Building a Global Gaming Giant through Belief and Trust, with Bartosz Skwarczek

Today , founder and president Bartosz Skwarczyk joined us to share his story and lessons learned about strategy , culture and , above all , having an unwavering belief in one's vision . I think his take on the important difference between belief and ego is really powerful .

If you're tuning in for the first time , I'm James Johnson and I coach Series A Plus founders to take back control so they can take their business further and live a great life .

And lastly , two important things about us is security cyber security we are the leading platform in the world when it comes to cyber security . American cnp award very prestigious for the cyber security practices along us , microsoft or berkeley bank got it first . Data as well . And and the second , I think , crucial thing about G2A is values .

So trust , communication , team spirit , value delivery , growth . We call it G2A DNA , so values are very important over the last 15 years for us .

From the scale perspective , we sold over 100 million items , so I think it's okay starting on the journey .

Basically , it's kind of small business , yes , it of a hobby you know , we we struggle with how to name the company which is not already a startup , because we grew out of being a startup , but we have the startup like values , like team spirit , like the culture that we love .

At the same time , we already use the practices , the tools that huge corporates are using and we don't feel like a corporate . We don't want to be perceived as a corporate . And finally , after so many years , we found ScaleUp , a big company which is still growing fast . It's very dynamic but already organized , and I think this is G2A .

So we still feel it's the beginning of the journey , having almost 15 years of the experience and almost half thousand of people . This is us G2 Anions .

So you have to have this crazy belief in yourself , in your idea , in your people to do that . And from this believing mind is coming all the rest . I mean , if you believe you will find the motivation , if you believe you are always happy to do this extra mile . If you believe , then you want to invest and reinvest .

If you believe you want to continue your business even without any external investors , external funding , even though several times you have to deal with thousands of problems and even though every morning you know that something is going to happen this day , you just don't know what . You know that something is gonna happen this day , you just don't know what .

And this crazy belief , this crazy belief that you want to deliver something exceptional to the world , to the people , in my opinion is super necessary to be successful was there a particular time or moment that sort of this realization came from , this need for belief for myself long before G2A , because in the high school I already knew that I want to run my own

business . So I was blessed with my parents and my father was entrepreneur and he was my first role model , with his ups and downs . He was amazing when it comes to believing people , so he was a people person and he was very open . He was very transparent , he was very , he was loving people and his business .

At that time in Poland this is where I came from it was communism and post-communism country , so it was truly hardcore when it comes to being entrepreneur , and still he had this fire to do that and I could observe him and all the struggles , all the successes and ups and downs , as I said .

So he was my first inspiration , and then my mom , who was very strict when it comes to when you do something , you do it very well or don't do it , and I know that some people are saying , ok , I will not do it , but for me it was always OK . You have to be very good at what you do .

So that was my very , very beginnings when it comes to understanding what is entrepreneurship , and even in high school or earlier .

Earlier I was earning my own money as a tennis trainer , as a tennis stringer , tennis racket stringer , and later on , during my university , even though I was studied daily , I was working almost 24-7 , which I finished the main technology university in Poland , which I finished with the highest score in the Polish educational systems .

And even though I finished as a top player , when I started the business it was a very different world . I mean , the real business is very different than any university is preparing you for .

But I was a believer all the time , on every instance which I had , and even when I failed many times , a thousand times , I still was a believer that it is worth doing it and I knew what I wanted . And this high standard is giving you something more . It's giving you people who want to join your journey because of the high standard .

You know there is this rule which everybody knows , that A player is looking for A players , b player is looking for C players . Yeah , when it comes to hiring . Yeah .

So when you want to hire somebody , don't hire B players , because they will be a little bit afraid of hiring the next generation after them and they will be looking for somebody maybe a little bit weaker , so C player , and the business never runs really to the full speed .

So what I was always looking for was A players and tricky thing when you are looking for people who are better than you , you have to be really good at something , because top players want to work only with , not even for , but with , top player .

So you need to know what are you good at and you have to develop constantly , all the time , all the time , all the time . And that was my journey . My journey was hard way . I mean I know that maybe there are people who can do it faster than myself , who can do it smoother . I don't know .

My way was very rough , was very tough and 100 hours work week , thousands of books that you have to read , several universities , learning , learning , learning , etc . Ups and downs , fails , blah , blah .

To be where myself and G2A is today , being the largest marketplace in the world in digital entertainment , you have to have the courage to look in the mirror every day and look at the mirror and say , hey , is that the person that my employees , my partners , they want to see , with the values , with the code of conduct , with the effort you put into the business

, with the energy you share with people , with the knowledge , whether you develop it or maybe you are too lazy already , whether you still have the fire , and you better be very honest with yourself , otherwise , sooner or later , it will be end .

So I see two things with founders , one of which sometimes is they drop their standards . You say like they lose the hunger , they lose the belief , and I was like I've made it . I just it's like I've made it , I can stop . But the other thing that I've seen is that it becomes unsustainable .

Sometimes they're being an unsustainable A in terms of their behaviours , their habits . The lifestyle they're leading causes them to slightly break and burn out , and actually that really inhibits your ability to be an A for other people , because you're struggling to even perform at your own levels .

I think there's this dual thing of just one holding your own standards , but two , also looking after yourself so that you can maintain and be a sustainable A for your team .

So when I , when I have hiring conversations , then I always ask about three things one is the appetite for growth for yourself , with the business , learning , etc . The second is the appetite for feedback , whether you can listen when somebody is saying that , hey , bartosz , maybe you should do something differently .

And I give you a great example which I heard from one of top CEOs and I met thousands of them and that was one of the most successful . At the same time he told me hey , bartosz , you know , I think I am such a good CEO because people , maybe twice a year , they say something I do wrong .

