Vikas Malhotra - Maverick Nation

Welcome to another Founder Wisdom pod. We have Vikas Malhotra with us today. He's building an emerging world startup ecosystem at Maverick Nation up in Poland. I believe Vikas is from India, traveled all over the globe, Stanford GSB grad. So Vikas, welcome to the podcast. Tell us a bit more about yourself and what you're up to.

Thank you, Charles, for the opportunity, and wonderful to be here. So I am imbued with a mission, Charles, for the past 12 years ever since I graduated from Stanford. I am chasing one mission of promoting or building entrepreneurship in the emerging world. When I say emerging world, it's not necessarily the emerging countries, it's also emerging regions in developed countries that are so-called the left-behind regions. So sometimes what happens in a country like Poland, all the entire startup VC, the entire thing is concentrated in one city, which is Warsaw, maybe in one or two other cities. What happens to the other regions which are, let's say, far away from these, from the capital? So nobody is taking care of them. These startups are lost in a way. Nobody's investing in them, nobody's guiding them. There's not a— no vibrant community. So I am there, I take care of them. And of course, the emerging cities, emerging countries that want to build their next Silicon Valley. And I tell them, hey, don't rush, take my lessons from other emerging countries on other emerging regions. I have built my knowledge base on 10 years of working with other emerging country cities. So I bring that knowledge to you from the— what worked with them, for them, what worked did not work for them. So engage with me so that I can bring that knowledge and help you design something from the ground up. Because what happens is that in these emerging regions, you cannot templatize. You, you cannot just copy-paste templatized, uh, business models. You can't template, you know, a template. You can't follow a template. Okay, this is the template from Silicon Valley, implement it, and then, you know, voilà, you will have your vibrant ecosystem in the next one year. It doesn't happen that way. You have to build— you, first of all, you require patience. Second, you need to build the entire startup ecosystem from the ground up, bit by bit, patiently. And that's what I bring to the table. Plus, what I also promised my two clients, which are, you know, the government agencies, the innovation agency, city governments, country governments, is that I promise results. I deliver results, real results. Startups with revenues, startups that fundraise, and basically vibrant startups that do business globally. Not like number of workshops delivered, number of events held. What happens as a result of that, those mentoring sessions, those workshops, those events, that's my core focus, and that's what I deliver to my clients. And that's why they engage with me.

Tell me about your story from India to Silicon Valley to Poland.

Thanks for your interest. It's quite a long story. It's more than 20 years old. So, you know, I got my first— I was a techie to begin with. I graduated from one of the top institutions in India called IITs. IIT. It's a brand name that you might hear again and again among many successful people in Silicon Valley, for example, including Sundar Pichai and Mr. Khosla from Khosla Ventures and so on. So I graduated from IIT Madras in the south of India and got into Wipro, India's number 3 tech company. Began as a programmer, then soon moved into business development, and then got my first break in 2008 to develop the first, let's say, offshore center in Brazil. And that— I jumped at that chance. From India to Brazil, that was a very big distance psychologically. It was very far away, but I took the chance. And 3 years of Latin America followed— Brazil, And then Colombia, Mexico. I stayed for about 3 years in that region, developed the offshoring services of— for Wipro, the tech services for Wipro, started developing them for local clients, Latin American clients in that region. Then I went over to Hungary, got my first break in Eastern Europe, so-called Eastern Europe, Central Eastern Europe, the ex-communist region. And that, you know, that's my love affair with this whole region, which is all the way, you know, behind the Iron Curtain, the Second World, we used to call them, call these countries, all these communist countries from Central Eastern Europe to Caucasus to all the way to Central Asia. My love affair began at that point, about in 2011. I went there for about a year, was there in Hungary, but somehow I got disillusioned with the world of large corporate tech life and wanted a break and got into Stanford. I did a 1-year MBA. It's, it's an MS degree. It's called an MSx right now. I think it's an MS in management. It's not an MBA degree, but it's a 1-year MBA for all means. And then I was struggling to find purpose for 1 year. What should I do post-Stanford? And it so happened that I took a class from one of these co-founders and CEO of PayPal at that time. I'm forgetting this gentleman's name. Matanik, Matanik's class, who showed us different, like, more than 10 examples of how entrepreneurship is solving social problems. So how you can create a social impact using entrepreneurship and not charity necessarily. That's There was an upcoming field in Stanford at that time called social innovation, using entrepreneurship to solve social problems. And I got totally mesmerized by this field, totally fascinated, and I decided this would be my next field. And then one after the other, you know, things happened. From Stanford, I quit Silicon Valley because I wanted a bigger purpose in life, went to Columbia for 2 years, dealt with SMEs and how to make SMEs most profitable, and then into the world of startups. I, I did a couple of incubators there, and then Poland happened after, after that. And since 2017, I'm in Poland, um, helping not only Polish startups but the startups of the entire region to grow and find new opportunities to funding opportunities, how to create, how to make money, how to create revenue, and so on. And I've been running different programs, more than 10 programs I've already done in Poland, in Albania, and increasingly in now Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and a few other countries, North Macedonia, for example. These are my, you know, this is my region of interest, Eastern Europe, Central Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe and Caucasus and Central Asia. That's my area of focus, and also Latin America to some extent, right?

