Post by Florian Heister

While most of my feed went all white and headed west to Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity I went all black, east to Warsaw. 🇵🇱 Meeting business partners and prospects on the ground together with Trideep N. taught me something I’d underestimated: Poland has quietly become one of Europe’s most dynamic tech engines, while much of the West wrestles with stagnation and red tape. A few things I took away 💻 Serious engineering, not just outsourcing. Warsaw now hosts Google s largest engineering hub in the EU , with Microsoft committing over a billion to local cloud and AI. The talent pool is genuinely world-class. 💳 Fintech that’s a decade ahead. While Germany still works toward a native alternative to the US giants, Poland built BLIK back in 2015. Today Poles pay with it ~3x more often than with cards online . 📈 Homegrown champions. RTB House a deep-learning DSP in 90+ markets, Adlook, Adtech engineers Avenga and Allegro, defending its home turf against Amazon by just being better in several ways. If you want to see where European tech is actually being built, don’t overlook Poland. Arguably its larger neighbors could learn a thing or two. P.S. Also some observation without further comment: I went with the train and arrived on time 🙃 #Poland #TechHub #Fintech #BLIK #AdTech #Europe #adjoe