have been. They were worried about due diligence, documentation, valuation etc . So, whilst my last couple of blogs may have highlighted the differences between angels in terms of what they look for, it is also good to know that on the broad issues, we agree.
I also met an American from Honolulu who is now living in this very small but charming part of the world. It is refreshing to see how many people around the world end up in strange places just because they visited a place once and fell in love with it.
I am still utterly fascinated by how former communist countries have made the transition from command to free economies. Anyone under 30 in Poland will probably not realise the enormity of the change their country has been through. It was great to see how Poland has for the most part avoided interpreting economic freedom as gangster capitalism as other Eastern European countries have.
Much of the focus of the debate was about how Universities can commercialise their innovations and it remains a very interesting topic. ISIS (University of Oxford commercialisation arm) presented and it was brilliant to hear how a leader in a field does it. However, there are dangers from trying to implement a model that works for one of the (if not the) leading University in the World with over 800 years of history.
My advice to entrepreneurs and angels would be to travel a bit every year. But I don’t mean travel as in holiday. I really do mean that you should go and try and speak to people involved in your industry across borders (perhaps there is an internet based matching opportunity here?)
And to Poland I say Czan quia!