Tell me how you sell to the government. The other day you told me that, yeah, you rely on yearly contracts that may take a very long time to close, right? So what's the mindset when selling to them? What's the sales cycle? What's your top-of-funnel process? How do you do it?

Great question, Charles. So selling to governments is never easy. Somebody advised me that the governments are the easiest to get funding from. So what happens in the emerging world is that the startups don't pay. No matter how much money they raise, they generally do not pay. They are always short on cash or always seeing their ROI, and even €5,000 becomes a challenge, you know, taking 5,000 euros out of there. So in Eastern Europe, especially in this part of the world, also there is not too much of corporate startup collaboration. So corporates are also not forthcoming into paying people like me, you know, ecosystem developers, that, hey, this is the money, let's, let's work with these startups. So that's also difficult. So the only source of funding, or the only interested party who's able to pay and is interested in growing the startup ecosystem of their city or country are the governments. And so I begin by contacting them on LinkedIn. That's one way. But I also find them at Slush. They're also looking for solutions. So for example, at Slush last year, 2025, I found certain people from Spain who said, our— we are not from Madrid, we are from the regions in Spain, and we are really struggling to grow the local ecosystem. So could you help us? Could you guide us? And startups come over, participate in our programs, and they leave. So what's the best way to make them stay and grow our startup ecosystem? By bringing in foreign startups or growing them locally? So I find them at different fora, different events, but also through LinkedIn, or, or also travels. And during my travels to these countries where I see that this startup ecosystem in these countries is growing. And then I start engaging with them. It's a very slow process. It takes years, at least a year to get them to commit to anything, at least a year. And first of all, the reaction is one is, you know, of course this is— I'm going public, but I can say without repercussions, that hopefully no repercussions, that many governments don't understand the world of startups. So sometimes they mistake the startups as some students or, you know, like enthusiastic people developing an AI solution on a computer or developing a fantastic robot in a lab. These are startups for them. But I tell them, like, look, a startup is not a startup until it starts making money. So a startup is based on technology, yes, but it should make money, it should sell the technology to some clients and then it fundraises later. So first of all, you have to make— get these governments to understand the startups. So first of all, that's a big challenge. So for— and sometimes people say that the customer knows everything, but here in, in my world, the customer doesn't know everything. So my job is also evangelize. Then the customer is also sometimes totally besotted, like I am totally into Silicon Valley, so let me go to Silicon Valley and start selling, um, our startups. But I tell them, hey, your startups are not producing any revenues. You're not— your startups are not even selling in your home markets. You will take them, but what will they sell? You will, you will introduce them to VCs. What will they sell? They, they have nothing to sell. The product is too basic. It's not even working in your home market. Where— how will you sell in, in the, in, in Silicon Valley? So you have to— it's a— my challenge is also, it's a part of my evangelization process, and sometimes that takes a lot of time. And slowly, bit by bit, when they see not their existing initiatives are not bringing results, then they start listening, and then they start, you know, sometimes they give me a chance, and then, you know, I do a project. I sometimes do startup, startup roadmap building project, sometimes a venture studio, sometimes incubator, and so on. A lot of— quite a popular route in Europe is getting foreign startups to set up in there, in the city, and then grow the startup ecosystem around them. That has its own challenges, and we can talk about them also. So, uh, yeah, so those are the challenges, and sometimes So from the first engagement to signing a contract with a government agency takes at least 1.5 years for me.

And can Poland compete in the European and broader worldwide ecosystem? Like, what have been examples of great startups built in Poland?

So the most notable one that comes to my mind is 11 Labs. That is an outstanding success story coming out of Poland. However, it's not— ironically, it's not part of that system of Poland, which is, you know, there is a huge system of accelerators, incubators, VCs. There are a lot of them. I think most of them are government-funded. I think 11 Labs is a product of ingenuity of the founders, of course, but also certain very, very astute, very sharp angel investors who took the early bet on them. And with that money, they just went out into Silicon Valley and started fundraising on developer. So one is that they, they had a brilliant solution, ElevenLabs, the AI with the LLM, which is— I think they do the translation, they were doing some kind of translation services. Don't— I mean, I'm hoping they don't quote me here. And then one is the Brilliant Technology, and then they raised some funding from the local angel investors and straight away they went to US. So they bypassed the entire local ecosystem, and I think that's part of the reason they succeeded and they did not get mired in the local ecosystem. And I hope such more such angel investors who understand business, and they, they, they should take the initiative and start investing in the startups. And, and they are coming more and more, are doing that. And they are the ones— when I, when I've studied how, how do the, uh, you know, how do countries go from zero to, you know, something producing a unicorn The biggest role is of the angel investors who have already done something. So these, let's say, an exited entrepreneur who has, let's say, spare cash of, let's say, $10 million, he or she puts the money into these startups because they, these exited entrepreneurs, know and understand the world of startups. And when they put the money, then they, they're also not just putting the money but also guiding and connecting these startups to their networks. And they are the best sources of, you know, finance and also the best promoters of these startups, not the traditional VCs which are European Union funded. Because in European Union, a lot, a lot of the innovations, entrepreneurship ecosystem is driven by EU money, and that is actually bringing it down and not it's counterproductive in a way. So sometimes.

