People of Impact’21: Stephane Bathory – Entrepreneur looking for a rhino

Stefan Batory is one of the co-founders of Booksy, an app for booking services popular in Poland and around the world. He says of himself that he is a mathematician by education, a businessman by profession, and a marathon runner with passion. It should be noted that there is also the CEO of a company that could soon be worth more than a billion dollars, thus becoming a startup “unicorn”.

In his activities, Stefan Batory was fascinated by how simple ideas combined with new technologies could facilitate the daily functioning of millions of people. He used his interest in mobile apps to create two apps that many of us have installed on our phones, Booksy and iTaxi.

While he was preparing for the very challenging Sahara Marathon, he came up with the idea of ​​a successful app all over the world. “I wanted to make an appointment with a physical therapist and I couldn’t, we were passing each other the whole time” – he says. So, he and his partner started thinking about how to simplify scheduling these visits. They decided to build a prototype of what we know today as Booksy.

This application is intended for both service providers and customers. Through it, companies based on the arrangement of visits can take advantage of the simple reservation management system. Customers can quickly and easily make an appointment with a hairdresser, beautician, physiotherapist or even with a bank branch. Allure Bank reported a collaboration with Booksy, for example in June 2021.

Booksy breaks the record for popularity in the United States, Great Britain, Spain, Poland, Mexico and South Africa. No wonder that at the end of 2020, the startup Booksy secured a record $70 million in funding for a Polish company, and later began making investment rounds worth more than $100 million. So experts expect Booksy to become a “unicorn” soon. It’s a term for tech startups valued at more than $1 billion.

Investors Stefan Batory, among others, won the United States. To get a better look at startup environments, he moved with his family to Silicon Valley. “I wanted to connect with people who created apps like Uber or Airbnb, and also to attract investors” – he says.

In his opinion, Silicon Valley has a culture of great openness and he willingly shares his knowledge. This is why the creator of Booksy wants to reinvest the profits largely from his application in Poland to help Polish startups follow the path they had to take themselves.

Participation in conferences and meetings with young entrepreneurs is an essential part of his work. He wants to share his knowledge and experience and infect others with optimism.

During the next edition of the conference, which aims to promote the most innovative and visionary trends, Stefan Batory will participate in the discussion entitled “The future of digital technologies. How are Polish companies in the world?”