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Awards & Recognition

General Marketing Information

Quotiss Andrzej Duda

Quotiss and the President of Poland (vol.3)

Awards & Recognition / By

On the 23rd-25th of October 2017, CEO of Quotiss Marcin Zarzecki together with the President of Poland Andrzej Duda visited Helsinki, Finland to attend Poland-Finland Economic Forum.

The President of Poland Andrzej Duda and CEO of Quotiss Marcin Zarzecki

From the official article on the President’s portal:

“The Polish president’s visit has an additional economic aspect, with the delegation featuring young high-tech entrepreneurs, who won the right to accompany Duda on one foreign mission at a recent competition for start-ups, held by the Presidential Palace. Minister Szczerski noted Polish start-uppers would meet Finnish innovators at the Aalto University dubbed “a sauna for start-ups”, to establish “hopefully multiple and fruitful contacts” as well as exchanging ideas and experiences, “leading to joint endeavors in the future”.

Thanks to the Startup Passport, which Quotiss won during ‘Startupy w Palacu’ event* – Marcin Zarzecki, CEO of Quotiss, joined the President during his official state visit to Finland.


Boarding the Presidential plane in the military airport in Warsaw, Poland

There was a very intensive official visit program – with the aim to exchange the knowledge and experience in supporting innovations on a high level, and meeting with the Finnish corporations and startup community.

Platform Economics in a nutshell – slide from one of the Forum’s presentations

It was very inspiring to visit NOKIA headquarters and see how the company executes on their new digital strategy, betting on the innovative solutions like VR, 5G, AI, IoT – cutting-edge technology enhanced with a very strong corporate culture and values.

Presentation at the NOKIA HQ

Quotiss has also arranged a few business meetings with freight forwarders and got very positive feedback. Finland is a country with 60 container ports and a strong drive for innovations, which makes it an ideal market for Quotiss.

*“Startupy w Pałacu” or “Startups at the Palace” is an annual event organized by Startup Poland – an essential link between startups and the government of Poland. The theme of this year’s event was B2B (‘Business to Business’ ) – startups who sell their products and services to other companies rather than consumers directly. Out of 240 applications, only 10 best startups were selected to pitch to the President of Poland Andrzej Duda.
Quotiss Google

Quotiss joins Google Residency program!

Awards & Recognition / By

Google Campus Warsaw is a unique place in Praga district, Warsaw, where entrepreneurs may learn, network, and build companies that may enter global markets and change the world. It hosts hundreds of events organized by the community members and partners, including the biggest acceleration programs. By now, Campus Warsaw startups have created more than 620 jobs and have obtained over PLN 22.6 million in funds since the Campus opening in November 2015.

Campus Residency is a new program that aims to help startups develop internationally. Quotiss has been selected together with 9 other companies and starting from June 2017, is moving into the Campus office space! The team will be able to use the direct assistance of Campus mentors and experts, participate in dedicated courses, and have access to the global Google for Entrepreneurs network for the next 6 months.

“We are very grateful for Google Campus Warsaw for the constant support, access to an amazing community, and plenty of educational events for entrepreneurs! It was a little more than a year ago when we attended our first Campus event. At that time we’ve already had an idea to change the way freight rates are prepared and distributed on the market, but the name Quotiss didn’t exist yet. During the next couple of months, we learned tons of new information, and later we’ve met our awesome CTO Michał via the Campus network in August 2016.

Starting from that point our startup got an incredible boost. In October 2016 we’ve got an MVP ready, in November we’ve been nominated as one of the most innovative startups in Poland, December gave us an invitation to Techstars Berlin (one of the top startup accelerators in the world), and in February 2017 we’ve been named one of the best B2B startups in Poland! If there is advice we can give to young startups and first-time entrepreneurs – it would be to join the Campus Community as soon as possible!” – Margarita Tokareva, co-founder of Quotiss.

Media about Campus Residency (EN):

Media about Campus Residency (PL):

 

Quotiss Team - Michal Polak, Marcin Zarzecki, Margarita Tokareva

Techstars is for life

Awards & Recognition / By

It’s been two weeks since Quotiss team is back to Poland, and it’s hard to believe that 3 months in Techstars Berlin went so fast! (Techstars is one of the world’s best startup accelerators, and Quotiss was selected for Techstars Berlin 2017 batch).