What about the VC ecosystem in Poland? Is that growing? I'm just curious, like Poland vs. like all the options in Europe, right? Like, very good things about Poland though, like the tech scene and all that, but is the VC money side alive and well? And Why aren't these folks some of your customers, right? Like funding your whole program?

Good point, actually. So there are, I think, at least 120 VCs at the last count. There are probably more. So there is the governmental body called PFR, which is like the Polish fund of funds. And this funds the VCs, let's say, up to 80%. Because I'm not part of the system, some of the figures might be mistaken. I'm not playing in this system, so I, you know, I'm holding— I'm hoping people don't hold me to these figures. So sometimes the VCs get funded, and most of these get funded up to 80%. So actually, the VCs have to just raise 20% of the private capital. The 80% they can raise from PFR, which is the funnel funds. And as a result, becoming VC is pretty easy. And that's why, I mean, easy as it, you know, they should have some knowledge of these startups and then, you know, they have to have the right connections. So as a result, a lot of VCs exist in the Polish ecosystem, like more than 120, and it's growing. And I hear of more and more people jumping into this. However, is this changing the Polish ecosystem? Well, I have my own views. Not so much, because a lot of the people who get into these, become VCs, they sometimes are not really entrepreneurs. They want to take cautious bets. This is a tendency I've seen in Europe in general, that VCs VCs don't bet so much. They take very safe bets. They want to see your revenue figures first. They want to understand where you come from. Do they know you through your networks? And then they want to take very, very safe bets. So they are bankers in a way. They're not really VCs. They're not really betting. So, um, VCs, uh, sometimes a lot of great quality founders, struggled to raise VC funding, including me. Um, you know, I was doing a lot of programs in Poland in the past and promoting a lot of global startups in Poland. I was struggling to, to raise funds for them. I was helping those founders raise funds, but I could not succeed even in one, not even one, right?

What are your top goals for this year? What do you want to accomplish?

So I am working on a few initiatives. So one is actually— so my job is also of an evangelist, you know. If I can spread my ideas as far and wide as possible, I'll be happy. Of course, I need to earn money also in the process. So I'm engaging with a few countries like Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, North Macedonia, in showing them how do you develop the startup ecosystem from the ground up. What are you doing wrong? Be patient and do the things right in the right manner, you know, get down to the fundamentals. Don't forget, you might have money, you might be in a hurry, you might have ambition, but you can't speed up these things. So showing them how to do the things patiently, bit by bit, using the right You know, good, you know, as you say, first principles, from the, you know, from first principles, designing certain programs, um, also improving country branding. If I could help a few countries improve their country branding, um, and then they start attracting top quality serial entrepreneurs or investors, that will be a great achievement for me. So Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, North Macedonia, Macedonia and Albania in the Balkans. These are on my radar. So that's one. So basically, how do you build these startup ecosystems in these countries from the ground up? The second thing that I'm focusing on is, okay, in a few countries like Turkey, India— in India, not Bangalore. Bangalore is already the, the number one like city, it's like the Silicon Valley of India. But in, in states, in regions of India where— which want to become the next Bangalore, which want to become the next Silicon Valley, I— such as Kerala. There is a state in India called Kerala in the south of India. Brilliant talent, great startups, but not enough recognition. So I want to take these startups, good quality deep tech startups, and bring them to Europe, uh, have a launchpad for these startups in Europe. So I'm working on that initiative as well, where I can build. And recently I partnered with a huge German organization called Start2Group, Start2Group, based in Munich. Brilliant people, our values matched. I like them. They are much larger than me and they are very well established in Germany. And then I found a few partners in Netherlands. And I'm already sitting in Poland. With this space, I'm going to build a kind of EU launchpad. And EU, despite the noise about regulations and compliance issues, so there are a lot of people who, you know, complain about it, I think it has a lot of potential to absorb good technology from the non-EU countries and provide a market and also funds for such startups. And I, I've not given up on EU in that regard, so that's also in the works.

Well, Vikas, thanks for coming on the podcast. Where can people find out more about you?

So my website, which is getting updated, it's called mavericknation.one. I can leave the link later for you to come copy-paste. Or on our LinkedIn page, Maverick Nation. You can search for Maverick Nation. I think there are not too many organizations with that name on LinkedIn. And my personal profile, which— where I keep posting at times. I wish I could be more active. And these are the 3 places where you can find out about us. I'm on Twitter and Facebook, but we are not active. We're not active.

So that was Vikas and Charles Cormier for another Founder Wisdom