The entrepreneurial journey of Mr. Kiska is without a doubt one of the most interesting stories we have heard at Startup Grind. After finishing his university degree Mr. Kiska went to the U.S. where he worked at a petrol station and later as a construction helper. When he returned to Slovakia, he started a business. It didn’t work out.
It took several failed attempts until the 4th attempt finally clicked. Financial companies Triangel and Quattro helped create a new market and quickly became market leaders, having served over 20% of the entire country population. After 10 years (in 2004) Mr. Kiska sold both companies to VUB Bank which is part of the Italian banking giant Intessa Sanpaolo for an unprecedented amount.
In 2005 he decided to dedicate his time to charity and founded the biggest and most successful non-profit in the country: GOOD ANGEL. The charity helps families with terminally ill children. Its almost 200,000 donors (4% of the country’s population) helped with donations of €30 million to date.
In 2006 Mr. Kiska was awarded ‘Manager of the Year’ by Trend Magazine.
Mr. Kiska won the Presidential elections in 2014 and today has unprecedented approval ratings of over 70% of the population. Mr. Kiska is an active promoter of entrepreneurship supporter of building effective startups eco-system with an active follower-base. His LIVE Q&A discussion from Facebook HQ in Silicon Valley last year was attended by over 200,000 followers online.
We have invited Mr. Kiska to a fireside chat panel to share with us his story and views on how to build successful startup eco-systems and tech clusters.
Mr. Kiska was joined by Eric van der Kleij, founder of Tech City UK and Head of Europe’s largest fintech accelerator Level 39.
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