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Bridging East and West: Thom Barnhardt on CEE's Entrepreneurial Edge

• Alex Romanovich

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Tom Barnhardt of CEE Business Media takes us on a fascinating journey from his roots in Charlotte, North Carolina, to becoming a business builder in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). As the force behind Wolves Summit, he's creating vital bridges between Central European startups and global markets while challenging conventional startup thinking.

"Startup sounds too much fun, too cool, too casual," Barnhardt declares with refreshing candor. His preference for the term "business builder" cuts through the glamorized perception of entrepreneurship, comparing it instead to the gritty reality of a boxing match with multiple challenging rounds. This practical philosophy underpins his approach to helping companies navigate cross-border expansion.

Central and Eastern Europe emerges as an unexpected powerhouse in Barnhardt's telling. He paints a vivid contrast between Warsaw's cafés buzzing with entrepreneurial energy and Paris's more leisurely atmosphere. What the region might lack in natural salesmanship, it more than compensates for with exceptional technical talent and a strong focus on STEM education. Estonia particularly stands out, "punching way above its weight" in the tech world, while Poland, Hungary, Romania, and other countries rapidly develop vibrant startup ecosystems.

For European companies eyeing American expansion, Barnhardt offers invaluable guidance born from experience. The path requires full commitment—"go deeper, jump in with two feet"—rather than half-measures like hiring part-time business developers. Similarly, CEE Startups need to understand the unique dynamics of the US market, which often requires companies to "flip" into US-based entities before securing major funding rounds. Through Wolves Summit's events in Warsaw and Vienna, Barnhardt creates the matchmaking opportunities that turn these cross-border challenges into success stories.

Looking to expand your business internationally or discover untapped investment opportunities? The entrepreneurial bridge between Central Europe and global markets offers tremendous potential for those willing to embrace both its challenges and opportunities. 

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Alex:

Hi, this is Alex Romano and welcome to Global Edge Talk. Today is April 18th 2025. And our guest is Tom Barnhart from Warsaw Poland. Hi, tom.

Thom:

Hello, alex, thank you for meeting me and talking to me today. It's Friday before Easter, so here in Poland is very Catholic, so I was a bit late getting to this meetings, so thank you. No, and talking to me today. It's Friday before Easter, so here in Poland it's very Catholic, so I was a bit late getting to these meetings, so thank you.

Alex:

No, that's not a problem at all, and I know the entire world is celebrating and America is winding down a little bit as well and getting ready for the holidays, which is great. The Passover holiday is ending as well, so the baton is being passed on from the Jews to the Christians. Well, so the baton is being passed on from the Jews to the Christians. Yes, that's right, you have an amazing background and it's very, very synonymous with what the Global Edge Markets is doing. But let's start with your biography and why you're in Poland. You're an American businessman involved with economics, involved with finance, publishing, and you spent half of your career, if not more than half of your career, in the United States. Why Poland? Why Warsaw and why Eastern Europe.

Thom:

Yeah, so I'm actually from Charlotte, north Carolina, which is called Virginia, and after all that I worked for many years in the US Bank of America corporate finance but then came into Budapest to do some advisory work to the Hungarian government when they were selling off their assets mostly to German and Austrian companies big utilities and then along the way that was in the 90s and it was crazy. 90s all throughout Central and Eastern Europe were crazy and fun, but there's also lots of opportunities for new businesses. So I early on started getting involved with new companies in Budapest, particularly in the media, business publishing, and then we started a copy of the US business journals. So you have the American City Business Journals in Boston and New York everywhere. So we copied that concept for Warsaw. Then we did Budapest Prague as well.

Thom:

So I ended up coming to Warsaw because of that years ago. And then, with one thing leads to another, we started some more businesses and media, business and travel magazines, free magazines like Time Out in New York. A long time ago that kind of concept Got married, have a child life happens. And then I've been doing more events and awards events, particularly for the shared services BPO sector in Central Europe. That's what I'm doing particularly mostly now, and this Wolf Summit business is relatively new for me the last 18 months and that's a new area of growth for us.

