Sylwia Fossaert is a CEO and founder of Krakspire, a company, which helps foreigners relocate to Poland. Sylwia obtained an MBA degree at the University of Leuven, afterwards she worked with several Belgian startups, mainly advising on labour mobility between Belgium and Poland. After moving back to Krakow, she co-founded Epikia, to build extended (development) teams for Western European companies, and after its success, she finally launched Krakspire in order to help foreigners. Sylwia kindly agreed to share with us her success story, that we hope will inspire you to start your own business.
Hello, Sylwia. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your company.
My company helps foreigners with their work and stay legalization in Poland. From karta pobytu (residence permit) through oświadczenie and work permit, we help to overcome whatever administrative burdens there might appear on the path of the foreigners to stay & work in Poland. We work in both directions: with employers, but also with individuals, who seek help with the administrative trouble to legalise their stay. Moreover, together with partners we help foreigners to start their own business in Poland.
Sounds very interesting. How did you come up with this idea and how did it all start?
My previous company was building extended teams in nearshoring. This industry in particular is absorbing developers from all over the world. Already during recruitment it appeared that in order to hire a foreigner we had to go through a rather complex and time consuming process. I also noticed that some candidates got rejected during the recruitment at other company, only because they did not want to go through the trouble of legalising their stay / work! Then I discovered that there is a huge market for this type of activity. After selling my company it was clear for me what’s next: helping people to settle down here in Poland and assisting companies to hire them.
What were the key challenges you faced early on and how did you manage to overcome them?
Well, it took me some time to get to know the way how the Administration works. Who you can call and who absolutely not, to whom you can pass the documents directly without having to get though few layers of administrative burdens, what time is best to come to the Administration to be sure you don’t waste entire day to wait in the queue.
What is your competitive advantage?
Haha, I think I answered your question in the previous answers. First of all, I’m not an outsider, I know the perspective of the employer firsthand, and having lived and worked abroad for many years myself – as well the perspective of the employee. Next, these small “tricks” which you learn over time when working with Administration on a daily basis enable things to be done faster. And time is usually the most precious for my clients. Also the fact that they are kept updated that things are actually moving in their case, allows to take their anxiety away. They simply feel safe, because they know, that their case is well taken care of with clear results.
What is also important, is that we don’t treat any cases like “this is for later”. A lot of people come to us when the time to legalise their stay or work of their employee is almost expired. We are not afraid of such cases, just the opposite: if necessary we may spend few nights working on your papers but things have to be done. Our motto is: there are no lost cases!
What are your plans for the nearest future, do you have any new ideas?
Second step will be to audit companies to monitor the legal status of their current employees, before the border patrol agents come to do so. As the residency card and the work permit has to be renewed every two, three years, it is important to apply for a new one in the right time, especially that in some cases the process of renewal can take more than 6 months. Without a proper follow up from the employers side it might occur that an employee is banned from e.g. business travel outside Poland for some time. While for few foreign employees and with a good HR on board, the company should be able to handle, monitoring a bigger number of foreigners can become tedious. Here we want to help and keep track on it, so that employers don’t have to engage themselves.
Do you have any practical advice for people who are just starting out this kind of business?
Have a lot of patience. Be present on events organised for foreigners. Talk with people. The individual clients come mostly through networking. This is nothing new still so true. At the same time take into account that working with individual clients is completely different than working with companies.
How people can get in touch with you?
You can contact me via phone: +48 884 300 064, mail: [email protected] or Linkedin , or leave a message on my facebook page. Just pick the way which is best for you!