We all know that innovation is a key component of any growing environment. And in our day of age, if they are to survive and mature, startups are destined to breathe innovation. In today's article we will try to get a glance at the dynamic between innovation and the startups born in one of the best performing European economies. As we have seen in a previous article, Poland appears to be more than a healthy economy, with a particular interest in IT innovation. Before diving into some interesting facts, let us see what lies behind the much-desired spark of innovation.

Innovation is key to creating flexible structures

As we see it, innovation rearranges the power structures and tension points of an economical (or frankly any) system.It acts both as a powerful disruptor and a key factor of the new and more efficient structures. Innovative people and companies share two essential traits: flexibility and vision. The former prevents stagnation by always providing a critical analysis of the very foundations of the structure. More so, it assures immediate adjustment to the new market configurations. If flexibility is more inward directed, vision aims to provide a map-like analysis of the external possibilities. This way, the visionary aspect of innovation seeks the best opportunities and the optimal path towards realizing them.

Innovation is not only an attribute of people or businesses, but can become a feature of certain places or economic regions. Innovative places tend to be described by exceptional economical stats and this is one of the main reasons why we've decided to dedicate a series of articles to the thriving polish economic environment. But is Poland a startup friendly economy? Let's look at some facts.

The Startup Scene in facts

According to Rafał Plutecki, the Managing director of Campus Warsaw (a Google operated startup hub in Warsaw), the startup support ecosystem in Poland has significantly developed in the last five years. Somehow, this doesn't surprise us at all. We recommend this eu-startups.com article to anyone interested in prospecting the Polish startup environment. Obviously, Warsow is at the center of this movement. The city displays a very interesting network of institution and associations dedicated to the startup community. Warsaw offers a generous variety of startup specialized hubs (such as The Heart, Mindspace, Reaktor or Campus Warsaw), dedicated Venture Capital organizations (such as Experior Venture Fund, Giza Polish Ventures or IdeaBox Capital to name just a few) or startup Accelerators/Incubators (such as GammaRebels, MIT Enterprise Forum Poland or AIP Warsaw). By all accounts, this trend can be observed in all major Polish cities (Krakow, Poznan, Wroclaw, Gydnia orKatowice), not only Warsaw. Many of the organizations previously mentioned also have offices or subsidiaries in other Polish cities.

So, the coverage and the fertile ground are there, but what are the prevalent domains in which successful Polish startups tend to activate? A quick look at a list of promising startups reveals the direction in which Polish startups are heading. Healthcare, tech, machine learning, space tech or AI based apps; all these developments tend to spell innovation from one end to another. Again, no surprise here. The development of the tech industry tends to accelerate in a super competitive economic environment. But at a certain point, in an ebb and flow dynamic, the economy itself starts being nurtured by the very tech industry it fostered.

We chose to look at the Polish startups through the lens of innovation because this particular trait lies at the very foundation of Sether. Deconstructing the old in order to build a new approach to online marketing is one of our main drives. And since Poland is one of our main target-markets, we are more than happy to discover the same ethos within the local startup community.

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