Remember Soviet Union? 30% of all R&D efforts of USSR were performed in Ukraine. High-tech, space tech, nano, bio - they did it all. This tells you something about local engineering talent. Multiply that by increasing internet penetration, access to business know-how and venture capital. What you get is a vast pool of potential breakthrough businesses waiting to be incubated and cultivated. Cheap.

And that’s as far as global opportunities are concerned. Ukraine itself has a population of 50 mln and is a potential outlet to the Russian 200 mln people market. We’re talking about rather homogenious and isolated market. Think copycating. Think replicating proven business models. Any questions?

Quite a few in fact. Like - how is it there? What are the people like? What about labour costs? Recruitment services? Infrastructure? Political and legislative stability? Infrastructure and business environment?

When flying to Ukraine I had all these questions bouncing in my head. I was hoping to clarify some of these issues during TMT.Ventures‘08 Kiev conference hosted by New Europe Events.

Few months back I’ve met an Ukrainian entreprenuer and a great guy Yegor Anchishkin. Based on that experience I was expecting a lot and I must say I wasn’t dissapointed.

Ukraine is an emerging market for sure but apart from its local engineering talent it’s got great connections with Sillicon Valley through numerous ex-USSR inhabitants now living around the world and in the Bay Area itself. They know what’s left back home and they’re taking advantage of it while the global and regional VC funds consider it too early to enter Ukraine.

The conference agenda looked great. So did the speakers list. If that wasn’t enough I was expecting an emotional and thrilling 7 minutes contest. Nice package.

For starters Andrzej Jasieniecki, MCI Investment Director, proved his language skills when speaking Russian and surprising most people in the audience. Because of the big internal market some people know English rather passively which doesn’t stop them from building successfull businesses. Andrzej IMHO is one of the most successful VCs in Poland by the way.

Another positive surprise for the audience came with presentation of Ms. Lidia Adamska, v-ce President of the Warsaw Stock Exchange. She speaks both Russian and English which certainly helps. Her business English and presentation skills were the best I’ve heard from a non-native speaker. That’s class. WSE’s offerings sold themselves as an alternative to other markets like LSE. Cheaper, closer, equally stable and secure and they speak Russian.

Speaking next was Tomasz Czechowicz who is one of the most successful and most distinguished VCs in Central Europe. In fact I think his top-ranked-CEO-style presentation and image is a bit intimidating for most entreprenuers. I’ve seen it at several different occasions and in many countries. He’s all business. All other VCs say that.

One of the highlights of the event was also a Paul Fisher presentation. Paul represents Advent Venture Partners and a Westerners easy-going personality. And he’s a fun guy to be around. Just like few months back in Warsaw he raised great interest and did a lot of networking after the presentation. Easterners dig Westerners like Paul, Greg or Sean.

Then the most anticipated part of the event commenced. The 7 minutes contest is is a unique competition for innovative entrepreneurs and their projects from the space of telco, new media and new technologies. It is an express elevator up to the community of investors and experienced businesspeople with decision-making power whose recommendations and support are like rocket fuel for the projects aimed in the right direction.

â??7 minutesâ?? is also a challenge for entrepreneurs trying to make an impression and deliver a convincing presentation in an extremely short period of 7 minutes. It is a test of self-confidence and charisma for the project-leaders standing in front of a demanding audience, their competition, world-class investors, bloggers and media people.

And it was moderated by Yuri Boyko - an eloquent engineer, hi-tech entreprenuer well known to many venture capitalists, an invited speaker at the industry and scientific conferences and co-organizer of master classes for high-tech start-ups. I must say he was the perfect guide for the young and not-so young Ukrainian ‘7 minutes’ finalists. Very involved and really supportive. And he flew over from the States to do this job. Just like in previous contests I was the moderator’s side-kick running the 7 minutes clock and viciously stopping the finalists presentations. That was fun. Hopefully most people got the idea of self-improvement and polishing their presentations.

The ‘7 minutes’ presentations … I’ll update this piece later.

Then the discussion panels followed. Since they were in Russian and the simultaneus translation wasn’t too accurate I didn’t get much of it but one thing is sure - these folks mean business.

All of this couldn’t have happend if it wasn’t for Denis Dovgopoliy of BayView Innovations - the local business angel and investor relations consultant. Denis knows everyone, pickes the most promising start-ups and flies to San Francisco several times a year to get them going. He’s the local go-to-guy if you want to invest in Ukraine. And he’s smart to stay independent from any particular VC fund too dispite many employment offers. That’s how emerging markets work.

Having a beer with a global VC sounds good but try to arrange it and you will learn it is not easy at all. ;-)

Here’s my HOW TO and case study from a night before TMT.Ventures’08 Kiev conference.

