Bartosz Skwarczek

My experience shows that global market seems big while in reality is small enough to spread a word of mouth on good and bad things among people. If you plan a long term existence on a business scene, walking your talk is essential. Building on values of trust and honesty is fundamental. Many people fall under temptation of quick gains coming from cheating. It is never a good idea. 6 advices worth remembering: 1. Fulfill your promises 2. Keep in touch with clients and investors 3. Even when being in trouble, maintain regular communication with the market 4. Best strategy is UNDERPROMISE-OVERDELIVER 5. Remember this is not your last dance 6. Investors respect trustworthy partners and happily replicate with them investment again

Building MVP to quickly validate PRODUCT-MARKET FIT is very powerful approach, compering to building a final product at once. It saves time and money, and what is equally important, gives to you and your team FEEDBACK. Relatively quickly you get the information whether your idea seems successful or not. If feedback is positive - great! Your team will gain motivation to speed up and push harder. If feedback is negative - great! Your team can regroup and push harder. That will prevent from ultimate failure. One last benefit is not so obvious. Gaining very negative feedback on early stage, you can stop early. Sometimes it is better to kill the project early, after first or second circle of learning, rather than losing money for years.

Important thing to remember is third party validation and comments. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, especially experienced one. When planning the funding process, voice of advice can save you a lot of time and money. Also protect you from many mistakes. Don’t try to invent the wheel if not necessary. Ask more experienced experts and practitioners who did it before. They will help you consult your ideas, double check your perspectives, validate your level of preparation as well as targets and potential scenarios. Dry runs are welcome. Most often you have only one shot when doing funding process, make sure you are very well prepared and advised. Remember of 5P rule, we use it at G2A.COM: Perfect Preparation Protects from Poor Performance.

My over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience brought me a valuable conclusion: don’t try to be perfect, be yourself and authentic. Investors, either institutional or crowd, look for transparency and trust. They always look for a person worth to trust with their money. Therefore make sure your story is a true story, an authentic story, it can contain ups and downs, doesn’t have to be “only peaches and cream” but has to be authentic and yours. Show your values and code of conduct. Explain WHY you do what you do. Demonstrate your DNA based on values. Authenticity and truthfulness pays off.

My over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience brought me a valuable conclusion: don’t try to be perfect, be yourself and authentic. Investors, either institutional or crowd, look for transparency and trust. They always look for a person worth to trust with their money. Therefore make sure your story is a true story, an authentic story, it can contain ups and downs, doesn’t have to be “only peaches and cream” but has to be authentic and yours. Show your values and code of conduct. Explain WHY you do what you do. Demonstrate your DNA based on values. Authenticity and truthfulness pays off.