Thinking outside of the box as a recipe for success

Thinking outside of the box as a recipe for success. Young and innovative entrepreneurs from the Lubelskie Voivodeship prove that “Yes we can” is not just a slogan.

Since knowledge is power the Lubelskie Voivodeship does everything it can to support the development and implementation of innovative projects. There are more than 400 startups in Lublin alone.

From Idea to realization – examples of successful startups

One of many examples is Woodinspector - an innovative IT systems manufacturer for the lumber industry, which was founded in early 2015. The company has introduced solutions to streamline the woodworking process: from raw material harvesting through the sawmill storage industry to a lumber defects scanner.

Another example is Crimat – a startup founded by Paweł Staniszewski, who specializes in creating innovative technologies for criminology. The company has been working with higher education institutions,  technological parks and private sector companies to meet expectations of even the most demanding customers.

The company Kcalmar has established itself in the health and wellness sector offering IT solutions: an online platform and mobile application for custom-tailored diet plans.

Infinum 3D introduce innovative 3D printing solutions. Its industrial printing equipment is already in use, among others by Ursus (producer of agricultural tractors and machinery).

There are many more success stories like these.

Will Lublin become one of the startup capital cities of Poland?

Three or four years ago, Lublin had dozens of startups and now there are over 400 of them and this number is still growing.  Some of them are based in the Lublin Science and Technology Park, which was founded to facilitate the flow of knowledge and technology between science and business. The originators of today's startups are better prepared than a few years ago. Not only do they create better-refined ideas, but also they launch them in interdisciplinary teams of specialists who have a a clear business plan to accomplish. Those who form such companies have a bigger advantage to bring their ideas to global markets.

Nothing succeeds like success.

It is worth mentioning that 80 new innovative companies have been recently founded in Lublin as a result of “Connect Platform” launched and managed by the Lublin Science and Technology Park. These projects have a great potential for commercial success, therefore they were recommended for co-financing by The Polish Agency for Enterprise Development for sums up to 800.000 PLN. The money for this support comes from special funds for startups under the "East Poland 2014-2020" operational program. Among the new innovative companies there is Plantalux, which has developed a technology of smart lighting solutions designated for plants grown in greenhouses. The technology provides greater control of plant growth, using multiple sensors to measure humidity, air temperature, carbon dioxide and sunlight. This will make it cheaper and faster to produce food and more accurately correlate harvest dates with delivery dates to customers. Among other innovative ideas of startups was a gimbal for heavy cameras with a lifting capacity of up to 125 kg or devices for detecting potential failures, for example in buses and other vehicles.

Lublin has a lot to offer when it comes to launching new startups

Lublin has the potential to boost the growth of such attractive initiatives. The strengths of the Lubelskie Voivodeship are: qualified professionals, significant academic capital and excellent research facilities. The Voivodeship’s capital city - Lublin, is the largest and most dynamically growing academic centre on the eastern side of the Vistula river, and it plays a vital role of an important centre offering high quality university education in Poland. It is from this scientific community that most of the startup founders come from.  There are more and more business environment institutions and other entities like Eastern Business Angels Network,  Business Link Lublin Accelerator and academic incubators of entrepreneurship  which are supporting the creation of new businesses in the city and region.

Source: Startup Platforms portal and Rzeczpospolita webiste