On Wednesday 21 October, 350 people will walk into Concordia Design in Poznań for the first Startup Community Summit. Founders, investors, operators and the people who run local startup scenes — each group capped, so no single crowd takes over the room.
NON.agency will be in it, as an Ecosystem Partner.
That’s the news. The more useful part is why a search agency wants a seat in a room built for founders and investors — and what you can take from us if you’re there too.
Key Takeaways
- NON.agency is an Ecosystem Partner of Startup Community Summit 2026, on 21 October 2026 at Concordia Design, Poznań.
- The Summit is a one-day, curated event for 350 founders, investors, operators and ecosystem builders from Poland and CEE, organised by Startup Community Poznań.
- Matchmaking opens before the event, so you can book 30-minute 1:1 meetings before you arrive.
- Readers of this blog get 10% off with the code SCS-NON.
- We’re coming to talk about the thing founders tend to leave until last: being findable — in Google and in the AI answer engines that now sit above it.
What Startup Community Summit Is
It’s a first edition, and it’s deliberately small. The organisers cap the room at 350 seats and cap each group inside it — founders, VC partners, business angels, corporate innovation leads, senior operators, community builders — so the balance of the room is designed rather than accidental.
The day runs from 08:30 to 16:00, with an afterparty until 22:00, in both English and Polish. The published agenda includes a fireside chat with Lech Kaniuk on local roots and global ambition, a session on building a product for international scaling from day one, and a panel on scaling moderated by Jarosław Sroka of Kulczyk Investments.
The part worth planning around is matchmaking. You tell the platform what you’re building and what you need, it suggests matches, and you book meetings before the day fills up.
Why a Search Agency Belongs in a Founders’ Room
The Summit’s line is “Local roots. Global ambition.” It’s close to the brief we work to every day: a company built in Poland that wants to win in Germany, the UK or the US.
Founders come to rooms like this for three things — capital, customers and partners. The second one is where we come in.
Most of your future customers will look you up before they reply to you. And more of them are doing it outside Google, in AI answer engines: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s own AI Overviews, which answer the question directly and cite a handful of sources instead of listing ten links.
Those systems don’t rank your page the way you built it. They work from the entity behind it — the company search systems recognise as a distinct thing, with a name, a category and a market. If they can’t work out what you are, you’re not in the answer. No amount of on-page polish fixes that.
Here’s the catch for a startup: doing this properly in one market is work. Doing it in five is a team. That’s the resource barrier — and a pre-seed company can’t hire its way through it.
I spent fifteen years running search operations before founding NON.agency. The model I ran for most of that time scaled by hiring. It works.
It’s also slow and expensive, which is why we built NON.agency as AI-native infrastructure instead: systems that cut international market entry from six months to a few weeks, without a new hire per country.
What We’ll Talk About on the Day
(Yes, this is the self-promotional section.)
If you find us at the Summit, these are the conversations we’d most like to have:
- Visibility in Google and in AI answer engines — whether the models answering above the search results know your brand, and what they say about it.
- International link building — market by market, because a link that builds trust in Germany does little for you in France.
- Content that sells in markets you don’t speak — localised, not translated.
How To Get a Seat
Passes cost 865 zł until 7 October and 1,125 zł after that, gross, according to the organiser at the time of writing. Our code SCS-NON takes 10% off. Sales close when the 350 seats are gone or on the day, whichever comes first.
International founders are explicitly welcome — you don’t need a Polish company to be in the room.
The Bottom Line
What’s changed is simple: NON.agency is backing a summit that puts Poland’s startup scene in one room, and we’ll be there in person.
What it means for you: if you’re building from Poland for markets abroad, you can talk visibility on the same day you talk capital and customers — before it becomes the thing you fix last.
FAQ
When and where is the Startup Community Summit 2026?
Wednesday 21 October 2026, 08:30–16:00, with an afterparty until 22:00, at Concordia Design, ul. Zwierzyniecka 3, Poznań.
What language is the Summit in?
English and Polish. Sessions are marked by language in the agenda.
How much is a ticket?
865 zł until 7 October, then 1,125 zł (gross). The code SCS-NON gives 10% off.
Do I need to be based in Poland?
No. The organisers invite founders, investors and ecosystem builders from across CEE and beyond.
How does matchmaking work?
After buying a pass, you describe what you’re building and what you need, unlock suggested profiles and book 30-minute 1:1 meetings before the event.
