We take enormous pride in our innovative community, and what makes it so special is the unique engagement of its members. A clear example of that, is the story originating in 2023, when we were asked to support a grassroots movement to build a multistakeholder quantum community. The person behind this request was Michał Szaniewski, an experienced developer, recent startup founder, and educator. Read the story of how he moved quantum technologies out of universities and R&D centers into the startup world and into the collaborative framework of Venture Café Warsaw’s Thursday Gathering.
Shortening the distance
In 2023, I led the transition of our quantum edge computing project. We moved from a university and an amateur IT group into a dynamic tech venture. As a member of the “Thursday Gathering” community, I saw the chance to connect deep tech with the local innovation scene. This shift opens the door to real progress.
The goal of those meetings was to shorten the distance between the government, academia, and startups and the education ecosystem, around the new age of quantum technology. This is when the idea of “Polish Quantum Community” was brought to life.
The Quantum Discussions
The first meeting of the community was an education workshop, where the Thursday Gathering community learned about the basic ideas of quantum computing. The workshop introduced fundamental concepts of quantum physics and their relation to information technology. Participants were taught about qubits, which are similar to bits, the basic units of information. They explored special properties of qubits, such as superposition, where a qubit can exist in a state of |0⟩ and |1⟩ simultaneously, as well as quantum entanglement. The session also covered the current state of the quantum market, including major companies and popular quantum machines. After 40 minutes, there was a Q&A session for the audience to ask questions
Another meeting featured a discussion panel with experts from government, academia, and startups. Anna Streżyńska was the expert representing the regulatory and government sector; she previously served as the Polish Minister of Digital Affairs from 2015 to 2018 and is a tech investor in MC2. In 2025, she was nominated to be the Minister of Digitization of Poland. Another expert on the panel was PhD Paweł Gora, a scientist, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and consultant primarily focused on AI, quantum computing, and intelligent transportation systems. He was recognized in 2023 as the Popularizer of Science in the Animator category. Third panelist, Mirek Sopek, founded Quantum Blockchains, Inc., a startup aimed at developing blockchain technology that can withstand the emerging threats posed by quantum computers. The key question of the discussion revolved around the future and current state of the quantum computing market. Overall, the discussion was a great success and a source of inspiration.
The next quantum meeting on the Thursday Gathering stage featured guests from both academic and startup ecosystems. Among them, Klem Jankiewicz is a designer focused on researching and building intuitive and accessible user interfaces for quantum technologies. She co-founded the educational initiatives Quantum Game and Quantum Flytrap, and she currently serves as the Head of Design at Classiq Technologies.
Next, we heard from Rafał Pracht, the CTO and co-founder of FinQubit. He is a quantum and quantitative researcher with 16 years of experience in the financial industry. Rafał is a Quantum Consultant and Software Architect, with expertise as a Qiskit Advocate. He has extensive knowledge in banking and insurance, IT architectures, cloud computing, machine learning, algorithm design, risk management, quantum algorithms, natural language processing, Monte Carlo methods in financial engineering, derivative pricing, and numerical optimization.
Tomasz Ćwik, the CEO and co-founder of brcground, also spoke at the event. He is an IT leader with over 15 years of experience in the sector, working with and advising international companies as well as startups. Tomasz is responsible for shaping and leading IT strategy, digital transformation, and mergers and acquisitions for top banks.
A key question raised during the discussion was how startups can build quantum startups from scratch, especially regarding the challenges faced in this area. During the meeting, Klem Jankiewicz popularized the tagline within our community: “Quantum is deep tech for deep tech.”
The Quantum Practice
The last meeting of this part of the program was an educational workshop. The workshop was led by Krzysztof Kuba, a Board Member of the Nanotubes Student Research Group and a young physicist who is very active in various activities, including QPland, the Quantum AI Foundation, and the University of Warsaw’s physics institute. In collaboration with my, he created a technical workshop that started with the basics on a school writing board and progressed to programming in Qiskit.
This workshop was the first in this program; the session was extended to almost two hours because the audience was very interested in learning about programming and the foundational knowledge related to quantum computing. This program featured genuine interaction, not just a Q&A session, as the audience was actively engaged in discussions on the board.
This is the end of the first edition of the program for 2023/24. The program is now continuing with another meeting, featuring guest Zofia Ragankiewicz from the Quantum Technologies Committee at the National Economic Committee. She is the Managing Director with a proven history in business development, marketing, and the advertising industry. And involved with the QPoland group and more.
Paving the way
The first program for 2023/24 created a way to discuss deep tech in non-technical terms, adding substantial value to the Venture Café’s programming, yet again enabling our community to connect, learn, and be part of the startup quantum ecosystem. With each meeting, we had around 200 people in the audience and engaged in dozens of conversations. We believe in the success of mixing different points of view and being open to conversations and knowledge sharing. This is the power of Venture Café, which has helped me create and realize this program.
Michał Szaniewski
