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

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