<![CDATA[Hive53 - Krakow startup community

<![CDATA[Hive53 - Krakow startup community - Blog]]>Wed, 23 May 2012 08:12:30 +0100Weebly<![CDATA[Startup workshop with Jerry Colonna - tickets on sale NOW!]]>Thu, 03 May 2012 00:58:28 +0100http://www.hive53.com/1/post/2012/05/startup-workshop-with-jerry-colonna-tickets-on-sale-now.htmlFinally! You have been waiting for that since good few weeks, right? The amazing Jerry Colonna comes to Krakow for a one-day workshop for Polish startup and tech crowd. The workshop is on May 23rd, most probably between 10am and 4pm, we'll confirm the venue early next week. As suggested before - the price will most probably not include food & drinks but we'll make sure there are options for that so no worries ;)

We've literally just released the tickets - we had to wait until
May to make sure we'll have as little paperwork as we can. Since Hive53 can't do ticketing on our own, we asked our friends at Railsberry if they can help us with that. Go ahead and book your ticket NOW & see you in May!

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]]><![CDATA[Hive53 - connecting people]]>Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:22:07 +0100http://www.hive53.com/1/post/2012/04/hive53-connecting-people.htmlThe first time Ian Scarffe joined us for a Hive meeting was for our first pitch training session, in January this year. It was immediately apparent that his perspectives and feedback would be useful for any startup founder, perhaps even more so here in Kraków as he brings an international viewpoint to any idea. Ian is an Australian entrepreneur who has been in Poland for the last six years, and it is very hard on meeting him not to get caught up in his infectious energy and enthusiasm. It’s hard to keep up with how many projects he has on the go - from wine importing, to children’s edutainment, to a new business incubator here in Kraków.

One of the pitches that Ian gave feedback for was from Damian Słuja, who had an idea involving a new type of social networking for student societies. Looking back, Ian remembers with characteristic frankness that he didn’t understand the idea. “I didn’t really get it” he laughs “But I was intrigued, and met up with Damian, and began to see that there was a much bigger opportunity than he had identified”. Ian has since started mentoring Damian and his business partner Rafał Bugaj, and is helping them see a broader, more global business landscape for the type of platform that they are developing.

It’s clear on talking with both Ian and Damian that both are enjoying working together - the word that kept on being used was “fun”. And both are very positive that the partnership is useful - indeed, Ian is clearly making sure that Damian and Rafal work hard on validating their idea, making contact with institutions from Silicon Valley as a potential proving ground for an initial launch.

As Hive grows we’ll surely see more such connections being made, and the startup scene here can only benefit. Good luck to Damian, Rafał and Ian with this project!

]]><![CDATA[Jerry Colonna comes to Krakow]]>Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:21:03 +0100http://www.hive53.com/1/post/2012/03/jerry-colonna-comes-to-krakow.html“When they start, they often think the hardest part is figuring out what to do but they’re inevitably knocked on their ass by the task of leading. And when they make mistakes--when they fail to lead--their identity, self-esteem, and ability to provide (...) sometimes explode.
We all too often break ourselves in the work of becoming a CEO, a manager, a leader.” - from The Management Team - Guest Post by Jerry Colonna on AVC.com

It is now confirmed - Jerry Colonna (more about him below) will come to Krakow on May 23rd and will lead a half-day workshop for leaders, entrepreneurs and anyone wanting to wake the monster in his/her head. If you are looking to expand your thinking about success, fulfillment and possibility, it is going to be an absolutely unique occasion to learn from the best.

We’re still working out the details but you should register for the event now - the number of participants will be limited and we expect the tickets to sell out quickly. The workshop will cost approximately 150PLN.

Sign up in the form above and we’ll contact you when we start selling tickets. We will follow the the order of signups once we’ve sold out.

Jerry Colonna, together with his partner Fred Wilson, launched Flatiron Partners in August 1996. Flatiron became one of the most successful, early stage investment programs in the New York City area. The recipient of numerous awards and compelling speaker on topics ranging from leadership to starting businesses, Colonna has been named to Upside Magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People of the New Economy and Forbes ASAP’s list of the best VCs in USA. He is currently a life and business coach and serves on the Board of Trustees at Naropa University. Read more about and of Jerry on The Monster In Your Head.

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]]><![CDATA[IMPORTANT: A one-only opportunity for a great startup workshop in Kraków.]]>Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:46:14 +0100http://www.hive53.com/1/post/2012/03/important-a-one-only-opportunity-for-a-great-startup-workshop-in-krakw.html Guys, this is important. Read the intro and then answer the QUESTION (by liking the FB post).

We have a chance to host a great guest in Kraków. His name is Jerry Colonna, he's an investor who became a startup coach. Jerry could tell us TONS about raising money from VCs from the Valley (and he's a former partner of Fred Wilson), global startups and keeping the European spirit… but most importantly he could TEACH us how to survive the startup world - the crazy pace, the challenges and the emotional carousel. Below are some links from a meetup + workshop organized in Berlin (that workshop was smaller but ca. EUR 300-400 per person..):

http://wolpers.posterous.com/jerry-colonna-in-berlin-on-september-29th-ber
http://www.amiando.com/Jerry-Colonna-Startup-Workshop-Berlin.html

Jerry agreed to do a similar half-day workshop in Kraków on MAY 23rd. It's an AMAZING opportunity for the Krakow tech scene to meet a person with such energy, you will know when you see him.