There is one question which we get all the time: was it worth it? We answer without a doubt – yes, it was! And there are several reasons for that.

First of all, Techstars is now our seed investor – we got 111 000 EUR on our account, which is already not bad. Secondly, acceptance to Techstars gave us a great incentive to get through the complexity of forming a legal entity in the U.S. – and Quotiss Inc. was born. And third and most important – we learned a lot during these 12 weeks! The biggest takeaway for us is the clear structure and vision of what to do next (as well as what not to do, which is even more important!)

Starting from Day One of the program, our schedules got very busy. Two weeks of ‘Mentor Madness’ with 5-6 meetings a day (every day) set very demanding goals for personal time management. The only way to keep on track with the workload was to do more faster.

‘Do More Faster’ has become our mantra during the entire program. It’s not a coincidence, that ‘Do More Faster’ is also a title of the book, written by Techstars founders David Cohen and Brad Feld. The book is a great compilation of short stories told by entrepreneurs who went through Techstars acceleration program, sharing the lessons learned on the way to success (usually the hard way).

During the program, we always had to challenge our assumptions about our own business. It was hard. With constant support from Rob Johnson (Managing Director of Techstars Berlin), and together with our wonderful mentors, we managed to re-think and re-shape our value proposition, business model, sales and marketing strategy and to master the Perfect Pitch for the Demo Day!

Demo Day on April, 20th was the culmination of the 3 months program. On this day, we set an absolute record of the number of pitches delivered at the same time at the same place – 64 pitches! Every startup pitched 8 times, to 8 different mini-groups of investors, which was 8 times more demanding than any classic Techstars theatre-style Demo Day performance.

The effort was rewarded with an awesome rooftop party!

It was sad to say goodbyes to all the great people we met at Techstars Berlin, but for sure we’ll all meet again! Techstars is not over, Techstars is for life! With growing community, global network and numerous startup events, it’s easy to keep in touch!

Quotiss Andrzej Duda

Quotiss and the President of Poland (vol.2)

Awards & Recognition / By

On the 14th of March 2017, CEO of Quotiss Marcin Zarzecki had a meeting with the President of Poland Andrzej Duda at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland. They met for the second time within the last 6 months, and again this event draws a lot of attention from the government, state organizations, investment funds, and the media. Together, they plan to conduct several state visits later this year in order to straighten the international business and government relationships and networking.

“Startupy w Pałacu” or “Startups at the Palace” is an annual event organized by Startup Poland – an essential link between startups and the government of Poland. The theme of this year’s event was B2B (‘Business to Business’ ) – startups who sell their products and services to other companies rather than consumers directly. Out of 240 applications, only 10 best startups were selected to pitch to the President of Poland Andrzej Duda.

Each startup had their 4 minutes on stage to present the company and business idea to the very high-level audience – the President of Poland, the Minister of Economic Development, government officials, investors, angels, and other startup related institutions. The full recording of the event is available here (Quotiss presentation starts at 00:32:00).

Each of the 10 startups was awarded with ‘Startup Passport’ – a document that reserves a seat in the Presidential plane going for a state visit to any country which is on the list of the President for the coming year! This award is so unconventionally fabulous, that the Quotiss team couldn’t be more excited about the coming business trips!

“Startupy w Pałacu” were widely covered in the media, including the official page of the President of Poland on Facebook and Twitter:
     

quotiss - techstars

Quotiss Accelerated!

Awards & Recognition / By

Quotiss has joined the Techstars acceleration program. Fewer than 1% of the companies that apply to Techstars are accepted.

 

According to Forbes, Techstars is one of the most prestigious and well-known start-up accelerators worldwide. The acceleration program runs for 3 months and is driven by intensive mentoring and coaching.

The main focus is on scaling, marketing, and sales – the essentials of global business development. From all the companies that have gone through Techstars, 90% are still active, having attracted more than 2,75 billion US dollars from investment funds.

