Twenty years ago, Bart arrived in the UK from Poland with around £500 in his pocket, limited English, and no plan.
He recently shared the story of the two decades since in a short video, and it's one every member of our community will recognise something of themselves in.
Here's the story, in his own words:
The move that started it all
"I had around £500 in my pocket, limited English, no business plan, no network, and no idea what my future would look like."
Like so many people who move to a new country in search of opportunity, Bart believed at the time that success would come from working hard, gaining experience, and landing the right job. What he didn't yet know was that the most important thing he'd build over the next twenty years wasn't a business at all.
It was relationships. And those relationships would go on to build everything else.
A redundancy, a mortgage, and a baby on the way..
Three years after arriving, in 2009, the Credit Crunch hit. Bart lost his job. He'd signed a mortgage just one month earlier. One month after that, his wife told him she was pregnant.
"Suddenly, I wasn't just worried about myself. I was worried about providing for my family."
CVs went out. Very little came back. It was, as Bart describes it, one of the most stressful periods of his life, but also one of the most important, because it taught him a lesson that would shape everything that followed:
"Opportunities rarely come from sending another CV. They come from people. The conversations you have. The relationships you build. The communities you belong to."
From one event to a community
Around this time, Bart got involved with the British Polish Chamber of Commerce and was asked to organise an event. He had, by his own admission, no idea what he was doing. But the event happened, and when it was over, people asked him a simple question: "When is the next one?"
That question was the beginning of everything. One event became another, then another, and eventually became Polish Business Link. Later, it inspired the launch of Edinburgh Connections.
"I never set out to build a community. I simply listened to what people needed. The business followed."
Solving his own problem led to AutomateNow
As the communities grew, so did the admin behind them: memberships, events, invoices, emails, payments, thousands of contacts. Bart tested five different CRM systems before settling on HubSpot, learning the platform in depth during the COVID years simply to keep his own organisation running.
Then other members of the community started asking the same thing Bart himself had once asked: could he help them do it too? That question became AutomateNow, which today helps businesses get real value from HubSpot and adopt technology in a practical, grounded way.
"I wasn't trying to become a technology company. I was simply trying to organise my own business."
Uncertainty is nothing new
Bart's reflections turn, finally, to the present day and the uncertainty many business owners feel about AI. He's seen this kind of unease before, during the Credit Crunch and again during COVID, and each time the real challenge turned out to be the same:
"What I've learned is that technology itself is never the real challenge. The challenge is our willingness to adapt."
Three things to do this week
Bart closes with three simple, practical challenges for anyone listening:
- Audit your network. Ask yourself who the five people helping you grow are, and who you're helping in return. Reach out to three people this week, just to reconnect.
- Listen before you sell. Ask your customers what the biggest challenge they're facing right now is. Your next opportunity may well be hiding in the answer.
- Embrace change earlier. Don't wait to be forced into adapting. Experiment early, stay curious, and keep learning.
Collect conversations, not business cards
His final challenge is one we'd encourage every PBLINK member to take up at our next event:
"When you leave this room today, don't collect business cards. Collect conversations. Find one person you don't know. Ask about their journey. Ask what challenge they're facing. Ask how you can help."
Twenty years on from arriving with £500 and no network, Bart now leads businesses, communities, and a fantastic team. As he puts it, the biggest difference was never the money, the technology, or the qualifications.
"It was people."
So, as Bart asks: What conversation could change your future, and who do you need to speak to before the end of today?