THE DEAL IS - to make that happen not only do we need to squeeze out a lot of love from our sponsors but the workshop would have to have ticketing.

HOW MANY OF YOU WOULD BE WILLING TO PAY 150 zł for such a workshop? (note: no food / drinks in that so keep an extra 25 zł for lunch). Believe us, 150 zł is a great investment for the value and inspiration you'd get, pass on those two parties and you'd be fine. Please place a Facebook like for a "YES" under the question/post here: https://www.facebook.com/joinhive and on tomorrow's Hive we will make an email list so this will be semi-binding ;) We'd need at least 100 people to make that happen... and then we still need to get very creative with all sponsors, really. We expect to hear from people not just from Kraków btw (looking at you Warsaw!). Do help us promote it. We need to know by THIS TUESDAY to book that date. So: tons of value, May 23rd, 150 zł (or less). Like?

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]]><![CDATA[Printing House Swarm]]>Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:12:50 +0100http://www.hive53.com/1/post/2012/02/swarm-with-piotr-wilam.htmlRegulars at our Hive53 meetups may have met Piotr Wilam at previous gatherings, where he has sat on the judging panel for our pitching sessions. We're grateful for his support (he even tweeted how nicely Piotr and Ela run the show! Seconded!) and we are delighted to welcome him as our guest speaker just before he takes off to Silicon Valley where he'll be introducing Polish startups to American VCs.
The meetup will take place at Drukarnia Jazz Club (Nadwiślańska 1) starting at 6PM on Monday 5th March.

Piotr Wilam is currently CEO and leading investor at Innovation Nest, the seed and venture fund for global Internet projects that have their base in Poland. He is perhaps best known to many of us as co-founder and first president of Poland's largest Internet portal - www.onet.pl. In addition to these distinguished achievements, he founded Pascal Publishing (which grew to the market leader in travel guides, with more than 50% market share) as well as the digital publishing startup, Optimus Pascal Multimedia, which became Poland's leading educational software publisher.

Perhaps his background as both a philosopher and a mathematician has given him the uncanny ability to succeed in so many different fields? Let us know you're coming by clicking "I'm Attending" on our Facebook event page and see you there!

The format of the evening will be as before:
18:00 Welcome drink
18:15 Interview and Q&A with Piotr
19:00 Pitch session (register at pitches@hive53.com)
19:15 Presentation about Malopolska Information Technology Park (MPTI)
19:25 Announcements
19:30 Networking

The rules for pitching are:
- max 60 seconds
- no slides
- in English

We'll run pitcher training on 1st March at 6:30PM at Lunar Logic Polska (Krasinskiego 17/3). This really helped the last set of pitchers, so please take the opportunity to get practice and feedback before the event!

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]]><![CDATA[Guests from the Windy City]]>Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:28:28 +0100http://www.hive53.com/1/post/2012/02/guests-from-the-windy-city.htmlRight, so the freezing cold period is hopefully behind us and it’s time for the busy bees to get out a little, defrost our wings and start working on the next Swarm. We’re planning to have one in March and we’ll let you know the details as soon as we have them sorted out.

In the meantime we have a nice treat for you. Uki Lucas - Founder and CEO of CyberWalkAbout.com will be visiting Krakow next week. You’ll find more about him below. Together with Daniel Bara they are looking to create links between Polish startups and American investors in Chicago. Uki graciously agreed to meet us for some drinks and chat on Monday the 20th of February.
So let us know you’re coming by clicking ‘I’m attending’ on the event page and join us there to discuss the startup and investor ecosystem in Chicago, mobile technologies and many other topics. We’re getting together around 6pm in 'u Louisa' pub - Market Square 13.

Uki D. Lucas is a technology entrepreneur, public speaker, book author and community organizer. He is the Founder & CEO of CyberWalkAbout.com and the leader of Chicago Android and Chicago GTUG communities. He organizes conferences, events and workshops for over 500 participating Chicago developers. Uki is an Android developer himself and has been speaking and teaching on topics related to Google technology, Android platform and Social Media on numerous occasions.

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]]><![CDATA[BIG NEWS - Hive is now Hive53! ]]>Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:09:59 +0100http://www.hive53.com/1/post/2012/01/big-news-hive-is-now-hive53.htmlNoticed any changes in our logo? We grew up :) Everyone make a toast for Hive53! You're probably wondering why...

Let us explain: The idea of Hive came to life within literally a few days and materialized over the next few. We came up with the name, sketched the logo and the website in a few hours of intense collaboration between myself, Piotr and Socha. From the very beginning we liked the name and the metaphor behind it - a hive is where all busy bees meet, it's a community of those ready to work hard, those in constant motion. And since we love the startup world - the sweetness of honey luring people into that craziness sounded convincing too ;).

