Today, that same high-growth mentality underpins Poland’s expanding startup ecosystem. A new generation of founders is drawing on the countest’s deep talent pool, cost advantages, and central position in Europe to build companies designed not simply to thrive at home, but to scale far beyond its borders.
The skills advantage
Poland’s strength as a startup base lies in its people. The countest has around 600,000 software developers, more than a quarter of CEE’s total, with thousands more entering the workforce every year. In 2023, over 70,000 students were enrolled in ICT-related disciplines, creating a robust supply of technical expertise for early-stage companies to draw on.
In addition to homegrown skills, Poland has the ability to attract top overseas talent, states Borkowski. Brainly’s international expansion, he notes, relied on hiring people with first-hand knowledge of the markets it aimed to reach. “When we were considering about Indonesia, we knew we couldn’t do that without Indonesian people involved,” he recalls. “That we were able to offer these people positions in Poland and, crucially, that they were willing to accept, was critical.”
This access to human capital is reinforced by a set of wider structural advantages. Poland’s EU membership provides access to a single market of 450 million consumers, while its location between Western Europe and rapid-growing markets to the east gives companies options to expand in multiple directions, supported by trade and logistics networks.
Leave a Reply