We will successively present people from our fund. To start with, meet Olek Rak - what he does with us, what his passions, goals are and to what extent he supports portfolio companies.
What is the biggest advantage of working in a fund?
For me, the biggest advantage of working at WP2 is the opportunity to meet and contact entrepreneurs and founders of companies in which WP2 invests or with which I cooperate on a daily basis. Their creativity, business sense, approach to risk are inspiring to me, and their enthusiasm is contagious.
In which direction does everyday life at WP2 push you in terms of development, which professional areas does it develop in your case, what curiosity will they develop in other directions?
Everyday life at WP2 gives me the opportunity to comprehensively deal with tasks that are performed by entire teams in large corporations. Thanks to this, I am able to approach topics both in detail and from a bird's eye view. This is a valuable learning experience, requiring humility and flexibility to combine strategic financial decisions with their operational execution.
The second area that I develop thanks to my work at WP2 is interdisciplinarity. Working in a small team, on many projects at once and at the interface with various industries, means that you need to know a little bit about everything, quickly "connect the dots", associate facts, use your knowledge to enter new areas. In WP2 we have a real "Dream Team" of professionals from various fields and our daily discussions are extremely stimulating.
How can companies benefit from your competences/projects/ideas?
I would like the companies in which WP2 invests to treat me as a natural contact in case of any questions in the area of finance, accounting, taxes, controlling. This is already happening in many cases. Of course, the diversity of our companies is huge and each has its own specific challenges, so I am often not able to give an unambiguous answer immediately, but by discussing together, we explore the topics, determine whether a given idea makes sense at all and whether it is worth continuing in a given direction, e.g. by acquiring a specialized advisor.
My ambition is to explain even complex financial issues in a way that is understandable to non-financiers, so that our entrepreneurs can easily turn them into the growth of their businesses. Of course, growth squared, in line with WP2's mission :).
In addition, I would like to create a financial and management reporting system within the companies from the WP2 portfolio, which would be simple and transparent, not labor-intensive (so that the teams of companies can focus on the business), and at the same time useful for business decisions for the companies and for the fund. I am counting on the help of all companies in this ambitious project.
What interesting things do you do outside of work?
Outside of business, I'm actually into something similar to that in business: meeting new people, places, cultures, and history. It was a great experience for me to be able to work for 6 years in China and for 2 years in Spain. Just living in another country, getting to know its culture, cuisine, and above all, everyday human behavior and habits was incredibly interesting for me. In addition, it gave the opportunity to pursue my passion for travel. I have visited about 30 different cities and places in China and several other countries in East and Southeast Asia. And with my friends, I had the opportunity to pursue such passions and pastimes as football, badminton, ballroom dancing, mahjong or board games.