Techstars is an American company, present in 10 different locations around the globe, with the network of well-known mentors from all sectors and industries with vast experience.

Quotiss will be attending Techstars Berlin class,  together with 7 other companies, who successfully passed the selection process. You can find a complete list in this official announcement.

We are looking forward to using this opportunity and opening the dialog with German and international clients.

Contact us to schedule a demo – we will demonstrate how to generate a perfect freight quote in 5 seconds!

Quotiss and Maritime Startup accelerators

Awards & Recognition / By

A unique program supporting startups from the sea transport sector will be launched in 2017 in Gdansk, Poland.

On 25 November 2016, the Port of Gdansk Authority SA along with the Gdansk Economic Development Agency and the Gdansk Business Incubator STARTER, signed an agreement initiating activities aimed at establishing a Maritime Incubator, to support new companies from the broadly-defined maritime sector and the ports and logistics sector.

Ultimately, this will be the first Polish acceleration program developed solely for projects from the rapidly developing maritime industry. On this occasion, startups dealing with solutions for the maritime industry took part in workshops, concluding with the presentation of their projects.

 

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Małgorzata Jasnoch, CEO of Gdańsk Incubator Starter

 

Quotiss took part in the event, and after the final presentation has received a lot of positive feedback, as well as useful industry contacts.

 

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Marcin Zarzecki, CEO of Quotiss

 

Mare Straetmans, Managing Director of the PortXL accelerator in Rotterdam, was a special guest at the event. PortXL is the largest European program implementing port-related solutions. Mare visited Poland in order to check Poland’s startup potential. He is now looking for the best maritime startups around the world – only 10 best startups will get a chance to be part of the next round of the PortXL program.

The event in the media:

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Startup Battle 2016 - II place for Quotiss

Quotiss, the President of Poland and Iron Maiden

Awards & Recognition, Simplicity & Efficiency / By

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Quotiss team has a huge reason to celebrate success – 2nd prize in a prestigious national Congress of Economic Development in Rzeszow, Poland (17-18 November, 2016) contest called Startup Battle.

The Congress was patronized by President of Poland Andrzej Duda. Together with Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło and Minister of Finance and Economic Development Mateusz Morawiecki, they spoke openly about the possible ways to improve cooperation between the state and business owners.

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Startup Battle took place on Thursday, 17th November. Out of 60+ projects, which applied to participate in the battle, only 24 most innovative startups got the opportunity to present their ideas during the forum. The jury consisted of investors, entrepreneurs, and representatives from government, startup, and business communities, a total of 15 judges. Assessment of each project was based on several criteria, such as business innovation, market knowledge, business model, project team, and soft skills.

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Marcin Zarzecki, CEO of Quotiss, presenting at the main congress stage

Only 7 teams made it to the final round after initial eliminations. The tension was building up as everyone had to wait until the next day morning to hear the results. We were extremely excited to get a second place among the best Polish startups! This victory means a lot to us and we are very grateful to everyone who supported us!

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We were thrilled and excited to receive the award, and the day continued with photographs and interviews for the media. Also we were honored to meet with the President of Poland Andrzej Duda, and it was very satisfying to see his engaging interest in what we do – later that day President’s office asked us to provide more information about our project.

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President of Poland Andrzej Duda meeting with the Quotiss team

 

Media about us:

rzeczpospolita pulshr  onet wp wyborcza   forsal  carpatia-business  business-insider697001022521438861114gazetaprawna 

Radio interviews:

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(from 4:30)

‘Congress 590’ took its name from the prefix (first 3 digits) of the bar code, which indicates that the product has been made in Poland or is distributed via the Polish company. The idea of the Congress is to facilitate an open discussion between the state and business representatives and find effective ways to improve the economic development of the country.

dickinsonBruce Dickinson, the frontman of Iron Maiden and successful entrepreneur, was a special guest on the Congress 590. He spoke about the advantages of building ‘fan base’ instead of ‘customer base’, and really impressed the public with the diversity of his business portfolio – from legendary rock band singer, to airline owner, to pilot, to beer / watch / video games producer.