First - you have to understand that a VC may have plenty of money under management but has very little time for having beers with entreprenuers. Perhaps the easiest way to have a beer with a VC is to register at a conference s/he is speaking at. But if you think offering a beer before or after the presentation is a good idea - think again. You have to count on inconvenient flight connection which places an unsuspecting VC in a strange city the evening before or after the official event.

Second - you have to know the right people. Sometimes there’s an unofficial networking dinner before or after the conference. Sometimes there isn’t which doesn’t mean a VC will stay in his/hers hotel all night. Good intel is crucial at this point. You must know the organizer like Ewa Stepien of New Europe Events.

Third - you must understand that even if there’s no official networking party your chosen VC will not wonder around the city at random. S/he will choose a place in order to maximize ROI making the most of the limited time at hand. Most probably s/he will choose a hotel bar/restaurant or an irish pub where there’s a chance someone will speak english and signs on the toilet doors will be in English and not in some unrecognizable and strange language. And s/he will let the organizer of the event know where s/he is in order to make some people go there.

Then - you need one more person to accomplish your mission. A local guide with an intimate knowledge of the local night live, bars and restaurants. Not just any guide but a person doing business with VCs and having experience in dining with them. I was lucky to meet Denis Dovgopoliy of BayView Innovations who knew all Kiev irish pubs which allowed me to have a beer with a global VC.

The three of us - Ewa, Denis and myself - met Paul Fisher of Advent Venture Partners in Golden Gate Irish Pub which sounds like Sillicon Valley but is very European. In fact it’s named after the ancient gate to the city which it is situated next to. But VCs do not really care - they just maximize the ROI in clubbing and Golden Gate sounds familiar and promising.

We found a table, exchanged initial ‘who-does-what’ information and proceeded to exchanging contacts and coming up with business development ideas for each one of us. One meal and two beers later we started spilling more tasty bits and pieces of gossip and tips on how to handle a VC. Having a beer with one was high up in the top 10 ranking.

UPDATE - I recalled some more: We also discussed VC-psycho-analysis methods used by some VCs. Paul suggested that if someone talks a lot about some area of his/hers plan or operations at expense of other topics it means that this area might be his/hers weak point. Or s/he’s just excited about it. Anyhow be equally brief whatever you say when a VC is around. ;-)

We also discussed dynamics of “sexiness” of a project. Paul said that if a project is not initially sexy it will never be. However if it is at least sexy a bit it might get more sexy in time. At this point I didn’t know if we’re talking about investment projects, women or something else. Ewa said the rule applies to everything so I concluded we reached a Theory of Everything for which some scientists have been looking for decades.

Right before we left the place it turned out that Paul is a really talented actor. Ewa pointed out that he really resembles another talented actor Jason Statham. To prove his skills Paul provided us with some of his best faces like “I’m not satisfied with the results Mr.CEO”, “Where are the profits you promised” and “What do you mean by market is down right now”.

Mission accomplished: relationship established, contacts acquired, lessons learned.

What Paul didn’t confess to is blogging at www.thecoffeeshopsofmayfair.com

On February 27th I participated in TMT.Ventures’08 conference for innovative technology entrepreneurs and ICT executives, local and regional VC’s and angel investors, media people and industry opinion leaders. The event was held at the Warsaw Stock Exchange HQ, Poland.

The event gathered over 200 entrepreneurs and investment funds representatives. Over 400 people chatted and watched an on-line live broadcast.

I also co-moderated a ‘7 minutes‘ contest with Reshma Sohoni CEO of Seedcamp:

â??7 minutesâ?? is a unique competition for innovative entrepreneurs and their projects from the space of telco, new media and new technologies. It is an express elevator up to the community of investors and experienced businesspeople with decision-making power whose recommendations and support are like rocket fuel for the projects aimed in the right direction.

â??7 minutesâ?? is also a challenge for entrepreneurs trying to make an impression and deliver a convincing presentation in an extremely short period of 7 minutes. It is a test of self-confidence and charisma for the project-leaders standing in front of a demanding audience, their competition, world-class investors, bloggers, media people and TVN CNBC Biznes cameras transmitting the contest from the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

And I wrote that? wow! ;-)

The honorable ‘7 minutes’ Jury making up it’s mind.

I’ll post a video and some more comments soon. Some pictures are available on New Europe Events‘ website: http://www.tmtevents.eu/7minut/PHOTO/

It was great to participate in the “Web 2.0 Wave in the U.S. and Poland” event last November in SF. In case you were wondering - we keep on surfing that Web 2.0 wave with some success I must say. I wanted to share that news with you…

My friend Michael Sliwinski is coming to San Francisco next week to talk at Office 2.0 Conference about ‘Getting things done’ application (productivity tool) called Nozbe.com which he created. Michael had enough skill and persistence to become one of the leading providers of such services on the US market. Here’s the buzz: http://www.nozbe.com/page/buzz He also created one of the first such productivity tools for iPhone without even using one (it’s not available in Poland yet).

