How to Create a Start Up to Build Technology Products with Tomasz Kolodziejak

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Tomasz Kolodziejak was born in Warsaw, studied in California. For two years he taught Microeconomics as an adjunct professor at San Jose State University, and was the Founder of Polish Government’s initiative in Silicon Valley – Silicon Valley Acceleration Center.

Tomasz Co-Founded Inteliclinic, where one of their main products is an intelligent sleep mask called Neuroon. He was able to do a Kickstarter campaign (where he met the goal in 24 hours) and also raise some VC for a total of $2 million in funding for his startup.

Listen to the episode as Tomasz shares:

• What kind of a student he was
• Why he came to the US initially
• What life in Poland was like
• How he found his Co-Founders
• How he turned a small grant into an idea for his start up
• How he got on BBC, TechCrunch and Wired before his KickStarter campaign started
• How he got his product into major airlines
• How he hit his Kickstarter goal in 24 hours
• What he believes the key to his Kickstarter success was
• The controlling mechanism for his intelligent sleep mask
• How they track the different phases of sleep
• How he incorporates light therapy into the sleep mask
• Ways the sleep mask can trick you and help you avoid jet lag
• How he incorporated medical research into his product
• What he was able to prove with research
• What market ended up being a big customer early on
• What made his product appealing to Japanese
• Why airlines are interested in his product, Neuroon
• What make him decide to go full time in his start up
• When they began shipping physical products
• How they are dealing with a backlog for shipping products
• The new ideas and prototypes they are working on

Connect with Tomasz:

Email: tomasz [at] inteliclinic.com

Website: inteliclinic.com

Twitter.com/tomaszkol