Alex:

Yes, your Wolf's Conference and Wolf's Congress actually is a very nice event. I attended two of them and I should say this is a great event very nice and casual, connecting various organizations, investors, early stage startups, later stage startups and so forth. Tell me more about where it's all going. What are you seeing in terms of the investor behavior, the startup behavior and so forth growth potential in that region, and then we'll talk about global items as well.

Thom:

Yeah, I think there's always ups and downs in the VC market and there's a global downturn right now in the VC market, so supposedly it's up and down everywhere. It's never easy. Anyway, building a business I particularly to change the idea of this whole thing called startup. Startup sounds too much fun, too cool, too casual. I prefer the word business builder. And this is hard work. It's like a boxing match round one, round two.

Thom:

But you're not really up for building a business and go all the way to the ups and downs, which will be substantial no matter how good you are, then you shouldn't be in business. It's hard work, it's difficult, it's lots of sales, it's lots of late nights and stressful situation, but I think anyone can do it and they can find the money. I think people that complain they can't find the money there's really plenty of money, even in Central Europe, of course, in the US it's whether the concept makes some sense and you can convince some investors to back you on it. So I think the individual persuasiveness of people that are founders is really critically important. If people do complain oh they won't fund my deal, blah, blah, blah. Maybe there's a reason for that.

Alex:

Very interesting. I'm very familiar with the region myself, Spent some time there as well. Very familiar with the region myself. Spent some time there as well. Culturally, it has not been the most aggressive one in the past and now it has emerged as almost like a shining star and the hope for new Europe, if you will, as an American coming from a more aggressive culture. If you will, how do you rate it? How do you rank it, so to speak, and what is the potential for that region?

Thom:

Yeah. So of course let's call it Central Eastern Europe CEE they often call it there. Of course are nuances throughout the region and the cities of the countries, but in general I think it's very young, it's very dynamic, there's lots of things going on. I would prefer it's much more energetic sitting in a cafe in Warsaw where people are busy on their computers talking people doing business, as opposed to a cafe in Paris where people are sitting back having a coffee, chatting, absolutely doing nothing. It's a really different scene. So in Central Europe, whether it's in Budapest or Warsaw or Vilnius, when people are working, they're really doing stuff and I think that's fun.

Thom:

The other side of it is you have a lot of companies here who are, you say they're not so aggressive. You might touch. They might touch to the whole sales thing because the Americans are great at selling and outgoing. I would say the Central Europeans are not particularly that way. They haven't spent time doing that like we have, but they're super good technology and educated in STEM type of research or STEM background. So I think the potential here is absolutely tremendous and we're seeing companies come out of the region who are not always the big winners so far, but a lot of companies popping up in Poland, in Budapest, in Romania, in the Baltics. The Baltics is pitching way, punching way above its weight. Estonia, unbelievable, and Latvia, lithuania, picking up as well.

Alex:

Wonderful Wolves Conference. I know that I've attended a couple of conferences as well, and I've attended many in the European region, obviously in the United States. What is different about Wolves? What is it that you're trying to achieve with Wolves and why you think that might be different in some ways than some of the more traditional investor startup conferences out there?

Thom:

Yeah, so a couple of things. So Wolf Summit is doing really well. It took two main flagship events of the year. One is in May in Warsaw and the other will be in Vienna at the end of October. These two flagships and then a few small events during the course of the year.

Thom:

But I think that the biggest differentiator is that we are really deep into Central Eastern Europe and a bridge between Central Eastern Europe and other parts of the world, whether that's Asia or US or Western Europe. For example, in May you've got 30 companies coming from Taiwan who are looking to set up into really in Europe, but they're using Poland as a starting launching pad for that. We have about 25 or 30 companies coming from the European Innovation Council, out of Brussels. Again, they don't have a footprint very much in Central Europe and they're trying to establish that and we help them a lot with that. So, in addition to helping companies attend, raise capital that's, of course, the core part of it, but I'm really trying to make sure that they're not just raise capital but they meet people who can be future clients, because they can get a deal, a client, a potential customer, through us.

