Kamil.

I never thought that I would become an entrepreneur. Nobody in my family ever went in that direction. I come from a small town, I just wanted to be a programmer.

I have been fond of working on projects since I was a child. When I was thirteen, I wrote my first game based on Carmageddon. In total, I made around 15 mini-projects, and in high school I helped other computer science students write their final papers. I’ve always felt satisfaction in making things that people can use.

During the first year of my studies, in 2008, I attended startup meetings organized by unfold.vc, among others. There, quite timidly, I presented my project: zanotuj.info and was invited for a follow-up meeting. Although the idea was not immediately implemented, we came up with TimeCamp together. For the first two years, I worked on this project on my own. I coded the first version of TimeCamp myself. 

unfold.vc helped me find my first investor. In 2010, I presented the project at one of their conferences. It worked. I found out that Asseco had invested PLN 300,000 in the project while waiting at a bus stop. I was as happy as a kid in a candy shop. I’d never seen so much money before!

With only PLN 500,000 in revenues, we were stuck. We’d lost momentum and couldn’t grow any further. We stagnated for 3 years. We had a shortage of money in our account when, suddenly, the growth curve twitched. This was due to better visibility on Google (among other reasons). But we had definitely been stressed out.

We also made a pivot in our product. At the time, we had been relying on computer activity — to measure employee performance. At a client’s request, we created a new module — measuring the amount of time spent working on projects. We didn’t have a module like this before. It took a lot of trial-and-error, which we were not proud of, but we managed to refine the module and then we were able to include it in our offer. Things have been going better since then. That little pivot changed everything.

In retrospect, I know now that it was a mistake to delay getting into the freemium model. Later, when we tried to make up for lost time, it turned out that it was already too late. 

There came a point when increased responsibilities meant that I had to start delegating tasks to other people. It was time to let my team become more independent, even if their concepts/ideas did not always align with mine. They had to be allowed to make mistakes.

For me, as a product maker who loves creating interfaces, it is very difficult to come to terms with the fact that I no longer have an operational job. The curse of knowledge weighs heavily on me. I have been working on this project from the very beginning; I know the most about it, so it takes me the least amount of time to make any changes. I know I can’t do that anymore and this is the hardest thing for me to accept.

The most difficult thing in running a business is reconciling important matters with urgent ones. You could say that important matters are at the mercy of the urgent ones. This is an issue I am still working on.

The first word that comes to my mind and that makes me smile when I think about the company  is: results. A company exists for its results.

We are present in 100 countries around the world. In just 15 days, we are able to earn as much as the amount that had been invested in us during our first few years of operation. I am surrounded by a group of professional managers who are great at their jobs. I can feel their support. Today, we are a team of 40. I remember once, when I was looking at everyone in the company and thinking to myself, “I used to be alone and now there are so many people here with me” – that’s great motivation.

If I could choose whether to have started the project back when I did or, instead, to be able to start it today (considering what I know now), I would choose… today. However, I hesitated with this answer because back then, there was a lot less competition, and it was more like guerrilla warfare. Now, everything has become terribly commercialized… and I liked the underground startup atmosphere.

No fakes. 

To see things — this is one of my life philosophies — to see things for what they really are. The worst thing is to be fooled by your own presentations and summaries. I believe in continuous development and the need to go outside one’s comfort zone.

My biggest strength is authenticity. I bring people together, I can inspire their trust. 

Oracle’s Larry Ellison once said, “never give up power.” I see myself as a leader. I want to remain the decision-maker.

I picked up meditation at the age of 16 and, to this day, I practice it 3-4 times a week. I also read the Daily Stoic. I highly recommend it.