From the very beginning we liked our quickly drafted pixel logo and pixel bees but we weren't really happy with the "hive" font. Neither with the quickly prototyped website. Had we aimed at perfection then, Hive might have never had happened so this is the way it had to be back then.

But now it's time for another iteration. We've been working on updating our branding & logo for the past few weeks. The website redesign is also on its way too - to make sure the site represents our great community better. More on that soon ;)

Why 53?! The simplest answer we can give is: because we want to keep building something significant and unique. From branding perspective using just "Hive" was tricky because there are many "hives" out there. Our domain was joinhive.com, we didn't have the @hive twitter handle and that was confusing. A few people - including Mike Butcher - advised us to change that status quo ASAP. So we did.

We brainstormed a few other names but since we usually meet at Applicake's HQ where the address is Sklodowskiej-Curie Street 5/3 - those two digits seemed like a natural choice. And 53 looks good - it makes Hive sound like a special secret operation or a code name for something awesome ;).

So as we grow up, we can still keep calling ourselves Hive and it will always be our cute first name. But 53 is the new last name. So remember - it's Hive53, @hive53 and #hive53 and hive53.com.

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]]><![CDATA[Pitcher training - Monday 16th January]]>Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:00:15 +0100http://www.hive53.com/1/post/2012/01/pitcher-training-monday-16th-january.htmlWe said we would - so we will. Put it this way - have you ever known a bee that doesn't keep its word? We're running our first pitcher training session at 6:30 PM on Monday 16th January, at the offices of Lunar Logic Polska (al. Krasińskiego 17/5 - opposite Kino Kijów).

The session will last about 45 minutes to 1 hr. Pitchers should come prepared to run through their pitch with a supportive audience (isn't that the best way to practice?), and it would be great if those coming to the session could take the time to look at some of the previous pitches available on hive.tv.

We'll start by going through some of what has worked well and less well with existing pitches, before trying out the pitches themselves, and gathering feedback.

We're doing this in our own time to do our best to help those with the desire to pitch. Those of you who've read books such as 'The Passionate Programmer', 'Outliers', or 'Bounce' will know for sure that targeted practice is the surest way to develop our skills in almost every field of human endeavour. So there's no need to bring anything other than yourself and a desire to improve!

Big thanks to Lunar Logic Polska for hosting this.

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]]><![CDATA[Boat Swarm]]>Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:25:05 +0100http://www.hive53.com/1/post/2012/01/boat-swarm.htmlHappy New Year to one and all! It’s time to open your bright, shiny 2012 diaries and make a note of the first Hive meeting of the year - Wednesday 18th January at 6PM at Aquarius Restaurant - on Vistula river, right next to Wawel Castle.

This promises to be a truly buzzing meetup, with our speaker, Jaromir Działo fresh from recent success in Silicon Valley. Jaromir is one of the founders of semantic text summarizing service Topicmarks, a startup that rapidly attracted seed investment from the likes of Mint founder, Aaron Patzer, as well as rave reviews on TechCrunch and Mashable. Winner of Seedcamp, and runaway winner of the 2011 Founder Showcase, Topicmarks was acquired in December 2011 by social discovery leader Tagged. Jaromir’s career includes multiple startup successes, co-authorship of a patent, as well as involvement in more than 100 different web services - read more about him on our speakers’ page.

The format of the evening will be as before:
18:00 Welcome drink
18:15 Interview and Q&A with Jaromir
19:00 Pitch session (register at pitches@joinhive.com)
19:15 Announcements
19:30 Networking

The rules for pitching are:
- max 60 seconds
- no slides
- in English
Each of those pitching will receive instant feedback and will have a chance to win tickets to Startup Weekend Krakow. It's a great opportunity to practice, get feedback and get noticed. The pitch session and prizes are sponsored once again by BrightBerries.

Fundacja Nowe Technologie and Kevin Greene of anotherfriend.com are also sponsoring the event and supporting our startup community.

Let us know you're coming by clicking "I'm Attending" on our Facebook event page, get your beeesiness cards ready and see you January 18th!

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]]><![CDATA[RacingLife meets their investor during the Hive meetup]]>Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:35:32 +0100http://www.hive53.com/1/post/2012/01/racinglife-meets-their-investor-during-the-hive-meetup.html

RacingLife.net team met British entrepreneur and business angel Richard Lucas at the Hive meetup in December 2011. Richard is providing seed funding that will both enable the team to develop their game faster and introduce new features. The goal is to make Racinglife.net "the" motorsport management game of choice.

"We are excited to work with Richard, not only because of the financial contribution but also because of his valuable advice and experience, which we believe improve our chances of success. With a clear product vision, technical knowledge and passion, RacingLife.net can become profitable business." - says Klaudyna Dudzik, Marketing Specialist.

When asked about why he decided to invest, Richard said:
“What impressed me was the degree of engagement from players around the world and the commitment and techincal skills of the team. We shook hands less just 2 weeks after we first met so it is obvious that we like moving fast. Our main priority now is to focus on developing the game so that active players get something they really enjoy playing in increasing numbers. If we can achieve this we can figure out the rest.”

Congratulations to Richard and the team!

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