And I said hmm , you know , when my people don't tell me once a week that they do something wrong for me , it means that I don't create the safe environment for them to say that . I don't create the safe environment for them to say that because 100% , they see something that I could do differently .

Maybe I do something wrong , maybe they have another opinion , etc . If they don't say that , it doesn't mean that I don't have it . It just means that the environment is not very friendly to be open and transparent . So for me , this appetite for feedback and this feedback and learning loop is crucial . And the third is trust .

This is what we build G2A on and we've been building that for 15 years . The trust culture is super important . Building that for 15 years , the trust culture is super important and we we do everything we can to keep it to hold it to cultivate it .

How do you feel you go about building that trusting culture where you , like you really provide that safety net for people to really high perform and go like give you that feedback and take those risks that you need to take , but the right risks . That feels like a real skill . So how do you actively build that ?

If you try to cheat them , if you try to somehow mislead them , you will never build the trust in your business , because it doesn't work this way , that , hey , do this way , but don't look at me . Yeah , it always works . Hey , look at me , what I do and check if that is coherent , coherent with what I say .

Check if that is on the same page of the values that I declare . So that is the first thing .

And the second one is you need to know what the values are like , the real values of the company , and sometimes people define them and sometimes they just take something from the internet because it's sexy and you know we will have it on the wall , who it doesn't work .

So how we did it in G2A , we just sit together , set together and say all right , right , who we are , what are the 10 most important things for us ? And we had a big workshop . That was 13 , 14 years ago when we defined it , and then , on later stages , you are refining it . So you are refining it . You are looking , okay , does it work or not anymore ?

Is it good for us or not ? Do we vote for that ? Or maybe you want something else ? And then you have the buy-in . If you do that by yourself , like coming to the company and , hey , I have a great DNA code for you . Here is 10 points . Here you are , this is yours . No , it doesn't work this way . It only works in my opinion .

Of course , you can try this method , but if you don't calibrate that with your people , if they don't have their stake in it , if they don't say , hey , for me , it is important , diversity Only .

When you take all that together and put on the same page , then you have this , this beginning of the trust environment , and then the next stage is following the path . So sometimes you have to do decisions which are economically not good , but they are good for values . I give you an example .

G2a was the marketplace which allowed individual people to be the sellers . So you or myself , we could be the seller at G2A several years ago . But what we observed was oh , this is not good for the quality , because sometimes , individual sellers , they are just selling one item .

They don't care for the support for the client , for the user , whatever , something for five euro . They forgot about it and we said , said , all right , even though we have 400 000 individual sellers , we are saying no more , you have to be a business seller .

And then we implemented very extensive verification process today probably the most extensive process on the market when it comes to sellers . We check over 100 parameters when it comes to the seller , the website , the origin of the product , the prices , everything .

And for several years that cost us a lot of money because we lost 400,000 individual sellers At the same time . Today we benefit from that because over those years we built a very good process and today we have great sellers which we are not only allowed to sell but we help them to sell .

And that was good with the values we had , because one of the values was quality . So that was the decision . That is an example of how to cultivate those values and distrust .

And they asked me hey , who is the investor , who is the VC or private equity behind G2A ? And I said there is no VC , there is no private equity , this is the private company . They said what ? It's impossible , it is not possible to build the leader , global leader of the industry without , you know , financial support from the , from the fund .

And I said you know , we started from Poland , even though we are today a very global business with the headquarters in Netherlands , in Hong Kong , etc . With employees from 40 countries . At that time I said we didn't have any investors , you know , so we did it our way , like without any . And they said , oh my God , it's impossible , like without any .

And they said , oh my God , it's impossible . But that was crazy belief that you know , asking the question , being in post-communism country , without any financial support , very competitive industry , hey , what it takes to build the largest marketplace in the gaming industry ? That was the question I asked to G2 Anions .

It was a very bold question , but it came to the belief that we can do it . And then we structure how we can do it , like what are the most important parameters , what we do , what we should do for the next years , etc . But it all started with the good question .

It all started with the good mental attitude and watch this , not only mine , but my people If there is a CEO who thinks that he is the biggest hero of the company is not true , okay , it's not true . There is no CEO who builds the company on his own . It's always a teamwork , it's always a team effort .

You know , when we started the business , we started it in a very humble way Six , six people , one small room , 13 , 1 , 3 square meters , being store buying and selling computer games .

Within three years , we became the largest seller of World of Warcraft , the most popular game in that time , and we were the largest seller , firstly in Poland , then in Europe , and I was knocking the doors of publishers saying , hey , we are a store , we would love to work with you directly , we would love to sign an agreement with you and I tried to do that

for three years . Nobody wanted to talk to me , nobody , like literally . I visited every publisher , every developer at the largest conferences III , gamescom , even G star in Korea . It was so hermetic , it was like like no , no , thank you , goodbye , we don't have time for you .

And then I understood that we have to do the pivot , like we have to change the business model from the store to the marketplace . And , of course , people were crucial when thinking about how to develop the business to the next level and next level .

And even now , when I think about the strategy for the next year and next two , three years , I always consult , talk , discuss everything the strategy , the idea what to do , how to do , when to do , and this is always ours idea of G2A strategy , the idea what to do , how to do , when to do , and this is always ours idea of G2A .

This is not only mine idea and this is the key factor when it comes to trust that people . They just know , they just feel that this is also their company and this is also what they want to do and what they believe .

Thank you for joining me on today's episode . Don't forget to add Peer Effect to your favorites or watch list to avoid missing out on new episodes . See you next time .