Thom:

Isn't that as equally important as getting an investor. I think it is A lot of times it's more important than getting an investor. So I think that our goal role because we're deeply involved in Central Eastern Europe is connecting to right people in the region or someone outside the region is trying to connect into Central Europe. So a lot of matchmaking going on, primarily through the formal one-on-one umbrella event platform that we use, but I'm really into the non-formal matchmaking. Who do I know? Who should you talk to? You got to meet Alex in New York. You got to meet someone else there. It works. It still works.

Alex:

Absolutely, Totally agree with you and obviously the American approach is to build the relationships, is to sell more aggressively, and so forth. But you mentioned Taiwan, you mentioned Europe, you mentioned some other parts of the world. What about America? What are your thoughts on, in lieu of what's going on right now? There are some differences. There are some differences that we're trying to resolve with the rest of the world. What are your thoughts on Americans continuing to invest into European startups and vice versa, Europeans continuing to invest into American startups?

Thom:

Yeah. So whatever we say here, it'll probably be stale and over within a week it could be. So let's not do the Christmas ball too much. But I'll tell you one thing that's for sure is that in Central Europe and DAC region the big win for early stage companies is can they make the leap successfully to the US market. That's the big win. Everyone knows that that's what we're thinking about. They might do a UK or Western Europe for a first start, but it's not the big prize. The big prize is can we really do well in the US?

Thom:

And the companies that are trying to do that are being careful about it. They're trying to find an investment partner there VCEs or others in the region in the US, but also other key partners and many of them are understandably careful about it that they know that some of the big US companies can clean their clock. They're not trying to go in naively and say, oh, we can do the same thing from, let's say, czech Republic into the US. Look at one company called Petsy right now. That's very carefully looking at the market. But they're being also careful about the US competitors.

Thom:

I think that the companies from here are looking for partners in the US, the partners in the US, they can help those central startups quite a lot. On the flip side, I think there are a lot of US companies and US investors who can find some really good deals in central Europe market and I think that Wolf Summit can help with that and a little bit of a teaser to come in about a month, we are in the process of working with much closer with several of the business angel networks in central Europe and there'll be some more news on that coming up pretty soon. But I think there's a big role that US individual and VC investors can play in funding Central European startups, particularly if they're going to try to expand abroad Abroad, which do you?

Alex:

Of course, we can definitely relate to that. Working with many European companies wanting to come to the United States and helping them with the risk management and so forth and so on, a number of other services. It's wonderful. It seems like your organization, your entire organization, not just the conferences, but what you're doing is serving as a wonderful platform, initial platform for soft landing into the US market and some other market as well. What are you seeing? What are some of the challenges that startups, for example, experiencing as they traverse to the US market, as an example? Or what should the investors in US be aware of? Or how should they prepare when they invest into some of the startups in Central Eastern Europe?

Thom:

A lot of times I'll take this part first startups in Central East and Europe. A lot of times I'll take this part first A lot of the US investors don't want to invest in an entity, a Polish entity, a Polish bugetsu, for lots of good reasons. I can tell you lots of stories, different conversations. So some of the corporate structures of companies and Central European companies are not particularly good or wise or sensible. So a lot of the US companies want a Central European company to flip it into a US company Delaware-based, florida-based, new York, whatever. So we see a lot of that as a condition for jumping into the US market seriously to get investment. You're not going to get multi, multimillion dollar VC investment, usually into a Polish company, from US investors Preston Pyshenko, with exceptions but usually they want to have a US entity.

Thom:

The other thing that's a big challenge and the most important thing for the guys here that are expanding into US they got to find a client.