You can see a video interview with Michael talking about how he’s riding the Web 2.0, “Getting things done” and iPhone waves :

UPDATE 04/20/2008: The Guru of ‘Getting things done’ David Allen was in Warsaw and also met with Michael Sliwinski

Greg Marsh, of Index Ventures speaking on February 28th, 2007 at TMT.Ventures‘07 Warsaw.

video #1

video #2

The video was recorded at TMT.Ventures‘07 Warsaw - the most interesting event for venture capital and private equity industry in Central Europe.

Sean Seton-Rogers, venture capital fund Benchmark Capital speaking on February 28, 2007 at TMT.Ventures‘07 Warsaw.

The video was recorded at TMT.Ventures‘07 Warsaw - the most interesting event for venture capital and private equity industry in Central Europe.

Last friday I had the pleasure to attend a meeting with Pitch Johnson and mingle with senators, professors, American embassy officials, Polish government officials and the president of the Polish Constitutional Tribunal. What a company…

The meeting was hosted by USPTC which is a Silicon Valley based non-profit organization founded by a group of senior U.S.-based corporate executives and business leaders with professional, technical and practical working experience and accomplishments in both Poland and the U.S.

The goal of USPTC is to help companies and innovators make the right contacts to expand trans-Atlantic trade, investment and cooperation in the fields of information technology and biotechnology.

During that meeting Mr. Johnson talked about conditions which must exist for entrepreneurship and innovation to flourish. And the conditions are:

• Freedom
  • political,
  • economic,
  • personal
• Government support
  • stimulating commercial banks to support innovative SMEs,
  • indirect co-financing of innovative projects,
  • opening patent and information offices,
  • educating in the field of commercialization and e-ship,
  • moderate taxes
  • existence of public stockmarkets
• Entrepreneurial climate
  • role models like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates,
  • social acceptance of entrepreneurship as a lifestyle,
  • social tolerance for failure,
  • celebration of risk-taking and success,
  • support for informal social networks,
  • availability of talent, engineering and business skills
  • availability of capital for start-up and seed projects

After listening to Mr. Johnson with attention I concluded that the ‘entrepreneurial climate’ part is something I could help to cultivate. In fact I am doing that already.

After returning from Silicon Valley in December 2006 (I was invited there by USPTC) I started thinking about organizing a grassroots unconference for internet innovators. Tommorrow evening is the first such event called ‘innowatorium’ which stands for laboratory (laboratorium) of innovation.

There is no set agenda. Every participant has 15 seconds to introduce him/herself. Everyone may come and present. Everyone may interrupt and give comments or ask questions. Everyone may propose to change the rules.

Despite lack of media sponsors, advertising campaing or even set agenda the idea of such an open event was very well received in the Polish blogosphere. The number of participants is expected to exceed 150.

The response was so good I even got invited today to Polskie Radio to talk about innowatorium and inspiration coming from Silicon Valley and USPTC. You may listen to it on January 31st at 7.30 AM Polish time.

But thats not all folks! On 28th of February there’s going to be a little more formal event in Warsaw called TMT.Ventures ‘07 which I help to organize. The main topic is fostering innovation in Central and Eastern Europe. Special guests from Benchmark Capital and Index Ventures are going to add some global perspective while the President of the Warsaw Stock Exchange is going to talk about the Polish AIM - an alternative stock market for young and innovative companies. It’s called ‘Nowy Rynek’ and it launches in Autumn this year and will surely boost the entrepreneurial climate. Rafal Stroinski - US PTC Director - is one of the panelists at this event.

So there are more and more events building that nice California-style climate which is required for innovation to grow. But we still get lots of snow in the winter. I guess you can’t have everything in life. Anyway, it was great to meet Pitch Johnson in Warsaw.

Bio

Franklin “Pitch” Johnson, Jr is a pioneer in Silicon Valley venture capital and has been active in that field since 1962. He developed and taught a course in entrepreneurship and venture capital at Stanford for 12 years from 1979-1990. It was the first venture capital course taught in a graduate school of business.

Since that time he has been an advisor to students creating entreprenurial plans as Business 390 projects. He continues to work as a venture capitalist in his 41-year-old firm, Asset Management Company of Palo Alto. His most recent publication was a paper called “Entrepreneurship and Democracy” in the Hoover Digest, 2005, No. 1.

In the area of entrepreneurship and privatization, Mr. Johnson has served as an advisor to several eastern European countries since 1990. Mr. Johnson is an active jet pilot, is a close follower of the sport of track and field, and has attended ten Olympic Games. He is also chairman of the board of San Francisco Opera Company.