Thom:

They got to find a key big client. So as much as you can talk about setting up, spending your money, if they don't have business, don't have clients, they're not going to do very well. And I think one of the things that a lot of guys here have made the mistake of doing is they have hired someone that is a part-time business development person in New York or in Chicago or somewhere else, who doesn't own a business, and what I encourage them to do is go deeper, just go with two feet jump in the market. If you can't afford to have a physical presence there, you probably can't be there. So you need to physically be there, and I've seen a lot of examples of guys from here who have moved to Austin, texas, to Miami, to Charlotte, to Virginia, richmond, virginia, to West Virginia. They've done acquisitions there or they set up something, but they really won't work, in my opinion, unless management is going to commit and have at least a decent presence and bet on the US market.

Alex:

And this is something that you promote as education, as interaction during these conferences. Right, it's not just, hey, let's get together, but it's also a lot of learning that's taking place as well.

Thom:

Yeah, For us from my perspective, the conferences. I've been involved with this about 18 months and the key thing that I'm trying to do with War Summit is to make it effective and that sounds silly, but make it really effective and efficient for people that are there. What do they want to get done? So I've got these times when these companies are coming. So what do you really want to get done? What will make it so effective for you that when you look back three months later that you're glad about it?

Thom:

Most of them want to meet some other people. So we're really a networking platform, a connections platform. That's a key thing for us to do and we're really trying to make sure that they connect with someone. So, in the US market, who do they want to meet? I was in Miami two weeks ago meeting with the city of Miami for Emerge Americas as well, really working on partnering with some US companies that can really help Central European companies expand in the US market legitimately and be able to document that a year later. We want good deals to get done. We don't want people to spend their reels. Well, then they come back and say, hey, it worked, we're working and you guys helped us get that thing set up.

Alex:

Yeah, and I think it's wonderful that you're actually de-risking, or trying to de-risk, that type of a soft landing for the Central European companies and wanting to do the business in the United States and doing the same thing for the American investors, which is, I think, is excellent, and it's just a wonderful way of doing this through learnings, through partnerships, through relationships and so forth. A little bit about yourself. What would you advise? So forth. A little bit about yourself. What would you advise? First of all, your advice to investors and your advice to startups for the next couple of years, in this kind of a some people call it chaos, some people call it turmoil I'm hopeful. I think all of these things will work themselves out and the investment will continue, growth will continue. But what is your advice as we're going through this turbulent waters in the next couple of years?

Thom:

Well, I think it's always turbulent. We could repeat the same phrases going back. Pick your date to 2000, 2008. What's the date? It's always going to be turbulent. It's never going to be easy, it's never a straight up, as I in the banking world a long time ago, my old, grizzled veteran credit guy said look, no one will ever give you a business plan that says they're going to fail. Every plan goes straight up.

Thom:

But the truth is you got to have sales, you got to be able to sell it and no matter what's going on in a good environment, bad environment, some of the best companies are created when the environment's really terrible. And you can go back and look through history of the great companies Unbelievably interesting because the focus, I think, should be more on clients and the product itself and the sales itself than raising capital. And we've seen loads of examples. I've been in some companies that guys got $7 million investment, one particularly out of Budapest. They blew all of it and they were not spending money on sales. They didn't know how to sell anything. So I think we've got to be able to get those clients, make them happy, make them come back again, and they blew it on that. That's why I look at it.

Alex:

Excellent advice. What would be let's finish this conversation with another question that's more related to you what would be your advice to yourself, let's say 10 years ago, if you met Tom somewhere in Budapest over a cup of coffee?

Thom:

Good point, great one. You can ask my wife. She'd have a different answer to that, probably. I think you just have to. I couldn't do it any other, different way. I think I have in my history, my family history, entrepreneurial blood. I've just been that way and I guess I'm an angel investor. Some companies I've been invested in one guy says I'm a devil investor so I've been in some companies where it didn't work out and that's going to happen in the process, right. So I think I wouldn't do it differently than set up companies like I've done. I like it, I thrive on it, I enjoy it, I thrive on it, I enjoy it, I think I'm good at it and I think that you can't go back and redo it. It's just the way it is. But I like it, I really enjoy it and I don't need to slow it down. I could do five or 10 more projects, I think, in the next five to 10 years, and I would love to do it.

Alex:

Wonderful Tom. Thank you so much for being our guest.